Culture shock: Does it matter if you're brown or white?

[Terpe]

by Maria Grippo


I’ve been exposed to many new, shocking and exciting things during my stay in Manila. This city is definitely a place of contradictions and confrontations: the pollution, the socio-economic wealth imbalances, the painstakingly slow traffic jams during peak hours and the manic Manila driving "code of conduct.”

Going beyond the blatantly obvious, one of the main issues I’ve noticed through watching TV is that, like in most other Asian countries, there seems to be a desire to be ‘white.’ Allow me to extrapolate my thoughts.

The Philippine beauty industry is heavily influenced by Western-American culture and as a result the desire to have white skin basically consumes a considerable portion of beauty campaigns here. On the bus route to work I see billboards here, there and everywhere advertising skincare products containing glutathione, papaya soap, multi-vitamins or herbal teas that claim to “whiten and purify the layers of the skin.” Really? My inner cynic thinks otherwise.

I’m led to wonder whether people truly believe that supposedly ‘effective’ fruit and vegetable extracts or other harmful substances can make a naturally darker-skinned person obtain the complexion of an Amerikano? Plastic surgery and skin bleaching can only go so far as to make superficial changes – it’s impossible to alter the DNA that you have and that your potential future children will inherit.



Baffling

As a bi-racial Australian female with Asian and Mediterranean heritage (my mother is Filipina and my father is Italian-Brazilian), I find it baffling and ironic how white skin is seen as the ‘holy grail’ of skin tones in Asia and in other parts of the world. In Australia so many people will happily spend thousands of dollars a year on salon and DIY tanning or running the risk of developing skin cancer spending hours lying under the sun’s harmful rays in order to be bronzed.

In Australia, which has a predominantly Caucasian population, being tanned is considered to be one of the ideals of beauty. Many Australians believe that having a tan makes someone appear ‘healthier’, slimmer, more toned or just simply more attractive. I’m sure this would be equally as baffling to many Filipinos. Many of my friends, regardless of ethnic background, feel that they think they appear sick when they aren’t sporting a golden glow. Even I, with my olive Eurasian skin, use body lotions that contain self-tanning agents.

As a young girl growing up in a small coastal town on the border of Northern New South Wales, I was often bullied in elementary school for my ‘Asiatic’ looks and my ‘dark’ skin as the other children didn’t know any better. Ironically enough, once puberty hit, everyone wanted to obtain the color of my skin. Surfing culture and sun-kissed beach babes were as popular then as they are now.

Returning to the Philippines, it seems to me that fairer skin and plastic surgery are indicators of a ‘higher’ social status here in the Philippines. It disturbs me that some Asians believe that having more ‘Western features’ (i.e. white skin, a thinner nose, defined eyelids, lighter hair, narrower face shape) makes one more attractive or ‘better’ than another who hasn’t undergone physical alterations. I beg to differ as from what I’ve seen Filipinos are an attractive bunch (and no doubt the recent beauty pageant conquests will attest this too).

Obsession

So far I’ve realized that culture shock goes beyond seeing extreme poverty only blocks away from palatial hotels. The Philippine obsession with Euro-centric beauty has actually been one of the most potent culture-shock experiences that I’ve faced in my twenty-one year life seeing as almost all of the Pinoys that I’ve met back home are fiercely proud of their heritage.

What’s shocking to me is that this obsession with 'whiteness' is all too evident in Philippine culture and I don’t see things changing any time soon as whitening products, and beauty products in general, contribute greatly to the local economy.

Regardless of what is represented in the media people need to embrace what they have been born with whether they’re African, Asian, Middle Eastern, European or mixed-race as our physical differences are what makes us beautiful. Remember you can never truly run away from who you really are

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/ispea...ck-brown-white

[Terpe]

.......What’s shocking to me is that this obsession with 'whiteness' is all too evident in Philippine culture and I don’t see things changing any time soon as whitening products, and beauty products in general, contribute greatly to the local economy.....

I completely agree with this..........just don't get it

[grahamw48]

Different races have over many millenia adapted to suit their environment, and skin pigmentation is related to exposure to (potentially very damaging) sunlight...possibly humidity levels too.

Laugh in the face of nature at your peril...as many Caucasians living in Australia have discovered. I doubt the Aborigines suffer quite the same incidence of skin Cancer.

[bigmarco]

I completely agree with this..........just don't get it

Strange how there is an almost similar obsession with young girls in this country to have tanned skin.
There seems to be a growing business in fake tans or bronzers or whatever they're called along with the tanning salons.
Sadly we seem to live in a world where women in particular
are not happy with what they were born with, and cosmetic companies are only too willing to offer "solutions" at a price.

[Michael Parnham]

I can't understand why my wife was bullied as a child at school because she was born white, yet the brown skinned Filipina desires to become white and these were the ones that bullied her. I will point out her twin sister is brown!

[grahamw48]

Nowt as daft as folk.

People are just never happy with what the bloke in the clouds gave them.

[tiger31]

Different races have over many millenia adapted to suit their environment, and skin pigmentation is related to exposure to (potentially very damaging) sunlight...possibly humidity levels too.

Laugh in the face of nature at your peril...as many Caucasians living in Australia have discovered. I doubt the Aborigines suffer quite the same incidence of skin Cancer.

just another reason why I stay out of the sun here graham ,because the lack of sunshine in the u.k and all of a sudden you start to expose your skin to long periods of sunshine your just asking for trouble.

[grahamw48]

Wise man.

It doesn't take long to work out which Brits take their hols in Spain every year...especially the ladies, with their (more delicate ?) skin. What a mess !

You may also notice that a lot of Aussies look at least 10 years older than their British counterparts.

[tiger31]

Wise man.

It doesn't take long to work out which Brits take their hols in Spain every year...especially the ladies, with their (more delicate ?) skin. What a mess !

You may also notice that a lot of Aussies look at least 10 years older than their British counterparts.

absolutely and if your blonde and fair skinned it is a no no place to emigrate to

[Arthur Little]

Whilst we in use umbrellas to fend off the rain , they tend to be employed by Filipinas as protection against the relentless heat of the in their country.

Having spent 3 months in the Phils during my last visit - and being sparse of hair on top - I refused to wear a hat (or, indeed ... ... any form of headgear) throughout the duration of my stay there ... in the "vain" hope of acquiring the sort of "tan" that, in the movies, at least, looks best on the head of a bald man.

Alas ... I failed to achieve the desired effect that a few hours of hard graft in my back garden on a hot sunny afternoon can seemingly produce.

[Arthur Little]

Having spent 3 months in the Phils during my last visit - and being sparse of hair on top - I refused to wear a hat (or, indeed ... ... any form of headgear) throughout the duration of my stay there ... in the "vain" hope of acquiring the sort of "tan" that, in the movies, at least, looks best on the head of a bald man.

Alas ... I failed to achieve the desired effect that a few hours of hard graft in my back garden on a hot sunny afternoon can seemingly produce.

Probably it's something to do with the almost constant, overpowering humidity of the Philippines' climate ... in marked contrast to the [relatively] rare "scorcher" we're accustomed to in Blighty!

[grahamw48]

Maybe the sun's rays were just reflected off, Arthur.

[Rory]

I have told my wife on many occasions to stop buying the Dove whitening soap but she insists on using it still. I know over the years living in the UK her skin will lighten naturally but she will believe it is the so called whitening soap, you cannot tell them. They have grown up with white skin means you have money or wealth and this will never change.