NOTE: I penned this piece for my Media, Gender, and Sexuality class last year, which happened to be the course where I received the lowest grades during my MA Journalism coursework. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, I suspect I might have made some errors in crafting this paper. LOL. Although I am not a Film major, this remains one of the papers I found most enjoyable to write.
I wrote this during the second semester of the AY 2022-2023, before the Voltes V: Legacy went on air on television (hence some of the future tenses here) and after the theatrical release of the first few episodes of the show.
For more than four decades, anything Voltes V has captivated the hearts and minds of the Filipino people. The animation and its story is referenced in a Francis Magalona song, the image of the Voltes V robot is printed on every apparel imaginable, and many Filipino artists have made the robot their inspiration for their work. The television show has made reruns and even had a cinematic premiere in 1999 (Garcia, 2022) that included the last couple of episodes that were not aired during former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s presidency.
The Filipinos’ relationship with this animation is the reason why “Voltes V: Legacy” has made headlines as big as the Filipino entertainment media can make them. Forty-four years after Marcos Sr. banned the television show—allegedly at the behest of the Catholic Women’s League due to the show’s violence (Garcia, 2022)—the beloved story is making another comeback, this time in the form of a Filipino-made live action television show. There were also rumors that Marcos Sr. banned the show in fear that the growing opposition and their sympathizers might copy the rebellion depicted in the show (Garcia, 2022). No matter what the reason for the banning was, what cannot be ignored is the parallelism: The story of the Voltes Team will be shown on the small screen once again while another Marcos, the former dictator’s namesake son in fact, is in power.
The story of the original anime, titled “Chōdenji Mashīn Borutesu Faibu” but known locally as “Voltes V,” revolves around the efforts of the forces assembled to defend Earth from alien invaders of the planet Boazan. In Boazan, the elite have horns and those who have none are regarded as second-rate citizens. Its leaders are colonial master planning to take over Terra Earthu and its hornless residents.
The show will not only be shown on the small screen, however. As the GMA Network’s most expensive television show to date, “Voltes V: Legacy” boasts its “powerhouse cast, world-class set, and cutting-edge visual effects and animation” (Manila Bulletin, 2023). The “Voltes V: Legacy (The Cinematic Experience)” was screened on April 18, 2023 exclusive in SM cinemas across the nation, and showed in 105 minutes a special cut version of the first three weeks (15 episodes) of the show.
The live animation and the theatrical release were both directed by Mark A. Reyes and written by Suzette Doctolero. The two have collaborated in the past when in 2008, they worked as director and writer for the Filipino romantic comedy film “My Bestfriend’s Girlfriend.”
Mary Ann Armstrong is featured heavily in the theatrical release of the show. Played by Carla Abellana, Mary Ann Armstrong’s character is the scientist and leader figure that the fans of the original anime know as Mitsuyo Goh. She is the mother of three of the five Voltes V pilots—the main protagonists—and the wife of Hrothgar or Ned Armstrong (played by Dennis Trillo) in the live animation; or Professor Kentaro Goh or Prince La Gour in the original anime.
The strong-willed Mary Ann Armstrong is a mother, a wife, a leader, and a scientist in “Voltes V: Legacy (The Cinematic Experience).” Her first appearance in the film version is also the first time she meets Hrothgar, who had just crash-landed on Earth after escaping as a Boazanian slave-rebel and who would become her husband. She is also shown multiple times as a mother who cares for her children Steve, Robert “Big Bert,” and “Little Jon” Armstrong, although she is also one of the reasons why they are in a dangerous mission.
For this paper, the author would like to seek answers for the following problem statements using a reading of Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto”:
- What defines Mary Ann Armstrong’s gender in the film?
- What are the forms of dehumanization in the film (if it exists)?
- What dominant norms in the society are perpetuated by the film (if it exists)? And lastly, but most importantly,
- Does the film launch a full-on attack on the “Othering” traditions that motivate the devaluing tendencies of a patriarchal society?
It is important to emphasize that this present paper will only investigate and seek answers for these questions using the “Voltes V: Legacy (The Cinematic Experience)” as a text. The television show, however similar or contrasting it is to the depiction of Mary Ann Armstrong, will not be used for this paper.
This reading will use Benilda S. Santos’ “Idol, Bestiary, and Revolutionary: Images and Social Roles of the Filipino Woman in Film (1976-1986)” to help the author explain the portrayal of Mary Ann Armstrong’s character in the film version. It will also be guided by Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” to explore the “Othering” traditions of a patriarchal society.
In answering these questions, the main theory this paper is anchored on is “A Cyborg Manifesto,” Haraway’s Marxist-influenced text that was meant to ironically—or blasphemously, she says (2016)—undo globalized capitalism and its treatment of women.
In the evangelical United States, both science and religious dogma co-existed. Haraway then explains that it is by irony, not by changing a system from within or by leaving it, that such system can be challenged. This undoing—this challenging—makes use of the image of a cyborg. The cyborg exists between the worlds of organism and machine.
For an easier understanding of Haraway’s text, we must define what a cyborg is in reality, not in the context of science-fiction novels or television shows or films. We all have robotic extensions of our selves. For example, one’s use of eyeglasses means he or she needs a tool to be able to improve vision. Another is the use of mobile phones, which allows for easier computation of bills, easier communication with family and friends, and easier access to knowledge such as that we can find in websites. In her TED Talk in a TEDWomen conference, Amber Case (2010) argues that “tool use…has been a physical modification of self. It has helped us to extend our physical self, go faster, hit things harder…”
Since these two worlds—machine and organism—exist, Haraway says that there is a border war that springs from the racist, male-dominant capitalism.
“This essay is an argument for pleasure in the confusion of boundaries and for responsibility in their construction,” Haraway explains (2016). “It is also an effort to contribute to socialist-feminist culture and theory in a postmodernist, non-naturalist mode in the utopian tradition of imagining a world without gender, which is a world without genesis, but maybe also a world without end.”
While we are at the subject of “genesis,” it is also important to note that Haraway argues that the cyborg does not have an origin story in the “Western” sense. “An origin story in the “Western,” humanist sense depends on the myth of original unity, fullness, bliss and terror, represented by the phallic mother from whom all humans must separate, the task of individual development and of history, the twin potent myths inscribed most powerfully for us in psychoanalysis and Marxism” (Haraway, 2016).
However, it does come from a military origin. The racist, male-dominated capitalism is also militaristic, and it is the cyborg that will also undo it. Marx, after all, said that capitalism will collapse in its own contradictions. “But illegitimate offspring are often exceedingly unfaithful to their origins. Their fathers, after all, are inessential (Haraway, 2016).”
Definition of Mary Ann Armstrong’s Gender
In Benilda S. Santos’ “Idol, Bestiary, and Revolutionary” (2002), she says that colonization is the “most significant historical event that has impinged in the past of the Filipina” because the colonizers have made her to be as saintly, as long-suffering as possible, and with the unshaken fidelity to the heart and the hearth. In the same text, Santos calls the women in “tear-jearker” films as “idols.” Most of the time, the women depicted as idols are stoic, uncomplaining, and the injustice that they have suffered are, in the end, no longer significant because everything works out in the end anyway. This is in stark opposition compared to the image of a woman as a revolutionary, in which she sees her suffering as something that needs to be confronted, and that whatever confrontation she takes action on does not make her a sinner or does not punish her in the end.
In “Voltes V: Legacy (The Cinematic Experience),” the Boazanians are essentially colonizers. There were countless mentions of the word “pananakop” (invasion) when the Boazanians are referring to what they are about to do with Terra Erthu (Planet Earth). When the second beast fighter, Vaizanger, is about to defeat the Voltes V team, the wounded Mary Ann Armstrong sacrifices herself by piloting a fighter jet towards its mouth. The sacrifice did no significant damage to the villain beast fighter, but Mary Ann Armstrong’s sacrifice helped the Voltes V team to gather their strength and defeat Vaizanger. Mary Ann Armstrong becomes a cyborg in this act because she has made the fighter jet an extension of herself during the battle. Before this, she also used a gun and pieces of stones, but they were also useless against the enemies.
The film wants the viewers to empathize with Mary Ann Armstrong because of her depiction as a feminine leader—she is the mother of three half human, half Boazanian team members of the Voltes V team, and she is a strong astrophysicist leader at the Camp Big Falcon.
Mary Ann Armstrong is a stereotypical female protagonist as a mother, as a wife, but not as a leader. She cares for her children and scolds them the way a mother would. In one scene during a fight with the first beast fighter, she says, “Anong don’t worry? (What do you mean don’t worry?) Of course, I’ll worry. You don’t have enough training.” In another scene after the fight, she says, “Tatlo kayo, anak. Kung natalo kayo? Eh di tatlo din kayong nawala saakin (There are three of you in that robot. If you were defeated, I would have lost three sons).” As a wife, she is also stereotypical. She is depicted as the helpless wife whose husband needs to leave to keep them all safe from future invaders. Her husband Hrothgar or Ned Armstrong (played by Dennis Trillo) left her to take care of their sons. As a relational being, Mary Ann Armstrong’s gender is therefore defined as being a mother and a wife. She is the “other” that Simone de Beauvoir mentions in “The Second Sex” and her being is not sufficient unto itself. More on this as the author discusses the last problem statement later.
As a leader, Mary Ann Armstrong is not depicted as a stereotypical female character. She does not become limited to her role in the household.
Mary Ann Armstrong knows how to command an entire fleet. It is by being this effective leader that Mary Ann Armstrong is portrayed as a cyborg who is not subjugated by men. The “Western” origin of a female—and a cyborg—is not portrayed, thus, her gender can be easily seen as a construction only and not her natural origin.
Initially, Mary Ann Armstrong is depicted as somebody who can separate work from her family life. But towards the end of the time, she is depicted as the “idol” who must sacrifice herself to save her children and therefore become an inspiration for them to become better Voltes V team members. Mary Ann Armstrong, in other words, is used only as an object to become an inspiration for the realization of the greater good. To obtain this goal, she has to be punished. The line for Zardoz, the main protagonist in the film, summarizes Mary Ann Armstrong’s journey: “Malakas ang kutob ko na mataas ang katungkulan niya sa puwersa ng mga taga-Terra Erthu kaya siya matapang. Kailangan niyang mamatay (I have a strong feeling that she holds a high rank among the forces from Planet Earth. That is why she is brave. She has to die.”
So how does this film depict Mary Ann Armstrong, and in effect, all of its female characters? The film attempts to erase or lessen the female character’s “femininity,” but in the most desperate times, she is overcome with her emotions and she is punished for that. The film, therefore, fails to separate her gender from her character.
Forms of Dehumanization in the Film
As discussed previously, Mary Ann Armstrong is punished for caring for her children in the film. Although the film does not dehumanize her or other female characters in majority of the scenes, there are at least two scenes in it that does not treat her as a human. But before that, it is important to discuss why dehumanization is an important matter in this discussion.
It is important to emphasize the dehumanization is different from objectification. While objectification is when a women is likened to an object for personal use, dehumanization is when a woman is likened to animals or machines (Boccato, et. al, 2015).
In the film, Boazanians treat creatures without horns as second-rate beings. The film does not perpetuate this, in fact it criticizes the tradition of dehumanization by the Boazanians by depicting this as something done by the main antagonists.
However, the film does perpetuate one dehumanization tradition towards the end of the film after Mary Ann Armstrong’s death. In a comment from General Oscar Robinson (played by Gabby Eigenmann) when looking over the mourning Armstrong brothers, he says,
“Hayaan natin silang umiyak (Let them cry). Let them cry like boys. But I expect them to one day stand up again. They will rise as warriors and avenge their mother and protect our planet. Rise up, Armstrong brothers. Rise!
Although one can argue that this is a harmless comment from General Robinson, the author would like to argue that this is a symptom of dehumanization or Mary Ann Armstrong even after her death. Her death is used by General Robinson as an inspiration for the Armstrong brothers for revenge.
General Robinson’s comment regarding her death has more to do with how it will benefit Planet Earth, rather than the tragedy of the death itself. It other words, her death is not about her, but about her children and Planet Earth.
Dominant Norms Perpetuated by the Film
The norms in the films that are perpetuated by the film are varied.
The author would like to divide the discussions into the following themes: Mary Ann Armstrong’s life and work as a leader figure at Camp Big Falcon and her life as a mother and a wife—her image as the “idol” following Benilda S. Santos’ definition of the idol in Filipino films.
In “A Cyborg Manifesto,” Haraway also discusses the feminization of labor in the new economy. In it, she says that the “New Industrial Revolution” has created a gender- and race-neutral working class. Women have become “home-workers” in the white- and male-dominated industrial economy. As an astrophysicist at the Camp Big Falcon and as someone who has worked on the Voltes V robot after the design proposed by Hrothgar, Mary Ann Armstrong is not boxed in this bleak description by Haraway.
This shows that the film is not perpetuating a dominant norm that is harmful to the image of a woman in film.
When it comes to her life as a mother and a wife, the norms are again set in motion. Mary Ann Armstrong is depicted as an “idol” character. Although not specifically dangerous for the image of women, this is a clear following the commodity of fetishism as discussed in the “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno. Mary Ann Armstrong’s exchange value is more than her use value in the film.
On one hand, Mary Ann Armstrong’s relationship with Hrothgar does not go deeper than being the mother and caretaker of his half human, half Boazanian children. On the other hand, her relationship with her children does not go beyond just being their reminder to “Be good, be brave, and be safe.”
On “Othering” Traditions
Lastly, the author would like to discuss the “Othering” traditions that are mentioned in Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex.”
As mentioned above, as a relational being, Mary Ann Armstrong’s gender is therefore defined as being a mother and a wife.
First, it is important to discuss this “Othering” that de Beauvoir discusses. The woman is in “a world where men compel her to assume the status of the Other.” This is used to account for the oppression of the marginalized. For de Beauvoir, a man would never try to illuminate on the “peculiar situation” of the human male because it is always regarded as the universal situation.
This kind of oppression has been naturalized because women are made to believe that they desire being the Other. “Housekeeping and maternity,” de Beauvoir said, are falsely desirable.
And yet these two are the situations that Ned Armstrong has left Mary Ann Armstrong. Since his arrival and until his departure back to Boazan, Ned Armstrong’s relationship with Mary Ann Armstrong has been one-dimensional: She has to carry his sons, the ones who will become Earth’s protectors also thanks to his inventions.
It must also be highlighted that Mary Ann Armstrong is an astrophysicist and she has network that can help Ned Armstrong realize his proposal that Planet Earth has to defend itself from future invades. She introduces Ned Armstrong to the lead alien researcher Richard Smith (played by Albert Martinez) and General Robinson. Other than being a storytelling instrument to introduce one male character to other male characters, her role does not go deeper.
Although the film made an effort to remove the character from shackles of the dominant norms, it did not launch a full-on attack on the “Othering” traditions that motivate the devaluing tendencies of a patriarchal society.
The film could have shown Mary Ann Armstrong as a “revolutionary,” a woman who knows that her situation should not be the norm and thus acts upon it, rather than an “idol,” a saintly, long-suffering woman who is punished for taking action against her dominant male counterparts.
In addition, the film should have gone deeper into Mary Ann Armstrong’s relationships to show that she is not merely portrayed as an “Other.” Mary Ann Armstrong, although also a mother and a wife, is not just someone who must be shackled in the dominant norms of “housekeeping and maternal.” The film could have focused on her role as a leader figure in the Camp Big Falcon.
While there are films like “Voltes V: Legacy (The Cinematic Experience)” that include strong-willed women like Mary Ann Armstrong, Filipino writers for the big screen have to do better in writing their roles for the wider audience. They can start with the cyborg.
REFERENCES:
Boccato, G., Trifiletti, E., and Dazzi, C. (September 2015). Machocracy: Dehumanization and Objectification of Women. TPM Vol. 22, No. 3. pp. 427-439
Case, A. (2010). We Are All Cyborgs Now [Video] TEDWomen 2010. https://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now?language=en
De Beauvoir, S. (1935). The Second Sex. New York: Knopf.
Garcia, N. (2022, September 20). Why did Marcos ban ‘Voltes V’ during Martial Law? The Philipine Star Life. https://web.archive.org/web/20230612200354/https://philstarlife.com/news-and-views/746701-why-did-marcos-ban-voltes-v-during-martial-law?page=3
Haraway, D. (2016) “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Manila Bulletin. (2023, March 9). ‘Voltes V Legacy’ sneak peek to be shown in cinemas Manila Bulletin. https://mb.com.ph/2023/3/29/voltes-v-legacy-sneak-peek-to-be-shown-in-cinemas
Santos, B. S. (2002). Idol, Bestiary, and Revolutionary:Images and Social Roles of the Filipino Woman in Film (1976-1986). In Reyes, S. (ed.) “Reading Popular Culture.” (pp. 221-236). Quezon City: Office of Research and Publication, Ateneo de Manila University.
Wanzo, R. (2009). The Suffering Will Not Be Televised: African American Women and Sentimental Political Storytelling. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.
