Filipinas – Pride in Filipino appearance
Filipina ladies. Filipina girls. Filipina wives. These beautiful ladies you fell in love with, and who make you feel lucky every day at how incredibly pretty they are. Yet there is a constant quest to improve on what we Australian men find nearly-perfect. Why?
Of course this is nothing new. Women everywhere are critical of their own appearance, and often of other ladies around them. And the ladies of the Philippines are no different. It’s a hard one to get the head around when you find them so enchanting. How could they possibly find fault in the Filipina beauty that we find so delightful? Part of it comes from just being women, but there is also a “cultural cringe” that happens here, and I would assume in most former colonies.
Plastic surgery!
The myth of colonist’s superiority and beauty
The Philippines was colonized by Spain in the early 1500’s, who hung around until 1898 when the Americans took over. And they hung around until 1947. So only the last 70 years of the previous 500 have been as the Republic of the Philippines. Note that it is NOT the “P.I.”, aka “Philippine Islands”. That’s the old American colonial description. A lot of years of being ruled by other countries and cultures, and this did very little to strengthen national pride.
Main issue is a sense that everything from outside of the Philippines must be better. And Australians can relate to it, because probably pre-Whitlam we had our own cultural cringe toward everything British. We used to listen to radio and TV voices that imitated the British accent. England was “The Old Country”. Everyone dreamed about taking the boat or maybe the plane to go and see Buckingham Palace. We used to sing God Save the Queen when we were kids. I used to wonder who “Santa Victorious” was!
And what do you have in the Philippines right now?
- The rich old people at airports trying to dress like American teenagers.
- Probably every Filipina entrant in Miss World or Miss Universe being racially half-white
- The most admired actors/actresses being the same (eg James Reid or Anne Curtis)
- Actors/Actresses getting nose-jobs (and other plastic surgery) so they weren’t pango (having a “flat nose”)
- The number of ladies trying to become blonde or some other hair colour
- Some will wear coloured contacts to give themselves blue eyes instead of Filipino “black eyes”
Cultural cringe! Embarrassment and disappointed at looking like a native Filipino, and a desire to look like white people.
Now, I already covered white skin in a previous article, So I won’t cover it again. That’s a significant expression of it, but it’s not all there is to it.
Noses! Most of us westerners find Filipina noses to be very cute. Cute little button-noses. Yet they will tell you they wish they had a big one. Makeup artists will make noses (from a distance) look narrower and more pointy. Actresses will be plastic surgery that is the opposite of what westerner actresses will do to their noses. White people, especially of Jewish extraction, will want a nose reduction. Filipinas want it to stick out! And your girl will probably not want to wear glasses or sunglasses because it will emphasize her “flat nose” or show that she has “no nose” at all.
Hair? Straightened and thinned-out, known as “rebonding”, this is pretty common. No one wants to look like an Aeta (ie. Filipino aboriginal, who normally has curly hair). Going blonde, and having hair that looks like an old walis tingting (“straw” broom). Very rare to find a Filipina who likes her natural hair.
I suppose it’s from being an Aussie who grew up with God Save the Queen, and parents and grandparents who thought they were inferior to the British, and being part of the generation that overcame that which makes me wonder when and if Filipinos will start to appreciate what they have and realise that can stand up proudly knowing that what they have and how they look is in no way second to anybody.
Without wishing to become political, I think it’s still reasonable to point out that the Philippines has a president now who wants Filipinos to be proud of being Filipino finally. I’m sure he shocked a few by not being cap-in-hand with other world leaders.
Probably still a long way to go, but if Filipinos can start being comfortable in their own skin…..skin colour….hair….and being happy with “flat noses”…..that would be something very nice.
Jeff is registered migration agent who has been helping couples with visas to Australia ... Jeff is the owner / operator of Down Under Visa. If you would like to SUBSCRIBE, please click HERE.
Will honestly, during my teenage years i used to dream having a white skin, but reaching the age and mind of maturity makes me think, i am happy and proud of my physical appearance. What matters most is how am i to other people. In the end, its not the color of the skin, hair and eyes and nose that will stands instead, its the character and behavior, the being you. I am proud being a Filipino, brown skin, eyes and hair. I am proud of what and who I am. This makes me beautiful. ?
Its not only the filipinas who want to change appearance. Everyone wants to look better. What youve mentioned are the most common surgeries that they undergo though. It’s very informative anyway. 🙂 Great blog!
I was born and live in Canada and I’m in a serious relationship with a Filipino immigrant. I think she has the most naturally beautiful face I have ever seen but she says she wants to have a nose job to look like a Korean nose whatever that means. I have had a few fights with her about it and I know now nothing I say will change her mind so I just decided to accept it for now. I hope she will change her mind in the future but I doubt it she is so strong willed.
I hope she will too. But it’s hard to go against something so ingrained.
I am Swede (from Sweden, northern Europe) but now living in the Philippines since 1990. In my opinion the filipinos (both healty young males and healthy young women) are the most beautiful people in the world. Their skin color is just a little more brown (and lovely) than our white (pig color) skin (Swedish women would pay millions to get the same color). We have always plenty of ugly blemishes in our skin, but young healthy filipinos seldom have any. And we from the western world are in most cases overweight (like myself) which is not at all charming, while the Filipinos have slender, slim and beautiful bodies in most cases. And you will never in the West find such sensitive, lovely, beautiful faces as you find in Filipino women here. And I mean real, native women without any stupid “nose jobs”.
Lovely Filipinos: BE PROUD OF WHAT YOU ARE!
Claes
Well Jeff, the white skin phenomenon is actually an Asian thing, not just Filipinos. If you travel to other Asian countries especially South and Southeast Asia, you can see skin bleaching products everywhere and you’ll struggle to find one without these whitening ingredients. I read somewhere that Asian’s obsession with white skin dated back pre-colonial times meaning even before Europeans came, it is already deeply ingrained into the Asian mindsset. For Asians, having white skin = classy or rich people who doesn’t have to work under the sun while they associate dark skin with poor laborers who had to work outside in the hot sun all day just to make ends meet.
I’m a Filipina of mixed ancestry and I have some Caucasian features and so I get comments from the people I know that they find my nose pretty and how they wish to have a pointy nose like mine and some told me they find me “artistahin” (means: celebrity look). My answer to them is: “This world would be boring if we all look the same”. Besides there are some things a typical average Filipina has that I envy like having almond-shaped eyes, naturally slim body (which I struggle to have being predominantly mesomorph with some endomorph), sociable personality (I’m a true blue introvert/melancholic), tender and forgiving attitude (which I struggle to have).
I can only speak for my own opinion. But for me, filipinas are one of the most attractive group of women in existence.
I think the ‘filipino nose’ is the sexiest thing I have ever seen on a woman’s face, hands down. I love their dark (morena) skin and their long black silky hair. Though, the taglish they speak is sometimes infuriating.
It beyond boggles my mind that anybody wants to get surgery to change any of that. If I was ever so lucky as for God to plce a filipina in my life, it would devastate my heart if she changed those attributes for any reason.
For me i dont really care about my nose since highschool but then i started being nose concious because my own family bully me for not having a little pointier nose like them and then i started having anxiety because of it.. i even make my nose a lot wider because of being angry..i hope i’ll meet a group of people that just dont care about appearances