Naano and the Beast

NAANO is perhaps one of the most ambiguous Filipino expressions. But this supposedly ambiguous word stirred quite a controversy when it was uttered by a legislator during a confirmation hearing of a cabinet secretary. A word so common in our daily conversations has sparked online and offline uproar of national proportions.

Naano could be categorized as a placeholder. In mathematics and computing, a placeholder is a symbol in a mathematical expression or computer instruction that may be replaced by the name of any element or by particular pieces of information. In spoken language, a placeholder is a word used by speakers to substitute a word which they cannot recall or when they do not know an appropriate or more precise word for something.

Speakers resort to placeholders when they are grappling for words. But the recent national incident involving naano lay bares another dimension of this controversial term. Speakers also tend to use placeholders to refer to something which they feel uncomfortable to name or mention. The reluctance to mention a word may stems from the belief that it is inappropriate, socially unacceptable or a taboo.

The recent utterance on a national platform of naano is in the context of sex and pregnancy. The larger context of that remark reveals so much about social attitudes on sex and deep seated prejudice against women specifically single mothers. That many in the audience during that hearing laughed upon hearing the remark as if it was a punchline calls attention to the lack of sensitivity and empathy towards the plight of