Just an earnest PSA: Filipinos are not naturally fair-skinned and that’s okay.
“’Wag kang masyadong lumabas sa arawan, mangingitim ka!” This passive aggressive side comment usually uttered by elders out of “concern” for our complexion becomes more problematic the longer you think about it. The instances of bullying have been so rampant, that it still continues to be a challenge to unpack. Remember when Filipino-American model Asia Jackson tweeted that she was called “negra” countless times when she lived in the Philippines? We’ve been growing up with internal colorism for as long as we can remember, and the worst part is it’s been embedded and normalized in our culture for so long. (Thanks, colonialism!)
Nadine Lustre is a personality who’s been through it all. She’s been the face of beauty products in the past and been called horrid names like dugyot or taong grasa just because of her skin color. Despite being in the showbiz industry for almost a decade, some casuals and fans still never learn, don’t they? Over the weekend, someone gave her unsolicited advice on how to “lighten” her skin.
Guess what? Nadine Lustre isn’t having it. People love her for becoming unapologetically herself and embracing her morena skin. It’s the type of representation that’s refreshing in a country obsessed with skin-lightening products. The basher even went on to say, “that’s not her natural skin color. Nadine suits when she has a lighter skin,” and proceeded to tag her boyfriend. Of course, she responded by saying, “I’d like to keep my skin color thank you very much.” PERIOD.
ppl be commenting instructions and tagging my friends or boyfie on my IG.
— Nadine Lustre (@hello_nadine) September 10, 2022
Stop telling them to tell me what to do.
Im not 10
The hardest pill to swallow is admitting that Filipinos are still obsessed with whiteness. The racial hierarchy that has been shoved in our throats by our colonizers from centuries ago still remains. It’s the very same system where we’ve been classified as Indios or minorities, while the Mestizos were the “elites” due to their porcelain skin. Even in the beauty spectrum, it has been a slow process to go against what has been the norm for so long. But in the age of the Internet where more and more people are breaking the beauty standards and going against intergenerational habits, that’s when it gets easier for loving yourself to become easier again. Like what Nadine Lustre once said, “c’mon guys, it’s 2022!”
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