Skin color does not bother me now like it used to. In the Philippines, beauty necessarily hinges on the lightness of your dermis. As a child, I absolutely loved going to the resorts whenever we had the extra money to go. Mama would scold me when I would come back from the pool, when she sees the browned, raisined limbs coming out of my swimsuit. "Para ka nang negra!" ["You now look like a negra!"]
Ten years later in America, Mama, who is active on Facebook back home, still scolds me for being "too tan." Quickly she justifies, "you could get skin cancer!" Photo below was taken last year at Oktoberfest in San Francisco with my friend Rebecca (I'm the one on the right).
What I haven't explained to my mom, is that I now enjoy being brown, and being uninhibited about it. As I already knew, a lot of people in America desire to be brown. And I am lucky not having to work too hard at it, as I get color almost effortlessly!
Lately I have been getting a bit more homesick. I started following a lot of Filipino celebrities on Instagram, and though you would not approve (as a scientific researcher would be horrified if you cited Wikipedia as a resource), that is how I stay abreast of current events back home. It's nice to look at pretty things, even when the things I hear aren't pretty.
Around the time I moved to the US, I thought we were beginning to move towards celebrating our brown skin color - particularly in women. For example Mylene Dizon was a hot celebrity. She was quite tan, although my disclaimer would be that she punctuated the Philippine Showbiz scene with her American-ness having been raised here, so I may have to count her out of this list.
Darker-hued Filipinas began to make annual appearances among the finalists of international beauty pageants. Here's a quick list of some:
1. Miriam Quiambao (image courtesy of www.missosology.com)
2. Nina Ricci Alagao (image from iangalliguez.com)
3. Zorayda Ruth Andam (image from oocities.com)
4. Precious Lara Quigaman (image from dcelebritiesissues.blogspot.com)
5. Janine Marie Tugonon (image from philstar.com)
6. Shamcey Supsup (image from philnews.ph)
7. Maria Venus Raj (image from nookdeejung.blogspot.com)
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Two of the society's It girls are not exactly mestizas:
Lovi Poe (image from www.lazygirls.info)
Isabelle Daza (image from ph.celebrity.yahoo.com)
Things have changed, so I thought. There still is a struggle however. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging beauty. Beautiful is beautiful, no matter the skin color, the shape of the eyes, the contour of the cheeks, or the profile of the nose. Beauty is the sum of all parts. It is a whole. And it certainly also radiates from within a person. Beautiful women represent all cultures and ethnicities.
So from being informed by my trusty Instragram cadre of followed luminaries, I deduce that there seems to be a lot of progress in the Philippines. Despite the never-ending political setbacks, a lot of people have become truly successful. I constantly see Karen Davila's posts about her "My Puhunan" show, where she features commoners who have made it from scratch. Celebrities have also not only dabbled in politics, a lot of them have become successful entrepreneurs as well.
My heart swollen with pride, I find myself one night attempting to purchase Filipino-made clothing. Recently I have committed to minimize my "Made in China" purchases as much as possible, especially when it comes to apparel.
So I do a search of Kamiseta, and Bayo. Two brands I have adored (and was not able to afford) back in college. I hate to say it, but I have been disappointed. I wish it were more due to say a lack of design, or cheap quality on the garments. To my chagrin, the models on the websites of homegrown brands were caucasian.
Image from www.kamiseta.com
Bayo is not as bad. Its main model is a mestiza, and this has been the norm for Philippine advertising. Personally I try not to see the mestiza image as being oppressive like I learned in school, because the truth is, mestizas [white + Filipino] are just as Filipino as the morenas [brown-skinned] and the chinitas [other Asian + Filipino]. If 300+ years of Spanish colonial residency in the Philippines discounts them as Filipinos, then maybe I should not claim to be an American, having only been here for 10 years.
Image from: www.bayo.com.ph
Images above from: www.rajolaurel.com
I applaud Rajo nevertheless for diversifying his campaign by using models of African descent. And though Rajo was educated in western design schools, he opted to unravel all his talent from the homeland.
This makes me reminisce some classic commercials. I could never forget the Family brand's campaign on toothpaste. The white woman speaks Tagalog with a heavy American accent, "Hindi lang pang pamilya, pang pearly white teeth pa." [It's not just for the family, it's for pearly white teeth too."] Of course the slogan does not make sense, but by being memorable, it did what it was supposed to do.
Here's another commercial, set in the west but with an Asian product:
My question as a kid, when I saw the Family toothpaste commercial was: Why does it seem that the presence of caucasians is necessary to validate certain things? Is it the standard of beauty. Is it the bearer of good quality? The measure of intelligence? Of progress? Of success?
As I kept considering it in the past days, perhaps, as in Rajo Laurel's case, we are coming upon a transitional time. If we keep looking to only represent our brown skin color in our magazines and websites, it really is not a clever business plan if we wanted to showcase our goods, our quality, craftsmanship, and talents to the rest of the world. And he is successful for that! In fact, his recent shoot was of American model Tyra Banks. I mean, the man is brilliantly talented and engaged in the international scene! That's how it should be done.
The reality is, we stop seeing white, red, black, brown, or yellow when we stop thinking of, or even mentioning it as anything other than a descriptor. We are all made differently to find our ways in the world. Imagine if the lands on earth were featureless, and if we all created the same houses, and streets, and cities! We would go nuts just trying to get back home, if we even can!
Begin ignoring skin color, and it stops being an issue. Try to understand what the "other" place is like, and we may begin to live in a borderless world. Stop feeling and thinking like you are oppressed, and you will no longer be oppressed. Start including the white standard in the colored realm, and maybe we'll get just the right mix that everyone could feel good about.
