White skin lotions.
The first time I had put on some was when I was eight years old. And I think I did it for a few years until we just stopped purchasing it, because it was getting more and more expensive. All those years I had thought that this stuff was supposed to keep my skin healthy, oh you know, like how vaseline keeps my skin from getting dry in a very scorching Melbourne weather. Sun block was all I thought they served as. And even my parents, who aren’t racists themselves, had been duped by the subliminal messages such products represented. At that time, this was starting to get all the rage. I guess almost everyone I knew fell for it. Thinking this is a way to keep ‘good’ skin condition. Until I immigrated, I never had the realization how this impacts filipino society. I looked at a number who put on those sun tan lotions for the same reasons – or for benign purposes. Whichever they are, it’s still disturbing to say the least.
Then when I did find out about its ulterior intent, I felt guilty. This was social engineering at its ugliest. To think that these things are supposed to make me ‘look’ good because it makes my skin a little lighter in tone… just awful and sad. I guess my parents didn’t get that memo either when they saw the ‘white’ in that tag as they bought that darn thing. My sister and I had just contemplated over it when my friend and schoolmate in high school talked about it with me in my vocal lessons. She had a friend who had visited the Philippines and expressed her surprise on how many sell lotions to ‘whiten up’. It stirred up my mind to no end. My friend, thought that this was just some cultural trait among us. Or so I thought. Even so, she was surprised and puzzled about it. Yeah, even I, too feel this was shocking when she mentioned it. It was shocking even that I had not thought about it until only she said anything about it at all. Then after that, I just felt very embarrassed. Well, it isn’t something to be proud of, right? But sadly, this hasn’t made the rest of them back home realise it at all.
Oh filipinos, what is wrong with our smooth-looking brown pigment? It is even more ironic that the pale-skinned friends I had in high school wished that they had my skin. I wanted to tell them that they should be happy for what they got. It’s not helping our case here when you start to envy somebody else for what you don’t have. And those ugly tan lotions, too. Ugh. I had seen several who had in their bodies – and they don’t look very pleasant with them. It looked so unnatural on them. As unnatural as the ones I see in filipino media industry who obviously got their bodies ‘whitened’. Seriously? Are you not ashamed of this? There’s just so much innate racism in our culture, and it must stop. The colonial mentality we’ve had for centuries should not anymore continue today. It is not helping us grow in our own society.
Look here, I am not interested in putting anybody down. If you still use it for other reasons not mentioned here then that is your prerogative. But it remains that these products have very apparent reasons why they are even selling a lot in the Philippines. I remember when I was little how often I get told not to stay under the sun for too long. Reasons? Well, it’s because I’d get too dark. My yaya (nanny in my country) said this, though. Not my parents, even though my dad sometimes alludes beauty with the pale skin colour and the long caucasian nose. When I think about them now, I realise how much ignorance there has been in terms of our own problems. In our country, white meant many good things. It represents class and power. Mainly those. And they are the sole reasons why we find it highly attractive. Take for example this actress Rita Avila. Hehe, don’t ask me how I knew about her. The yayas I used to have would often watch dull and tepid filipino mainstream films on TV in the late 90s. The roles she took on could have been played by your average filipino female. But sadly, even when they showed some believable brown beauties, they get under the radar in the local media.
I don’t know if things have been changing, because I know that our independent scene is more liberating. There are films by someone renowned internationally such as Lav Diaz who is helping to change all that. And I know that there are others, too. But such bad cultural attitudes towards ourselves are still pervasive. I mean, I haven’t even seen any Lav Diaz films, admittedly. I only read about them and had only the trailers to tell me the hint about his signature works. So the average pinoy cannot even view them because they needed more and more market campaigning. Sheesh, like politics again. Nevertheless, hearing something like this is giving me some hope of a much better representation of us in our own media. And I also hope that some actors breaking through the media scene would be ones that aren’t anymore connected with the people in the industry itself. Because most of those with such connections are the well-off, biracial people. Again, I don’t want to demean anyone. All I am asking is fair and honest representation of us on screen and everywhere in the billboards. When will we get to see more down-to-earth beauties like Charo Ronquillo?
I hope that I won’t get misinterpreted here. I still admire the beauty of Rita Avila (especially when she was still younger), and there are some who I admit are really a stand-out for me like Megan Young who won the Miss World this year. But let’s just be honest with ourselves, because I believe we are still beautiful as a people even without being lighter in skin tone or without that caucasian nose.
Get the message?
The Orange Way 