Beauty and the Best: Beauty standards in the Philippines

LIVING in this world today, where toxic beauty standards are arising, can be rather alarming. At such a young age, girls are already starting to splurge their money on skincare and makeup just to meet beauty standards. 

How many hours does it take for you to put on your makeup? How much money have you spent on skincare and makeup? Do you feel insecure about the way you look? The news is that you are living out a kind of beauty that traps instead of transforms. 

No matter the country, and no matter the year, people adhered to different kinds of beauty standards. Here are some examples that can be found throughout history.

1. Foot binding in China

During the Tang Dynasty in 961–975 A.D., foot binding became a practice for young girls to modify the shape of their feet. They believed that the smaller your feet, the more attractive you were.

2. Ohagaru in Japan

Japan had a custom of blackening the teeth, or what they call ohagaru. Until the 19th century, this practice was believed to enhance sexual appeal and maintain healthy teeth. 

3. Beauty tattoos in the Philippines

In the pre-colonial period, having tattoos was a symbol of bravery and beauty. The more you had on your skin, the more attractive you were. It was also believed to increase fertility.

Fair skin, a slim face, a pointed nose, and celebrity-like features: those are some of the beauty standards that you need to conform to in the Philippines, at least in the present day. The pressure to look good still remains because of society’s expectations. 

Diet pills, lip fillers, gluta drip, rhinoplasty, and other beauty enhancements are used to alter or improve their appearance.

The question now, however, is this: how do you measure up to an impossible expectation.?

As per Roberta Pollack Seid in Never Too Thin: Why Women Are At War with Their Bodies: “Women strive for a high degree of physical perfection and magnify their flaws into failings that merit self-hate because our whole culture has been seduced by the idea of physical perfectibility.”

Beauty is more than just skin-deep, and beauty standards are a hoax. How would your life look if you never had to think about the way you look, your OOTD, your size, and your lifestyle? 

Beauty stands

In the admiration of weak minds

Led captive.

—John Milton, Paradise Regained, II, 1671

With reports from Abegail Tongson