Through her Twitter account, a popular microblogging site, model and former VJ Sarah Meier-Albano calls for Pinays to “Stop with the whitening creams” and be proud of their God-given brown complexion. Sarah, who is of Swiss, Chinese and Filipino descent tweeted “So to my dear Filipinas – take a look. Venus Raj, Danica Magpantay. Beautiful, dusky, exotic. STOP with the whitening creams already.”
International achievements of fellow Pinays inspired Sarah like the recent win of mocha – skinned Danica Magpantay (2011 Ford Supermodel of the World contest) and exotic beauty of Venus Raj (Miss Universe 4th Runner-up) to make a call like this. Most Filipinos particularly the Pinays, use whitening products to achieve a whiter complexion like the commercial models and Hollywood stars they watch everyday.
“A number of skin care companies are distorting the concept of beauty” earlier said by Vice President Jejomar Binay. “Cosmetic firms have been selling their products by subliminally promoting distaste for our natural brown complexion,” he noted in an interview. He continued “It is not color that divides us but poverty and hunger. The idea being peddled is that we are not beautiful because we are not fair-skinned. That is not true.”
Even in the local TV and movies too, it is very noticeable that most of the ladies who get the lead roles are those with whiter complexion or those who came from mixed blood or descent. The term ‘exotic’ is usually coined to local women who has brown complexion but uneducated who hooks up with foreign men often old to get richer. If this will be the standard for every Pinays, not only we lose our color but our identity as well.
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