DOWN WITH THE BROWN?

There is a strange phenomenon afoot.  Everywhere I go here in the Philippines, I am faced with billboards advertising a lotion or face wash's "whitening features", places advertising "whitening services".  I know that places like India and the Philippines and other parts of Asia are part of this phenomenon, but I never saw it as pronounced as I have on this trip.

Even ads for stores, fashion, food and new housing developments bear the likenesses of washed-out Pinoys (Filipinos for those of you who aren't  familiar with our colloquialisms) thus advancing the idea that whiter and lighter skin is the admired trait and we should shun our natural, brown skin - which also gets special treatment from the sun that constantly shines here.

What is wrong with this picture?  Everything, in my mind.  Because while Filipinos and other Asians aspire to be white - white folks and Americans aspire to be dark, thanks to tanning beds, spray tans and the Jersey Shore cast.

When I was a kid, my skin made me stand out from everyone else that I grew up with; the exception being the Indian family that lived down the street.  I remember being keenly aware of it at some point, but never to the point of seriousness.  I knew it made me different, but my parents raised me to believe that instead of working hard to accept my own skin tone or to simply try to "blend in", they taught me to believe that different was okay and acceptable and other kids, in fact, needed to learn how to accept me.  They taught me that my value as a person was always going to be based on my character, not my skin tone.

I learned to make fun of it at a young age.  When I was little, I had a blood test and was obsessed with blood types for the hour afterwards.  I marveled at how people had different types of blood, like their own particular type of show their body preferred and how families share blood types.  My father and I shared the same type: B negative.  My mother, who has the fairest skin in the entire family, has an O blood type.  Fascinated by the results, I explained to my mother, "See, Dad and I are B negative because we have brown skin.  You are O because you are... Other." 

I was three, what do you want?  Other people had terrible twos.  Apparently, I was my most precocious, most ambitious, most blasphemous and therefore amusing at three.  Always the overachieving Asian, I suppose.  Even at a young age.

Anyway, my point here is simply, can't we just accept our own skin?  Or are have we as a society decided to not be comfortable in our own skin and instead, aspire to be like everyone else?

I've found a few advantages to my naturally brown skin.  Not only are Filipinos not naturally hairy people, my leg and arm hair blend in with my skin tone.  Which makes me the envy of all of my girlfriends who are forced to shave their legs for society.  I end up having smooth skin from moisturizing since I get ashy when dry (it's like a natural gauge).  I get to pretend that I don't speak English when asked particularly racist questions (though this is rare as I end up doing my best to show the person asking if i speak English that I do in the biggest SAT words possible).  When I am asked where I am from and when I say, "Syracuse" and they tilt their head quizzically and ask again, "No - where are you from?" - even this can be more amusing than annoying.  Because at the end of the day, my brown skin will age better and make me look much younger when I age.  Because I always have a tan.

Because I am comfortable in my own skin.

So go ahead.  Ask if I'm Hawaiian or a Mexican.  I can take it.  Because even with natural insecurities and the demands of society, I am quite okay with who I am.