The politics of beauty, Philippine edition
It’s been observed that Filipinos don’t see their own kind as beautiful, in the sense of putting down people who have the perfect Malay aesthetic. Instead, what we seem to see as beautiful are, well, people who either have a pleasing mix of Caucasian and Malay ancestry, or those who are truly Caucasian in the way they look.And even if we ourselves don’t look Caucasian, beauty products being sold can “help” us be more “white”: skin whiteners, skin cleaning solutions that make us look less oily (to the point of stripping essential oils from our skin), and hair dye for hair color that is more in the genetic lineage of Caucasians.
So what’s this all about? Why do we have, for want of a better term, an ideal for beauty that isn’t Filipino at all?
Read more at the Philippine Online Chronicle
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