The Discourse about the Human Body and the Nuances of Language

One of the things that went naturally with my five months of work cum vacation in Hawai'i was the opportunity to be on a regular health regimen of running, walking, aerobics and weight training, something which I did not have the time to do when I was running the College of Liberal Arts at DLSU. While I maintained my health through my regular week-end games of tennis, I just felt that the stress of the job, and the absence of a regular exercise regimen, made me unhealthy. This completely changed. After five months, I saw my body getting in shape. I had a net loss of about 5 pounds, with my body shedding fat but gaining muscles. My abs became flatter and my biceps, triceps and deltoids, even my butt, became firmer. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I felt satisfied and sexy, and right there decided that I will keep this body no matter what.

This determination is something that I feel burning in me, and has driven me to keep burning those extra calories. A day right after my arrival, and notwithstanding the flu scare, I immediately enrolled in the gym just beside my house in Los Banos. As of this posting, I have been continuing my regular routine of aerobic exercises (mostly running), playing tennis, and weight training. And I intend to continue doing so.

However, what really called my attention is the way people comment about my physique whenever they see me with my shirts on. The reaction is always: "Ay, ang taba mo!" "Naku, mataba ka!", or worse, "Ay, lumaki ang tiyan mo!" Everytime I hear this, I am almost tempted to strip naked in front of them and show them my wares. In fact, that is exactly what I did once after a tennis game (partially, since I only removed my shirt) to show them off my buffed body. Apparently, that did the trick. No one in the tennis court has called me "mataba" again.

But then again, I realized that I could not fault people at all, for we Filipinos simply embody in our everyday discourse the nuances about body appearances that are somewhat limited by our inability to normally distinguish being fat from being healthy. Of course, we have words for healthy, like "malusog", or for being muscular, like "matipuno." However, the former is now also somewhat conflated with the word "mataba" even as we contrast both with being "payat." Furthermore, the word "matipuno" is rarely used in everyday discourse, as it is considered to be too formal ("masyadong malalim"). Thus, indeed, an ordinary person would almost always consider someone who gained muscle as someone who is "tumaba."

Thus, I have come to the conclusion that for us, "taba" is not necessarily "fat." After all, when someone tells you that "mataba ang iyong puso", it is a commendation of your noble trait of being generous, and not as a health warning about you having a fatty heart.