WP1: The Fair (Skin) Advantage
As a First-Generation America, my parents kept me immersed into our Filipino culture through mainly consuming Filipino media. Rather than watch Seinfeld or Golden Girls, I’d spend my time glued to the TV watching Dysebel and MariMar featuring actress Marian Rivera. With her in everything I watched, I wanted to be everything that she was. From her smooth skin to her bright eyes, I tried to embody her; she was my role model.
Like Marian Rivera, every other celebrity in Filipino media had light skin. Most of them were also only half Filipino. As I grew older, the idea of Filipino celebrities never being fully Filipino piqued my interest. Why is everyone pale? Why does everyone look White and not Filipino? The answer is colorism. With the lasting impact of colonization on the Philippines, and many other countries, the image of beauty and perfection is heavily correlated to Eurocentric features. With this, Filipinos strive not to become White- but for a proximity to Whiteness that’ll grant them the same opportunities as those who are whitepassing.
I last visited the Philippines in 2017 and while we were in Manila shopping, I saw many storefronts advertising skin whitening creams and pills. Large billboards along the highway were adorned with images of women before and after using these products, glamorizing pale skin.
The advertisement above shows a woman with tan skin looking at a woman with paler skin with jealousy. It translates to “Unfair, right? Don’t be mad, get GlutaMAX! Your fair advantage.”
According to Synovate Philippines in 2013, one in two Filipino women actively used skin whitening products. Most of these products are packed with chemicals such as mercury, glutathione, and hydroquinone. It’s been deemed that prolonged exposure to these chemicals can cause health complications such as the graying of skin, and the deterioration of one’s immune, and nervous system. These side effects are common knowledge yet hundreds of thousands of women are putting their lives on the line simply because they want lighter skin.
In the Philippines, I’ve noticed a paradox where they’re incredibly supportive and prideful of their people and country but that same pride isn’t given to those with darker skin as if their triumphs aren’t enough. Despite claiming that they support one another, they only idolize Filipinos mixed with European descent. There’s a reason why Olivia Rodrigo and our Miss Universe contestants are celebrated and the Philippines ignores artists such as Saweetie and H.E.R.; the embodiment of colorism.
From a historical perspective, colorism was and still is prevalent due to colonization. What makes the Philippines’ case unique is that it’s the culmination of China, Spain, Japan, and America’s influence on its social beliefs. Under Spanish colonization, the social hierarchy was solely based on your skin tone where those who were pale were of higher class and richer while those with darker skin were associated with a lower quality of life. That’s why even today, the Filipino media is dominated by Wasians and those with Eurocentric features meaning that the mentality that “white is right” is still being enforced. Because Filipino media only features a specific look, many believe that if they whiten their skin they’d be able to be wealthy and have opportunities they could only dream of.
Blatant skin bleaching isn’t the only method of lightening one’s skin. To beat out the brutal simmer heat, women would use umbrellas to protect them from the sun but it also doubles as a way to make sure that they don’t tan and get darker. Tendencies like these aren’t done with the full intention of achieving Whiteness but it’s so nonchalant and normalized that it’s an embedded practice of desiring a proximity to Whiteness.
The whiter you look, the more likely you are to be famous in the Philippines. Not only does this involve skin color but features as well. Filipinos typically have a flatter nose bridge and many, including myself, were told to pinch their nose bridge every night to make their noses appear taller. Despite this, they made fun of the fact that I didn’t look Filipino enough. I didn’t have a flat nose bridge, my mother’s upturned eyes, or my father’s tanned skin. I naturally had paler skin and a more pronounced nose but I still wasn’t enough. All my life I’ve been told that I don’t look Asian because of my round eyes and nonexistent cheekbones which led to heaps of self doubt.
What defines a Filipino and more so who has the right to pick and choose who is and isn’t?
Many Wasian celebrities and influencers in the Philippines recognize their privilege- which is evident in the amount of opportunities and roles they’re given- but they refuse to acknowledge that it’s a large part as to why they have the platform they sit upon. Why is it that celebrities choose to ignore this topic? In reference to Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he mentions that the Oppressors would do everything they can in order to keep society stagnant which allows them to keep their power.
“Oppression — overwhelming control — is necrophilic; it is nourished by the love of death, not life…It attempts to control thinking and action, leads women and men to adjust to the world, and inhibits their creative power” (Freire, 77).
In a sense, these actors and famous figures are the oppressors in society not only in terms of wealth and looks, but influence. What they say is heard by millions of impressionable people who have no reason to think of them as wrong. Many may not be doing this intentionally but it’s somehow worse when it isn’t intentional.
They don’t realize their influence, specifically; they don’t realize their privilege in a similar vein to nepotism children thinking they earn their roles solely on talent. This isn’t to dismiss the abilities of actors or figures in the spotlight, most of them have what it takes to meet societal expectations but it’s to bring up the fact that they are so unaware of their circumstances in comparison to those who didn’t have the same opportunities as them.
Throughout the years, there has been an outpour of young Filipinos embracing their natural skin and encouraging others to do the same. Rather than repressing the issue at hand like the previous generations, they’re calling for accurate representation of the Filipino people to showcase the beauty in the variety of Filipinos. Filipino-Black Actress Asia Jackson has created a hashtag- #MAGANDANGMORENX, translating to ‘beautiful brown skin’ to inspire otherFilipinos to appreciate their dark skin back in 2016 and others are following suit and taking action towards celebrating the variations of Filipino beauty.
At the same time, there’s a desire in America to look ethnic without bearing the consequences of being ethnic; seemingly confusing culture as a costume that they can slip in and out of. In 2020, 2.01 million Americans tanned four or more times in the course of the year. (Simmons National Consumer Survey, 2021)
While I like to think that they’re diverging from completely adhering to the warped Western definition of worth, the growing influence of East Asian media will prove to be challenging. Already, there are so many Filipinos enamored by Korean idols- going to certain lengths to adhere to those beauty standards instead — which is a whole other phenomenon in itself — even going to the lengths to give their children Korean names without any Korean heritage.
The challenge to dismantle the power of Western ideas is still very much persistent and difficult but education and acknowledging the issue is a solid starting point.
WORKS CITED
Bagani, ABS-CBN Entertainment. 2018
Casillan, Aimiel Trisha W. “Flipping the Cultural Script: Papaya Soap and Skin Color Stratification in the Philippines.” Inquiries Journal, Inquiries Journal, 1 Oct. 2020, http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1820/flipping-the-cultural-script-papaya-soap-and-skin-color-stratification-in-the-philippines.
Glutamax, Fair Advantage. 2019.
Mendoza, Roger Lee. “The Skin Whitening Industry in the Philippines.” Journal of Public Health Policy, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2014, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24352110/.
Santos, Mariel De Los. “Full-Colorism Television.” Full-Colorism Television | Writing Program, 2018, https://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/journal/past-issues/issue-10/delossantos/.
Published by Statista Research Department, Statista Research Department. “U.S.: Frequency of Tanning 2011–2020.” Statista, 2 July 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/287038/frequency-of-tanning-in-the-us-trend/.
