The Public and Hidden Sexualities of Filipina Women in Lebanon

Filipino migrant domestic workers in Hamra. ©Simba Russeau. Beirut, Lebanon

By: Hayeon Lee

There are about 200,000 migrant women domestic workers – the majority from Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and the Philippines – in Lebanon, which has a population of about four million. Although the Philippine government officially banned citizens from coming to Lebanon following the July War in 2006, an estimated 40,000 Filipinos, mostly female domestic workers, still live and work in Lebanon. Since 1975, migrant women have gradually replaced Lebanese and other Arab women from poor backgrounds, who once made up the dominant domestic labor force (Jureidini 2009). In recent years, the human rights situation of domestic workers has been of public interest due to widespread media coverage of the abuse of these women, as this appears to have led to several suicides. However, the mechanisms of power behind these abuses are often overlooked, as are the complex ways in which Filipina women negotiate within these power structures in order to shape their lives in Lebanon.

Based on 37 interviews with Filipina women, 14 in-depth interviews with Lebanese employers, two interviews with recruitment agencies, and participant-observation mostly carried out in Beirut in 2007, this essay explores the sexuality of Filipina women. (All names have been changed for privacy.) The perceived sexuality of Filipina women – along with all the negative stereotypes – is often used as a means to control these women. Yet, I will argue that Filipina women do not surrender their sexual agency; they actively negotiate the challenges of living in an alien and sometimes hostile social environment, and this includes their sexuality.

Binit [girl] and sharmuta [whore]

The most common advice given to all madames in Lebanon is to not let the live-in maid outside of the house alone. One recruiting agent named Ahmad always tells his customers, “Don’t let her [the live-in maid] out by herself.” He explains,

My daughter [who is in her early teens], where she go out? She go to the school, she come back home, and if she goes out, she goes out with me or her mother. She’s young. I don’t let her go out alone. The housemaid, she comes to Lebanon. They are coming to work. She goes out with madame everyday… You go to Hamra? You see the man? All the man in Beirut take girl. Go sleep with her. Give her money… and she come back. She come back good, [or] she come back pregnant. Or make love for one, two, three [men] for money… But the girl, she didn’t know this man. Where he comes from, is he working or not. He sleep with her… He don’t have AIDS or syphilis, you don’t know… I prefer to don’t let her out because I know the girl [who goes] out. They are free visa. They don’t have license.

Ahmad makes several points. First, he likens the live-in maid to his own young daughter. It is not surprising that many Lebanese refer to the migrant domestic worker as a binit – or girl, with an undertone of virginity – sometimes even for women well into their forties. Since the keeping of a daughter’s chastity is seen as crucial to upholding family honor in a patriarchical society like Lebanon’s, the live-in maid, who works and lives at the employer’s home and literally carries the employer’s name on her residence card and work permit, is under the same rules as the daughter.  However, when daughters are married, they receive recognition as adult women. As for the maid, she might never be treated as an adult – even when she arrives in Lebanon married and with children. As a naïve and gullible binit, the Filipina woman who comes back to her madame’s house without AIDS or syphilis the first time she goes out is considered lucky; madames think however that it is only a matter of time that she will come back pregnant or diseased.

Sometimes, the fact that a binit is working in the private home without kin protection in a foreign country is translated as her being sexually available for male members of that home. While most interviewees have only heard of cases of rape, there were some who experienced sexual harassment. For example, the male employer of Lorna, a Filipina woman in her thirties, would from time to time hug her from the back, peek into her room while she’s napping in minimal clothing, and make sexual comments. One time, when no one else was home, Lorna was terrified and ran to her room when her male employer showed up naked in front of her. Another time, he said that if she lets him touch her breasts, he would pay her. “I don’t need your money! Keep your money,” Lorna shouted. Leonilda, a Filipina woman in her twenties, switched employers after first arriving in Lebanon, when the male employer of the family kept harassing her. “Sometimes he was taking a shower, but he will call you to give him something, like that. It’s insult for you, yanni [I mean]. Especially me, I don’t have a husband! [Laughs.] That’s why I said, la’ [no], I don’t want,” she said.

Second, Beirut is portrayed as full of dangerous men and temptations. This perception is strengthened by the widespread harassment Filipina women receive on the streets, more so than Lebanese women, who are also often treated as sexual objects. Many madames add that it is unsafe for the live-in maid to go out alone. They believe there are many bad men and women, who are often viewed as asharmuta, or whore, and who are waiting to corrupt innocent live-in maids. For example, Nisrine, a Lebanese madame in her thirties, does not want the live-in maid to meet others “for her own sake and for ours… because I have a special relationship with her. I really like to keep it like this. [If I allow her to go out,] I will lose her I think.” In addition, she believes Lebanon is unsafe for the maid. “Talk[ing] to strangers is very dangerous here in Lebanon. Security, ma fi [there isn’t any]. One time, she was going to throw garbage very near, and after, I didn’t let her. There was no electricity in the evening after ten o’clock, and then, someone stopped the car and he say, ‘Come, come.’ She was very scared, and I told her, ‘You will not go, especially when there is no light on the road. Me or [my husband] will throw the garbage.’”

Third, there is no acknowledgement that domestic workers’ sexual desires are natural. It is assumed that she is only here to work and it is common practice to bar her from socializing outside unless supervised, especially in the first few years of employment. For example, although Cynthia, a Lebanese woman in her thirties working for an international organization, is conscientious in terms of the Filipina live-in maid’s treatment and workload, she does not allow the maid to have a day-off outside the house. She tells any Filipina live-in maid who works in her home, “The minute you decide that this is not your priority – working and making money for your family – and your priority is finding somebody, you tell me, you [must] leave.”

It is convenient and economic for recruitment agencies to discourage madames to allow live-in maids to have a day-off outside the house: There is a three-month guarantee period for the customers, and if anything goes wrong, it is the agency that pays. And many madames, who pay up to US$2700 to hire a woman from the Philippines to work in their home, are not willing to risk losing their “investment” after hearing stories of Filipina women sleeping with men, getting pregnant, running away, and bringing disease to their home. Furthermore, the kafala (sponsorship) system, along with domestic workers’ exclusion from the labor law, ties workers to their Lebanese employer, creating a legal dependency of the former on the latter. Such an arrangement delegates near absolute power to the employer to dictate her relationship with the live-in maid (Longva 1997:91-94). The negative sexual stereotypes of Filipina women often legitimize this control.

The stereotypes of Filipina women (and other migrant domestic workers) as naïve girls or whores are further reinforced by gossip, rumors, advice from family and friends, and horror stories. As James Scott points out, rumors tend not to only reflect a real event but speak to the desires and fears of those who spread it (1990:145). They are used to justify and regulate the behaviors of those who are subject to them. Madames themselves have commented on how, oftentimes, conversations at tea parties, children’s birthday parties, and other casual gatherings among women are devoted to problems stemming from their relationship with the live-in maid. Advice is exchanged, assessments given, and stereotypes confirmed. Cynthia justifies her refusal to give a day-off outside to the live-in maid, explaining, “I hear so many stories… The dirty kind about girls running away, girls meeting Egyptian workers, girls meeting Syrian workers on Sundays….. I don’t want to get involved in that.”

Even if one hates gossiping about the maid – as most of my Lebanese interviewees asserted – the norms set by such gossip and the warnings from recruitment agencies make up the same gauge Lebanese employers use to assess their own level of generosity toward the live-in maid. For example, Muhammad, an employer in his forties, believes his family is exceptional for letting the Filipina live-in maid keep her own passport, which he gave back to her after obtaining her residence permit. Such cases are rare. One study estimates that 91% of Lebanese employers believe it is their right to hold the maid’s passport and legal papers (Caritas 2005). And after the first few weeks, Muhammad always gives the newly-arrived live-in maid a day-off and allows her to go outside of the home. This is also not common. He says that many people warned him that this is not a good idea, but Muhammad says his family is “crazy.” But what Muhammad has come to see as a difference of values, is, according to international human rights standards, one of rights, since it is a worker’s right to keep her passport and to exercise her freedom of movement. In other words, employers who go against “harsh” norms regarding the maid, but are actually respecting the maid’s basic human rights, may feel especially generous in relation to other Lebanese employers. And if something goes “wrong,” everybody knows who to blame: the generous madame or mister.

Hence, the pretext of Filipina women’s uncontrollable sexuality is used to justify exercising tight control over these women and refusing their freedom of movement. Such control often breeds isolation and loneliness, which could be related to the high suicide rate among this demographic.

Racial hierarchy

There is a clear division in terms of how Filipina women are viewed compared to Ethiopian or Sri Lankan women in Lebanon. According to Lena, who previously hired a Sri Lankan, two Ethiopians, and currently employs a live-in Filipina, the best maid to hire is the Filipina: “If you want an idiot, take a Sri Lankan… But from the moment you take a Filipina, you say to yourself, look, there’s a certain respect of the person and the right of the person.” Maha, a Lebanese madame in her forties, said the following about Sri Lankan and Ethiopian live-in maids: “I don’t like them at all… They have bad character… They are very stubborn, the Ethiopians… They have a special character. I don’t like them. Even the Sri Lankans, I don’t like. They’re really idiots. The best are the Filipinas.”

Racial stereotypes and a hierarchy of foreign live-in maids and domestic workers, who dominate the domestic service sector, permeate Lebanese society. While many madames believe that it depends on the individual, rather than their nationality, many also believe that Filipina women are probably smarter, more educated, and more professional than, for example, Ethiopian, Sri Lankan or Bangladeshi women.

In addition, Cynthia, a Lebanese madame, says Filipina women are more “presentable,” reflecting the Lebanese preference for the fairer (and thus more attractive) appearance of Filipina women. “There are people who prefer a white girl… and the children aren’t afraid of them,” says Ahmad, the previously mentioned owner of a recruitment agency in Beirut. And because Filipina women are known as the most expensive, Nepalis, who only demand $100 per month as salary have become popular in recent years. “Nepalis are pretty and white like Filipinas. When everyone is taking $100 salary, no one will want Filipinas if they take $200,” says Muhammad. (In fact, this is how Muhammad justifies lowering the Filipina women’s salary to $150 upon arrival to Lebanon, when most of these women believe they will be receiving $200. The arbitrary lowering of salary for live-in maids of all nationalities upon arrival is commonplace among recruitment agencies.) Ibrahim, another recruiting agent, thinks it is absurd that some madames look for white and “good-looking” girls. “It’s racism…when you ask about color,” he says. “The [customer is] stupid because when she asks…’good-looking,’ … Something strange, because she has husband, she has boys staying at home,” he says. He has heard of many things that happen within the homes to these so-called “good-looking” domestic workers. According to one researcher, “So the sexual relations with the domestic maid can be viewed … as a threat to the honour and integrity of the family and… as providing assistance in the validations of one’s heterosexual masculinity” (Jureidini: 2006:142).

The view that Filipina women are “whiter” and more beautiful has also influenced their perception of their own sexuality. Many Filipina women are aware that, unlike their Sri Lankan or Ethiopian counterparts, Lebanese see them as more beautiful. Mercedita, a Filipina domestic worker, says, “Make-up, not even just powder, was mamnu‘[forbidden]. Madames are too jealous, because they know Filipina, when they put make-up, some Filipina beautiful, you know? Not the same as Sri Lanka, Ethiopia. They are [also] beautiful… but black… Some [Lebanese] don’t like. Not the same [as] Filipina, they are clean,” says Mercedita. Muhammad, a Lebanese employer, confirms a tendency to sexualize Filipinos.  “In Lebanon, they say they [Filipinas] are [sexually] easy.” Jessica says some men in Lebanon prefer Filipina women over other nationalities. She says, “Egyptians like Filipinas, because they say Filipinas…are clean, they smell good, like that. Loving, like that.”

Nevertheless, Filipina women are seen as secondary choices as spouses or even girlfriends, and Lebanese men who fall in love with Filipina women are stigmatized and seen as “losers,” who could not make a Lebanese woman fall in love with them. In a dramatic case, Beatrice, who had been together with her Lebanese boyfriend for more than five years, was forced to tip-toe around her boyfriend’s house in the dark, lest his mother see Beatrice’s shadow from the balcony, which is across from the boyfriend’s balcony. This was because the mother of Beatrice’s boyfriend, who had met with Beatrice on several occasions, had implored him to stop seeing Beatrice, and he promised to do so. She says, “It’s humiliating. They are very superficial and act nice in front of you, but inside, they think Filipinas are all just maids.” So while Filipina women might be seen as superior to maids of other nationalities, this superiority is only among maids, who occupy a socially inferior status. In other words, Filipina women are simply viewed as a better fit for domestic service and sexual adventures, compared to domestic workers of other nationalities.

From an invisible to a public self

Filipina women are often seen by Lebanese as naïve, sexually desirable, and promiscuous. To what extent are these perceptions correct? While Filipina women are hyper-sexualized and exoticized within Lebanese society, and this image is used to legitimize the tight control madames have over the live-in Filipina maids, the same image gives Filipina women space to explore and enjoy their sexuality. This space is also due to Filipina women’s specific living and working conditions in Beirut, especially for those who have a day-off or have left their employers to work as illegal freelancers.

Marissa believes she has changed in terms of how she views her own sexuality after she came to Lebanon. She had never been one to frequent night clubs, but here, she goes to clubs from time to time with her Filipina friends. When asked about what she thinks of how Filipina women dress here, especially on their day-off (usually Sunday), she says, “Sexy clothes… Big earrings… Of course in your own country, you cannot… We’re just adapting the culture of the Lebanese now. They’ll think you’re sharmuta [whore] in the Philippines.” While Lebanese point to Filipina women as sharmuta, Marissa believes it is Lebanese society’s standards of sexuality that affect Filipina women. Pointing to her medium-size hoop earrings, she adds, “I never wore big earrings like this in the Philippines. This is already big for me. But now I have a bigger one.”

Twenty-nine-year-old Gladys has four children in the Philippines, and when I met her on a Sunday she was wearing extremely tight clothes, along with long, bleached, flowing hair and blue contact lenses. At the time, she was dating four boys. When I asked how she could see all of them when she only has Sundays off, she said, “I have time… Two hours of [each of] them. [We both laugh.] I have one Egyptian, I have one Syrian, I have one Armenian, and I have one Lebanese.” I ask who she thinks is the best. “The Syrian. What do you mean ‘best?’ In the bed?” We laugh again, and I clarify, “in everything.” She answers again, “Syrian.” Ironically, Gladys’s designation of her boyfriend solely by their nationality mimics the simplification and stereotyping of migrant domestic workers by color and nationality.

I met Lara, a Filipina in her late forties who has been working in Lebanon for over ten years, on a Sunday afternoon on a public bus in Beirut. At the time, Lara was showing her friend graphic photos of herself with her boyfriend, either French-kissing or in other sexual poses. Everyone in the bus was observing these ostentatious acts. Lara, who sat next to the aisle, was not showing her pictures in the middle of her seat toward her friend, but toward the aisle so that even I, who was sitting two seats behind them, could see the pictures. It felt as if she was trying to show off her young, cute Kurdish boyfriend in his mid-twenties (Lara was forty-seven years old at the time), boasting of her sensuality and sexual ‘achievements’ before the Lebanese on the bus.

Curious, I spoke to Lara; she invited me to go to two birthday parties and then clubbing at Jazira – the most popular among several night clubs in Beirut that specifically cater Filipina women on Sunday afternoons.  In the conversation before the birthday parties, Lara told me she has five children and that they have all grown up. For this reason, her children understand that her mother wants to be “happy” and don’t mind that she parties with her young boyfriend in Lebanon. One of her friends, Nerissa, however, made fun of Lara for the way she dances. And despite all the claims Lara made to me regarding how much she loves partying and how there is no need for communication with her boyfriend except “I love you” and “I miss you,” Lara seemed somewhat out-of-place at Jazira. After supporting her children for so long as the mother, she was clearly in the process of experimenting with her sexuality. She enjoys the attention she gets from men, telling me that she hopes her boyfriend is not at the club because she would like to dance with other men.

Lara crafts her relatively new sexuality specifically in the context of her acceptable absence from the Philippines, where she would be under the tighter control of her family. The fact that Filipina women are stereotypically seen as attractive – in the racial hierarchy of domestic workers – and sexually available has given Lara the chance to date someone twenty or more years younger than herself. Lara’s sexual expression reinforces the stereotype of Filipina women as promiscuous, since she is married with children. But her investment in this self allows her to be “happy,” as she puts it, in one of the seven days when she is not taking care of two children, cleaning a huge home, and serving the Lebanese family that employs her. Furthermore, Lara demonstrates how Filipina women use the stereotype against them as a resource for cultivating a “sexual self.” This is a self which is not available to them back home and is an alternative to the self as the invisible maid.

To continue with the day I spent with Lara, we met the first birthday girl Nerissa at a tiny flat near Bourj Hammoud that belongs to a mutual friend. When we arrived, Nerissa was cooking for fifteen people, almost naked in her pink tank top and underwear, with blasting music that could be heard a hundred meters away. Neighbors were peeking out of their windows to see what was happening. Because the kitchen had no ventilation, Nerissa was sweating and her eyeliner was dripping, but her long hair remained down, while she took a break from time to time, coming out to the living room to dance with her friends.

Nerissa is sexy and glamorous, and prides herself on how most Lebanese think that she is in her twenties by her hair, make-up, and the way she dresses, although she is in her forties. When we all went to Jazira, she quickly disappeared to dance with her several boyfriends. The second time I saw her at Jazira, I interviewed her. Like many other Filipina women, Nerissa has been working in Lebanon for the past eleven years to support her children and husband, who barely make any money. She says she spends only $50 a month on herself and sends the rest to her family in the Philippines. She is professional at the workplace. Nerissa says that she is an excellent cook, but her “glamorous self” is equally important to her. She cultivates this sexual self and shows off, even if it’s only for herself. When the madame is not home, she says she dresses the way she would when she goes clubbing and dances to the music while she cleans. At one point, her madame told Nerissa not to put on make-up when she is working. “Ma fi [No] make-up please,” she told Nerissa. But the children and the male employer do not mind. According to some Filipina interviewees, Lebanese madames often see the Filipina woman in their home as a sexual threat.

Nerissa, like Lara, invests in her sexy, glamorous self in the specific context of being a Filipina woman in Lebanon. Perhaps the expectation and constraint of having to be the invisible and asexual maid makes this self even more important for Nerissa in Lebanon than in the Philippines. This is because the self as glamorous woman gives her a way to diversify her identity, rather than being stuck with that of a Filipina maid. And by investing in the sexy, glamorous self, at least once a week, Nerissa is the protagonist and attention-getter of everyone around her.

“Life outside” and “going with the flow”

For Marissa, who is in her early thirties and married in the Philippines, having a boyfriend in Beirut was not just an option, but a necessity. She says,

I’m not proud what’s happening here. I am happily married! Everybody will kill me… But it’s common outside and you go with the flow [i.e., having a boyfriend]. It’s the life outside… You need somebody to help you… because [the boyfriends] are the ones supporting you for the food, clothes, the house, and your money is for the Philippines only.

In a sense, Filipina women implicitly exchange sexual favors or romance for some form of financial security from local or migrant men. Mercedita, like Marissa, who ran away from her employer and works two waitressing jobs at a five-star hotel in Beirut, has a Lebanese boyfriend. He pays for her rent, buys her clothes, and pays for her cell phone. “He tells me, ‘Mercedita, save your money so that we can make your [legal] papers,’ because I don’t have papers,” she says.

Marissa was working for two years as a nanny for a rich Lebanese family before she was tempted and “brainwashed,” as she puts it, into believing that there is a better life “outside.” Although Marissa was tightly controlled, often yelled at by her madame, and felt emotionally and verbally abused, she regrets her decision to leave her madame three years ago. She met her current boyfriend through her Filipina friend’s Lebanese fiancée, and has been living with him for most of the time since she left her employer’s home. She has a strong bond with her boyfriend. He “learned to love me,” and is, she says, committed to her.

The constant stress and fear of living illegally in Beirut is exacerbated by Marissa’s concern that someone back home will find out about her extramarital relationship. “I don’t want to fight with other Filipina friends. I don’t want …them [to] … tell my family that I’m living with a Lebanese man.” And as there is much gossip, Marissa is always careful.

Marissa has a group of friends who are also Filipina freelancers (usually illegal), who get together regularly at someone’s house to enjoy a generous Philippine feast, often joined by Egyptian, Kurdish, Lebanese, or Syrian boyfriends. Despite the fact that many of these women were married with children back home, it was rather uncommon to see a Filipina freelancer without a boyfriend at these gatherings. If a woman is single, her Filipina friends will try to find a boyfriend for her.

Even when a Filipina woman is a live-in maid, if she has a regular day-off and is permitted to leave the house, she will likely have a boyfriend. Out of the 25 Filipina I interviewed, whether working as freelancers or as live-in maids who have Sunday off, more than half had a boyfriend. Furthermore, nearly half of these women were married back home. Indeed, certain Filipina women act as matchmakers. For example, Nida, a woman in her thirties working for a retired and divorced man, is separated from her husband but has two sons. After two years, she was allowed to go out alone on Sundays. Nida found herself in the midst of a community of Filipina women who pressured her to date. In fact, Nida related that one time a man, who her Filipina friends nagged her to go out with, called her employer’s home during the day. Luckily, Nida answered the phone, but she was furious that her employer’s private number was given without her permission. Nida distanced herself from this circle of women and now confides with only a few Filipina friends.

In many cases, it is mutual attraction and loneliness that drives many Filipina women to date and have boyfriends, typically with migrant men, who are also working in the country alone. When I commented at a Filipina friend’s house party that many Filipina boyfriends seem to be migrant laborers, Leonilda explained that we are all like family because “we are all strangers in Lebanon.”

Although Leonilda is sometimes embarrassed by the explicit sexual displays of Filipina women in Beirut’s night clubs, she is not critical. Commenting on the fact that many married Filipina women sleep with local men, she says:  “As they say, we are going to face the modern world. When you taste it, you always want it. [Laughs]. In the Philippines, it’s different. [Women are not promiscuous]. But sexual life, it changes… Here, you are independent. You are alone… You don’t have family. You have to start on your own… If you have a problem, if somebody helps you …they expect something from you…”

Janet came to Lebanon in order to forget her last lover in the Phillipines, who was married. She did not want to break apart the family. At the time of the interview, she was in a relationship with a married Egyptian man. She met him through the boyfriend of her sister, who was also working in Lebanon. She observed that many married Filipina women have boyfriends, because they want to be happy. They want “companionship” since many women work from Monday to Saturday; on Sunday, they want to be happy. “I am confused. I make [a] relationship… Am I happy because he is with me or [because he] loves [me] or what?”

The Good Woman & the Whore

Several Filipina women I spoke with, particularly those who were religious and conservative, believe that the bad reputation Filipina women have in Lebanon is deserved because many of them seem to exhibit stereotypical behavior. These women believe that the only way to improve the image of the Filipina is to be a chaste, trustworthy person or avoid sex altogether. “We are here to work, not to have fun,” some say. While most Filipina live-in maids believe that it is their right to have fun on Sundays, many believe that it is the responsibility of each Filipina to avoid giving Filipina women a bad name in Lebanon. For example, Pia is a domestic worker-turned-professional beautician who married a Lebanese. She laments how some Filipina women seem obsessed with gaining men’s attention and end up with more than one boyfriend. While single Filipina women have a right to have a serious relationship, she thinks it is wrong for them to have many boyfriends and especially when they are married back in the Philippines. “I hate Filipinas who aresharmuta. They ruin the reputation of all Filipinas in Lebanon,” she says.

Women like Pia are trying, in effect, to claim a status as “honorable” women by differentiating themselves from others who aresharmuta. It is also a form of censorship or social control when Filipina women who sleep around are stigmatized. But Filipina women like Pia often overlook the fact that the same kind of behavior by Lebanese women, and even more so for that of men, is not necessarily stigmatized.  And the symbolic gain of “honorable” women is at the expense of reinforcing a stereotype that legitimizes the control of Filipina women’s bodies and persons. Moreover, the focus on Filipina women’s promiscuity drives the discussion far away from the real issue, which is that it is difficult for Filipina women to have a personal life outside of “work” and that they are not allowed to bring their partners and families to Lebanon. Even recent legislation enacted by the Ministry of Labor in January 2009 to improve the situation of domestic workers in Lebanon requires that all foreign maids work for three years without family reunification and still does not guarantee a weekly day-off outside the house.

Conclusion

The perceived sexuality of Filipina women in Lebanon is double-sided: on the one hand, the Filipina live-in maid is seen as an asexualbinit (girl) who must be protected in order to guard the family honor; on the other hand, she is seen as a threatening sharmuta(whore). The binit can become a sharmuta at any moment and bring chaos to the home if the madame’s control over the live-in Filipina maid is lessened and the latter gets corrupted by the outside world. For this reason, many Lebanese madames are reluctant to let Filipina maids outside of the home alone. In many cases, a domestic worker’s sexual desires are assumed unnatural and inappropriate. The negative stereotypes associated with Filipina women’s sexuality is spread through warnings and stories told by recruitment agencies and rumors. Filipina women, compared to their Ethiopian and Sri Lankan counterparts, are seen as fairer, sexually more attractive, and promiscuous. These images of Filipina women legitimate employers’ tight control of their bodies and persons.

For Filipina women, their assumed sexual promiscuity and attractiveness sometimes give them opportunities for exploring and experimenting with their own sexuality. For those who are allowed a day-off outside the house or freelance illegally, some might start dressing and acting in a sexually assertive manner. They might go clubbing, have much younger boyfriends, or have multiple sexual partners. Among Filipina women, there is both acceptance and ambivalence towards their sexual conduct. Some resent them for perpetuating the bad reputation that Filipina women have acquired in Lebanon.

Ironically, then, while negative sexual stereotypes might legitimate control over Filipina women in Lebanon, these same stereotypes might also permit these women to exercise more choice in how they express their sexuality.