‘The fairer, the prettier’
Ioverheard a mum say these words to another mum as they were chatting about babies. Her comment perhaps resonates with many Asian people and their specific standard of beauty, which really has nothing to do with a person’s ‘features’ but something to do with his or her skin tone.
“It is no surprise then that skin whitening is a big business in Asia. Go to any grocery or shopping mall and tonnes of products on skin whitening, lightening, and brightening are on offer be it as a bar soap, lotion, serum, capsule, or laser treatment.
In the Philippines, this skewed standard of beauty could be because of the various influences on our people. We were colonised by Spain for 333 years, by the Americans for 48 years and by the Japanese for three years.
Skin tones vary widely
“We were known for our lahing kayumanggi (brown race). But not everyone is brown-skinned. Our skin tone relatively varied depending on where we lived.
Those living in the highlands and the cities traditionally have fairer skin than those who live near coastal and agricultural areas. Those descended from inter-marriages during the colonial years had fair skin and were the mestizos and mestizas. Mixed marriages also happened among the Filipino-Chinese.
It also doesn’t help that the media perpetuates this belief that having fair skin is more beautiful. And it’s not just in the Philippines, but in most of Asia.
‘Beauty is effortless’
Equally, just as most of Asia is obsessed with fair skin, most westerners also would kill to get a tan. If the Asian market is flooded with whitening treatments, tanning treatments in the Western market are not far behind. Even Kim Kardashian has a team to make sure her perfect tan stays on perfectly.
I guess it’s just human nature to want to be what you’re not—and if you have the money to transform yourself into your own standard of beauty, then perhaps it’s nobody’s problem?
Growing up, I remember my grandmother telling us that we’re beautiful just as we are. She used to say ‘Beauty is effortless.’ So that to me became my standard of beauty.
I don’t know if it’s the same for all households. But then if it was, the whitening industry would not take off to be the behemoth is it is now, would it?”