Filipino women once wanted to look Western. Today, many arrive at cosmetic surgery clinics carrying a photograph of a South Korean, Taiwanese, or Chinese actress.
I recently took part in a conversation in which a group of successful Filipino women discussed happiness and the foundations of a happy life. Eventually, one of them said aloud what had been hovering over the conversation all along: “Cosmetic surgery. That is guaranteed to make a woman happy.”
The discussion made me think about the changing beauty ideals of Filipino women. All the women involved were naturally attractive, but for them, natural beauty alone was not enough to make them happy. Happiness, it seems, must be earned – preferably through a series of carefully selected procedures.
The Woman Everyone Dreams Of
I have often heard it said that the world’s most beautiful women come from the Philippines. The claim even finds some support in international beauty pageant results. Filipinas rank fifth in the number of major pageant titles and placements, with 23 in total – behind the United States with 60, Venezuela with 35, Brazil with 26, and the United Kingdom with 25.
If natural beauty is not considered valuable enough on its own, standing out from a crowd of other beautiful women requires increasingly elaborate methods. Compared with Western populations, where hair, eye, and skin colors can vary considerably, Filipinos tend to have more similar features, particularly dark hair and eyes. Since it is not always easy to stand out through inherited traits alone, great attention is paid to appearance – enhancing what nature has given them.
Mother Nature rarely gives us much opportunity to improve upon our original equipment. Usually, she has other plans and gradually takes some of it back. Lifestyle choices can improve the odds in the genetic lottery, but even they provide no permanent guarantee. Fashion designer Coco Chanel once said: “Nature gives you the face you have at twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But at fifty, you get the face you deserve.” Today, the final line could be updated: “At fifty, you get the face your income can afford.”
The importance attached to physical beauty is growing throughout Asia. You can see it in the Philippines – how could anyone fail to notice? – and hear it in conversations that touch upon appearance. Some women have become so accustomed to seeing themselves enhanced by makeup and digital filters that their natural appearance no longer feels like their own.
Although modern Filipino beauty ideals originally drew heavily from Western standards, in some respects they have evolved in the opposite direction. Filipino women’s ideas of beauty are now a fascinating mixtur of Western beauty norms, East Asian appearance ideals, and conservative expectations about femininity.
Beauty Pays
Prevailing beauty standards are a visible reminder of how highly appearance continues to be valued in Philippine society. In the Philippines, as elsewhere in Asia, a woman who meets local expectations of attractiveness may enjoy advantages in finding employment, attracting a potential partner, and navigating social life more generally.
Filipino women value their beauty and take pride in it. For some young women, beauty may still rank above intelligence or personality as a desirable personal quality. Imelda Marcos, the wife of a former Philippine president, once expressed the principle quite plainly: “Never dress down. The poor will not thank you for it. My role in this culture is to be beautiful.”
The Philippines remains a conservative country in terms of gender roles. Women and men continue to face different beauty ideals and expectations. Despite this conservatism, Filipino culture is remarkably accepting of gender-diverse people, who have developed their own distinctive beauty standards and ideals, sometimes quite different from those of the rest of the population.
You Can Never Be Too Pale
Only a few decades ago, people in Western countries had some explaining to do if they returned from a tropical vacation without a respectable tan. We applied self-tanning lotions in the hope of adding at least a little color to our skin. A tan was a sign of social status: only the affluent could afford to fly to sunnier latitudes and maintain a year-round golden glow.
In the Philippines, however, a tan has traditionally been associated with poverty, outdoor labor, and uncleanliness. Deeply tanned skin is commonly regarded as unattractive and as an indirect sign that a person works outdoors. Lighter, untanned skin, by contrast, can suggest economic and social privilege. It implies a life spent in air-conditioned rooms while employees and household helpers handle outdoor work and errands beneath the sun.
Instead of applying tanning lotion, women use skin-whitening products and sometimes questionable chemicals intended to make their skin appear lighter. And a pale, glowing complexion alone is not enough: the skin must also be flawless, with no moles, freckles, or – least of all – wrinkles. On city streets and at high-society events, it is not at all unusual to see women whose faces are noticeably whiter than their arms and legs.
The neck is almost as important as the face in the pursuit of beauty. For many women, even a single age-related line on the neck can feel like a major cosmetic disaster. “You can tell a woman’s age by her neck” is a saying often heard in the Philippines. It can be difficult to estimate a woman’s age from her face, especially if it has been treated and maintained with great care. A glance at the neck usually gives it away.
The Snow White Standard
Beautiful, dark hair has long been one of the most distinctive features associated with Filipino women. Across generations, they have taken great pride in their black hair, styling and decorating it in countless colorful, elegant, and creative ways.
Beauty ideals change, however, and today an increasing number of women dye their naturally black hair in various shades of brown. The dramatic increase in hair coloring has been one of the clearest and most visible changes in local beauty culture over the past few decades. If the current trend continues and coloring products keep improving, glossy black hair may eventually become the exception rather than the rule on Filipino streets.
Another enduring ideal is straight hair. In addition to coloring, salons remain busy straightening naturally curly hair. The flowing waves worn by Western celebrities are fashionable and acceptable, but tighter natural curls are still sometimes associated – like darker skin – with poverty and unattractiveness. These attitudes have roots in the historical discrimination and social inequalities that have long marginalized the curly-haired Negrito Indigenous peoples, setting them apart from the country’s majority population.
Beauty, Decorated
Apart from earrings, body piercings that are fashionable in many Western countries are relatively uncommon in the Philippines. Perhaps they push the traditional image of femininity too far into territory where many Filipino women do not feel at home. Piercings can suggest rebellion, a desire to shock, and the blurring of gender boundaries, none of which fits comfortably into the conventional Filipino picture of feminine beauty.
Earrings, on the other hand, have always played a part in Filipino ideas of beauty and come in every imaginable shape and style. Seeing a woman without earrings is unusual enough to attract attention.
Tattoos among women are also becoming more visible, particularly in cities. Small decorative tattoos have grown increasingly common and socially acceptable among urban women. In rural areas and more conservative circles, tattoos on women may still be associated with criminality, sex work, and other forms of social stigma.
Colored contact lenses and elaborately decorated gel or acrylic nails have become part of everyday beauty routines and offer more ways to vary one’s appearance. Unlike in many Western countries, very full lips emphasized with vivid red lipstick are not generally among the most desired features. Makeup and lipstick are widely used, but rarely in an excessively bold or theatrical manner.
Body Positivity
Although slimness is perhaps the most sought-after beauty ideal in Asia today, its influence is not absolute in the Philippines. The Philippines has a highly diverse population, and body types vary considerably across the country.
During the years I have observed Filipino fashion and beauty ideals firsthand, I have noticed one obvious development. Particularly in the cities, the effects of fast food and poor eating habits are now far more visible in the expanding waistlines of both women and men than they were a few decades ago. Average body mass index (BMI) levels have risen considerably across many segments of Philippine society.
While many Western women spend hours at the gym in pursuit of an athletic body, a Filipino woman may even avoid taking the stairs for fear of developing overly prominent leg muscles. Clearly defined muscles are not necessarily viewed as a sign of health. To some, they represent precisely the kind of masculinity that should be avoided at all costs.
Putting on a New Face
Increasingly, Filipino beauty also comes courtesy of a surgeon’s scalpel. Very few people are born with every feature favored by today’s beauty standards, which partly explains the growing popularity of cosmetic procedures. A higher, straighter nasal bridge, a facelift, and Botox injections form the basic cosmetic cocktail used to reshape a face according to the prevailing ideal.
The natural Filipino nose typically has a lower bridge beginning around eye level, while the idealized Western-style nose has a higher bridge beginning between the eyebrows. Some Filipino celebrities attribute their straight, prominent noses to distant European ancestry – a heritage that has traditionally carried social prestige in the Philippines. In many cases, however, cosmetic surgery may offer a more plausible explanation.
Cosmetic surgery is not yet as common in the Philippines as it is in South Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore, or Japan, but the range and popularity of cosmetic procedures are nevertheless expanding. Nose reshaping, facelifts, and Botox injections are no longer enough. Jaws, ears, and eyelids are now being redesigned as well.
Digital Beauty
If there is not enough money for surgery or a cabinet full of expensive cosmetics, modern technology comes to the rescue. Meitu, BeautyPlus, B612 ja CapCut, and other popular mobile editing apps perfect selfies and videos in real time. Who needs wrinkled realism anymore? People want magic – not an image of reality, but of what reality ought to look like.
In photographs and videos, skin glows white, legs lengthen, breasts appear larger, moles and scars disappear, and eyes grow wider. Edited images have become the norm, even when the finished product bears only a passing resemblance to the person in it. The important thing is to match the beauty ideal, not necessarily to look like yourself.
Interestingly, Westerners reshaped by these Asian apps often emerge looking artificial and almost grotesque, while Filipinos tend to look more natural – not entirely real, perhaps, but believable as idealized versions of themselves.
In the Philippines, too, beauty is in the digitally enhanced eye of the beholder. And the closer it comes to a dream – and the further it moves from reality – the more beautiful it appears.
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