SKIN WHITENING

SKIN WHITENING
Skin whitening is a prevalent issue in a lot of Asian countries especially in The Philippines. Billboards, commercials, and any other form of visual media advertises for skin bleaching. In stores, you will find 80% of the products containing glutathione, a chemical compound that is an antioxidant found in plants but has an ability to reduce or prevent skin damages while lightening it. Most countries in Asia have this really toxic trait called “white worshipping”, meaning , they look up to Western or Eurocentric qualities as the basis or the standard of beauty. Because of this, most Filipinos have been using soaps, creams, injections, and pills to lighten their skin to meet these standards. Some say that they get more respect when they have a lighter complexion.
Of course some Filipinos were born with lighter skin due to really early Chinese settlements but in general, we were meant to be brown or “kayumanggi”. The thing about these products is that they mostly contain mercury that could potentially damage the user’s skin or worse, it could actually have deadly consequences. Whitening treatments are also expensive and can cause cancer in the long run (just like any other chemical forced into our bodies).
I personally don’t like to use any whitening product nor do I intend to ever have a lighter skin, hell why else would I say “I like it brown and spicy”?! So here’s the thing, why would we want to change our appearance to conform to a certain standard that years of colonization imposed upon us? Why would we want to alter something that’s so beautiful to look at, our brown complexion? I’d say love the skin color you’re in, it’s your history, your culture, and your identity.