https://padlet.com/JeEstrella/QueenEla Colorism en-us 2019-11-13 13:12:42 UTC 2019-11-13 13:45:06 UTC hello@padlet.com JeEstrella https://padlet.com/JeEstrella/QueenEla/wish/410545527

EXPLORING THE IMPLICATION OF
THE FILIPINO OBSESSION
TO WHITE SKIN




IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS IN ENGLISH 100
PURPOSIVE COMMUNICATION

SUBMITED BY:
ESTRELLA, Jeniel Ela V. 19-5965-206
MORTERA, Queen Ethel D. 19-5801-506

November 13,2019
FILIPINO BEAUTY: THE WHITE SKIN STANDARD
Women are often overlook based on their physical attributes which is enforced by media in commercials, film, and online content. Beauty therefore is a means to an end, serving as social capital for women to increase their socioeconomic status and prestige (Crame,1999; Kebourne,1999; Mears and Fenlay, 2005; Mergon,1991). According to Asia Jackson, colorism has become great part of Filipino lives, in Asia trying to get a lighter skin is normal and so as treating people who have dark skin tone differently. She also said “Tan and brown-skinned are made to feel insecure, ashamed, and embarrassed of the natural color”. This made her hard to accept her real color, which is the brown color. But then after a long time she accepted her color, and started to challenge the whitewashed beauty standard. She campaigns and encourage that the tan, “Morena”, and dark-skinned should love and accept theirselves including their skin color, and redefining the beauty standard of the people (Escobar, 2017). The Pinoy’s fascination with the standard of “unattainable” beauty makes everyone miserable and discontented. In a country where the majority possess the skin color influenced by genes from our brown, Malay forefathers, scouring and scrubbing their colors off doesn’t seem enough. Our well-off ladies go a notch higher to attain beauty through bleaching and other surgical operations. This documented essay aims to give knowledge to the people regarding to Filipina’s obsession of having a whiter and fairer skin, and why they should not be dependent to skin whitening products. This particular documented essay is focusing on Filipinas because there is insufficient research or writing on Asian women, and even fewer contributions on Filipinos in general. Their experience is also unique since Filipinas have a darker skin tone compare to Korean, Japanese, and Chinese women, which most of the literature on beauty tends to focus. Filipinas have to conform skin tone, using skin lightening to racially reconfigure themselves, since they do not have lighter skin tone than the other Asian race (Renault). Why do most Filipino woman like to have a whiter and fairer skin? Most Filipinos like to have a whiter and fairer skin due to their perception that:
1. It gives a person indescribable advantage;
2. It is desired by many;
3. It was influence by colonial mentality
The Philippines has this obsession over lighter skin color. If you happen to visit the Philippines, you will see people peddling whitening products. The supermarket aisles are overflowing with these merchandises. According to Ethnic group of Philippines many Filipinos would spare a hefty chunk of their wages to splurge on whitening products, such as lotions, soaps, creams, or even oral capsules. Four out of ten women in the Philippines use skin whitening brands, along with other Asian countries like South Korea, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Filipino woman uses this kind of products because of the advantage that they can get. Having a white and fair skin are able to pass the auditions on Tv shows, some local celebrities that have foreign blood are the most exposed in almost all TV commercials for beauty products constantly promote fairer skin and that white is more beautiful. Filipino artist with darker skin tones, such as the late actress Elizabeth Ramsey or even Castro’s current example, Does not, have often been typecast in supporting comedic roles as house maids or the best friend of the lead characters. “Do not play out in the sun.  You will get too dark!” Most Filipinos have heard this phrase from parents or elders numerous times when they were children. This phrase might strike a chord as an example of Filipinos’ preference for lighter skin.  For some, it may conjure up memories of being bullied, traumatized, and socially excluded for having darker skin.  Having a brown skin are prone in bullying especially those who are in primary level they do not have their power to help theirselves because growing up with a brown is a burden for them. Those have the brown skin are always compared to their siblings and cousins because their skin is different from them, so as they grow older their perception of being beautiful and accepted, they must have white and fair skin. For others, the words and phrases coming from their family may simply be a reminder of how to maintain a certain privilege for having lighter skin.  Regardless of one’s memory of that phrase, skin tone has unfortunately shaped all their lives. Skin color has remained to be a status symbol in the Philippines. They are dark because you work in the sun all day, they have a lighter skin because they can afford to stay indoors in their air-conditioned room. Men and women with lighter skin are also gawked over and identified as more beautiful than their dark colored counterparts. Asia Jackson, an actress, model, and content creator she has a Filipino mother and a black American father in the military, and due to her father’s work they lived in different communities. She has an experience of being bullied and being “othered” during her childhood that have stemmed during her years spent in the Philippines, and also her dark-skinned classmates and family have been discriminated against solely for their skin color (Escobar, 2017). Asia Jackson have experience bullying and being “othered” because she is not part of the “indescribable” advantage of having a white skin.
Most Filipino men are more attracted to those woman that have the lighter skin, they are admired by many because of their fair skin that would look them more even beautiful  and having a lighter complexion is desirable because it signifies social status, noble ancestry, and most significant, economic status. According to the boo An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, social scientists have recognized discriminatory behavior among African American males in favor of fairer skinned females, a bias that the 2011 documentary Dark Girls reveals is still unfortunately prevalent today. “I don’t really like dark skinned women, like, they’d look funny beside me,” disclosed one male interviewed for Dark Girls. “I’d like a pretty, light skin girl.” Colorism is manifested in the way morenas are ridiculed as ‘negra’, ‘maitim,’ or ‘pangit.’ Senator Nancy Binay, who has been the brunt of such insults, uses self-deprecating humor to defuse the cruelty. But it does hurt her, as she said in an interview in 2013: “I’m bothered. Kasi, bakit nagiging isyu ‘yong kulay ng balat ko? Hindi ba ho, borderline racist na yong comments?” This prove that even though you have the privilege you cannot gain the sympathy and admiration by many because of what you look. Today, skin color continues to serve as the gauge of social difference and the sign of class inequality. Light skinned mestizos whether Chinese and European tend to be endowed with considerable cultural capital regardless of their actual economic standing. Even children absorb from others at an early age the notion that lighter skin is considered prettier than darker skin, and psychologists have shown an “attractiveness halo” effect whereby judgements on beauty spill over into judgements about other characteristics such as intelligence and moral worth, even to the point of influencing hiring decisions by employers. The specific process whereby members of one ethnic group discriminate against those within their own ethnic group based on skin color has been labelled “colorism.” And with a little well-placed sad music and innocent facial shots, a doll experiment demonstrating its effects on children can extract a tear.
Philippines was colonized by Spaniards, Americans and Japanese for hundreds of years, giving us the ‘culture’ that we have today. According to the book Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice, ‘colonial mentality’ is defined as the values and beliefs of the colonizers are accepted by the colonized as their own beliefs and values. It was mentioned that colonial mentality includes “uncritical rejection of anything Filipino” and “uncritical preference for anything American” (Nadal, 2011). As the Filipinos accepted the beliefs and values of Americans as their own, they are rejecting or forgetting their real beliefs and values. Philippines is a country very rich in culture, Filipino have an impressive way of living and beliefs, even before the colonization of different countries. As stated in the book Brown Skin, White Minds: Filipino/American Psychology, Philippines had lived for centuries without the help of European and other outsider, and that is something Filipinos can be proud, and for Filipinos to know that we do not owe everything we know to the colonizers of the country. Despite of the rich culture of the Philippines, plenty of Filipinos do not have a good understanding of their own historical and cultural roots. The Spaniard started the colonization in the Philippines, and over 300 years in the convent, they have convinced the indigenous people that their way of life is better to the way of the indigenous’ living. The Pacification Campaign during the American period or years of Hollywood life was a miseducation to Filipinos, its aim is to win the confidence, Filipinos’ respect and affection towards them. The teachings of Americans are propagating to the thoughts that anything American is always better than anything Filipino. When the indigenous people have started to be ashamed of their own culture and beliefs, and disgusted to their own characteristics, that is when colonial mentality have immersed (David, 2013). This colonization gives the Filipino an identity confusion, feel ashamed their own culture and ethnicity, and be inferior about being Filipino. In proportion to the book Shades of Difference: Why Skin Color Matters, before women’s skin tone were in a social ladder and dark-skinned women were placed in the bottom, and were viewed as least attractive and marriable. For generations, women have lived in a life of white ideal beauty. As consequence, have to live in life wherein they will bleach their skin to white (Glenn, 2009).
Physical attributes have been part of the beauty standard in the Philippines. Today, skin color continues to serve as the gauge of social difference and the sign of class inequality. Filipinos live in a country where skin color is used as a standard to judge the beauty of each one of us. A country wherein people have an ancestral of having a Malayan blood, which gives people a shade of brown of skin color. Four out ten women are using whitening products in the Philippines, along with the women in countries such as Korea, Malaysia and Hongkong. Most Filipino kids might have heard the line “Do not play out in the sun.  You will get too dark!”, and it got stuck in their mind to the point up until now they are still concern of getting dark. Having a lighter skin is more desirable since it signifies social status, noble ancestry, and even the economic status, making it desired by most Filipino men. 300 years of covenant and 50 years of Hollywood in the Philippines have greatly affected the way Filipino people think, as they have absorbed as their own culture and beliefs whatever the Spaniards and Americans have taught them. Their colonial mentality has come to a point wherein anything that is American is better than anything that is Filipino, and because of this Filipinos have been living in a life that white skin colors are better than those who are having a dark skin color. Until when are you going to let people tear you apart? Until when are you going to be affected? You cannot control what other people think of us, but you can control the way you think. Remember beauty has no skin tone, let the beauty of your soul blind them. People should stop colorism, because if not, this colorism will be pass generations to generations, and it will be a crisis for people to get whiter and fairer.






 
References
Blackwell, M. (2019, February 13). The Origin of Colorism. 
Retrieved from    https://quillette.com/2019/02/13/the-origins-of              colourism/?fbclid=IwAR3NoTY6erTMG2WbEZRzRIZX3HtkMff_xef6pLPHJMFptRCbbINRWA5y8L

David, E. J. R. (2013). Brown Skin, White Minds Filipino -/
 American Postcolonial Psychology.          Charlotte :Information Age Publishing.

Escobar, A. (2017, June 4). Actress Asia Jackson Wants to Take On 'Colorism,' Redefine Filipino Beauty.
Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/actress-asia-jackson-wants-take-c colorism-redefine-filipino-beauty-n766431.

Glenn, E. N. (2009). Shades of difference: why skin color matters. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Nadal, K. L. (2011). Filipino American psychology: a handbook of theory, research, and clinical 
Practice. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Renault, K. (n.d.) Filipino Women and the Idealization of White Beauty in Films, Magazines, and online. Retrieved from http:/www.academia.edu/16797999/Filipino_Women_and_the_Idealization_of_wh   I te_Beauty_in_Films_Magazines_and_Online

SkinWhite ad and colorism. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://manilastandard.net/mobile/article/292327.


The White Skin Fascination amongst Filipinos. (n.d.). Retrieved from          http://www.ethnicgroupsphilippines.com/2017/11/21/the-white-skin-fascination-amongst-        filipinos/?fbclid=IwAR3A1sAa0a-NpmjwCtzRMGSGLwJtD_SGLVyeUS9WoUxbV_xLAOz-x xb9zS0k.


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