The Snow White Syndrome

  We are a country that prides itself on saying that we are a free people. Ako ay Pilipino, taas noo kahit kanino. Remember that fable, about Bathala trying his hand at creating man? He makes a clay figure and bakes it, but forgot about the oven and the person inside it. Out popped a "black" man, and he represents the race of dark-skinned people. Another clay man was baked, but, fearing that the man will come out burnt again, Bathala takes it out of the oven too soon, creating the Caucasian race. Lastly, he makes yet another clay man, this time careful about leaving it in the oven for too long or not leaving it in enough. As a result of Bathala's attention to the oven, the clay person turns out a lovely golden-brown, or a kayumanggi as we Filipinos call it.
  Hearing that story as a child, it left on me the impression that we are proud of our skin color--not because we were 'perfectly done' as in the legend, but because it is one thing that sets us aside from other races. Not unique, mind you, but different.
  These days, it's a different story. Filipinos are scrambling all over themselves to buy whitening soap, whitening lotions, whitening creams...you get the picture. The whiter, the better. Never mind that we don't naturally have pale skin--that's what those glutathione treatments are for, right?
   I think it's sad. Our ancestors passed down the legend of a beautiful, brown-skinned creature, and today, we're subscribing to the idea that the whiter your skin is, the more desirable you are. You might say that this is just an instance of "the grass is always greener on the other side", where pale-skinned people are tanning themselves. But it hasn't reached the point where it's almost a craze--like it's become in our country. Every soap claims to have whitening properties, every lotion boasts that it can, and I quote, "significantly whiten your skin in just 7 days!"
  It's oddly troubling, especially when you see how much people set their standards of beauty on something that isn't even inherent in our race. We're a mix of foreign blood and cultures, sure, but most Filipinos are still brown-skinned. Yet we want the pale skin that Westerners have.
  We mock those who have dark skin, forgetting that beneath the layers of makeup and whitening treatments, we have skin just as dark as theirs.
  Maybe it's another form of slavery to those who once conquered and occupied us. The fairest of them all is the pale-skinned, the veritable Snow White amidst a nation of brown-skinned people.
  This is just another unpopular opinion. Still, isn't it odd that we scorn those who have the skin that our people naturally has, and idolize those with complexions that most of us can only gain by artifice?

*Image by Hester van Doornum