“We must reject not only the stereotypes that others have of us but also those that we have of ourselves."
Before anything else, Happy Women’s Month to all my strong, hard-working, and beautiful, KasamBuhays! I pray that all your days would be a chance for you to learn new things, love yourself more, be better human beings, and live life the way you want it.
The quotation by Shirley Chisholm above is my favorite quote about being a woman. Chisholm was a politician, educator, and author and was the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States congress. Obviously, she was a strong-willed woman to be able to do such a notable accomplishment, but probably just like most women, she had to overcome numerous hurdles in life. Each one of us is a product of our past, we have a lot of challenges, we have our own ideas and stereotypes about ourselves, internal struggles that we need to overcome. But overcoming them starts with our own mindset, our inner strength and determination to prevail over them. It’s also important to find your tribe; the best support system from the people around you – family, friends, co-workers, etc. – who are being used by God to be instruments to show His love and support to all of us.
Inka Magnaye: Finding her voice
My guest on Pamilya Talk, voice actor Inka Magnaye, probably has one of the most popular local voices to date. Inka is the in-flight voice of Philippine Airlines, a voice project that she took on from her mother, Lindy, who did it in the 90’s. Her low, yet clear, feminine voice can also be heard on different advertisements and announcements.But Inka became a household name during the time that the pandemic hit. She now has a massive following on TikTok with 1.8 million followers and still growing, 780T plus followers on Facebook, 235T on Twitter, and 84T on Youtube. That wasn’t always the case though says Inka. “I have been creating and posting videos on Facebook for years now. Actually, I just saw a post from 2017 that came out from my memories on Facebook. I did the video in 2017 and it only has 85 views until now. My videos started its virality during the pandemic and now, we’re here doing the podcast. It’s been a fun journey,” shares Inka. Her content mostly consists of her being her fun 30 plus year-old self, but it also has a good mix of her giving tips on being a voice actor and demonstrating her reading talent prowess. “It’s the best way to get gigs so that people can hear your voice.”
Now that Inka is more visible online and gaining a lot of followers, unfortunately, not all comments that she receives from people are positive. Sometimes, she gets bashed because of her opinions or gets foul messages from men. “It’s challenging to get bashed because it also affects my mental health,” she shares.
Mental health is one of the things that Inka has been openly advocating about, as well as being comfortable and confident on your own skin. She also advocates body-positivity, which was obvious from her content on her social media. She takes it upon herself to speak out and defend her choices and actions from her bashers because that’s also one of her ways to empower her audience, especially her female followers. For her, the biggest challenge of a woman, in general, is having ownership and authority on what happens to their body.
“Sometimes, if a woman wants to become a mom, people would be fast to conclude that she wants to be just a stay at home mom, and that she’s lazy and doesn’t want to work. If women would say that they don’t want to have kids and that they want to focus more on their career, some would say that they should become a mom because that’s expected from them being a woman. I really don’t like that mentality. If you’re going to ask me about feminism, it’s being able to find strength, empowerment, and happiness in whatever you want to choose. Whatever you want to do, if you feel empowered with that choice, do it. If it doesn’t hurt anyone, especially ourselves, then I don’t think that there’s anything wrong,” says Inka.