UST feminist group is for all genders

(Photo grabbed from Tomasina's official Facebook page)

Tomasina will also stand up for abused and maltreated men as it aims to empower and eliminate stereotyping and discrimination among all genders, Tomasina founder and president Stef De Guzman asserted.

“Tomasina is not only for women. It stands for social justice, hindi lang siya [...] limited to women,” De Guzman said in an interview with Dapitan Post.

Tomasina, a new intersectional feminist group, is “an advocacy-based organization and support group that seeks to represent the women in the University of Santo Tomas.”

De Guzman said Tomasina aims to empower everyone regardless of race and culture.

“I think the existence of Tomasina itself is empowering individuals of all classes, of all genders, of all ethnicity, [and] of all religions,” she said.

“I think we should all be able to stand together for one purpose. It’s to protect each other,” she added.

De Guzman said she hopes Tomasina will no longer be needed in the next couple of years once it achieves its purpose to promote equality and gender equity and eliminate violence against women.

“Kung hindi man ma-demolish ang Tomasina, magbago yung purpose niya na sana in the next few years there would be no need for intersectional feminism in UST, that Tomasina would stand for something else, because they have already eliminated what is to be eliminated,” she said.

De Guzman urged Thomasians to support Tomasina on ending gender discrimination and harassment in the campus.

“I think dapat binibigyan talaga natin ng pansin hindi lang yung mga academic issues [but also other issues such as] gender issues, sexual harassment, catcalling, victim blaming, [and] nude culture.”

Tomasina is currently seeking recognition as an official university-wide organization from the Office of Student Affairs (OSA). SAMANTHA ABBYGAIL TIO