As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But what is our standard basis in believing and perceiving a person to be one? In my country, the Philippines, our usual standards of beauty is this: flawless and fair skin, pointed nose, perfectly proportioned body and height. It’s no wonder there are hundreds of whitening soaps and slimming pills in our market.
I can still remember back then, to be perceived as a beautiful male, (magandang lalaki) you have to be tall, dark and handsome. But time has changed. Now, in order for you to be one of the beautiful guys or shall we say handsome, you have to be tall, fair-skinned and chinito. Notice the changes? Blame this on the F4 craze and Korean invasion in our country.
As for Koreans, their perception of beauty in humans is always linked to fair skin, pointed nose and big eyes. The same goes with Japan, China and Taiwan. But why would they prefer big eyes? Because, it is their perception of beauty. Weird, considering most of them have chinky eyes. As you will notice in Japan’s cartoons called Manga, the characters have huge eyes (pair of huge and twinkling eyes that do not look normal). Probably it’s their frustration for they wanted to have big eyes for them to be perceived as beautiful.
When it comes to the other countries, their perception of being beautiful is this: tall, with pointed nose and tan skin. Tan skin? For that matter, why? Probably because they are Caucasians; they might be very used to seeing fair skins so they are now fonder of seeing tanned skins. So they go spending hours sun bathing to have tanned skin but they just end up red and swollen. Luckily, Filipinos have naturally tan and brown skin. And it’s weird because Pinoys want to have fair skin and pointed nose. Are we, Filipinos not proud of our kayumanggi and pango nose?
These brought me to the question, what about the Africans and black people? They have dark skin and flat nose. And I don’t think it is justifiable to call them ugly. I don’t know their perception of beauty but I remember what my high-school retreat master’s assistant told me. He said that in some country, their perception of human beauty is this: fat body with dark skin and flat nose. That means that for them, the fatter and darker you are, added with flat nose and all, the more beautiful you are.
Isn’t these weird? It’s ironic how we desire to have the opposite of what we have. This is a proof that humans are never satisfied.
Going back to my country, particularly in my region, beautiful people have special treatment (I believe.) There’s this reality in here that if you are beautiful you are popular, you have better and bigger opportunities in everything, you get special treatment and may become rich. Take a look at our celebrities for crying out loud. This explains Pinoy's fondness for pageant. Women and men clad in flimsy clothes took pains in proving that they are the most beautiful. I don’t really see the connection between being the most beautiful and world peace. As for me, I enjoy watching pageants to see contestants make a fool of themselves. I mean, they don’t need to please the judges and answer predictable questions just to prove that they are beautiful. It’s a good thing now because I can see that the pageants are for a good cause; I.e. tourism, Earth conservation, charity, etc.
I always thought that to be beautiful would make a person extremely happy. Who wouldn’t want to be beautiful? If you are beautiful, you will have a wonderful and happy love life. Well, that’s what I used to believe.
I once had a classmate who is very beautiful—tall, with fair skin, pointed nose and alluring eyes. One time, I asked her why she is not making the most out of her beauty; why not date the most handsome and popular guy in our university? Well, it turned out that she is not really looking for beauty in guys. She said she would rather date an ugly guy but someone who would love her for real. True to her words, she dated an ugly guy. But then she found out that that ugly guy indeed is dating someone else behind her back. When she learned about this, my beautiful former classmate committed suicide. Good thing her angels saved her. If she is beautiful, how come she had horrible relationships? How come it took her quite some time before she met the one for her? And look at some of the “ugly” people, they are happy with their love life—satisfied and contented. Compared to the love life of the celebrities who are definitely beautiful; ordinary looking people had better and happy romance than them.
As for me until now, I still wish to be called beautiful. Well, I’ve been perceived as one for several times already but now, I frankly know that most of the people’s perception of me is ugly. After I gave birth to a beautiful baby, pimples sprouted all over my face, I gained weight, stretch marks and my nose got bigger. I can no longer pamper and beautify myself the way I used to because I spend most of my time taking care of my precious baby. You might think that my husband left me, huh? No, you’re wrong. He loved me better than before (when I used to have flawless fair skin and voluptuous body).
My husband still adores me (except when I didn’t took a bath and brushed my teeth). What about the other beautiful girls around him? As what he attest to, yes indeed he may be looking at them with admiration but that’s just it. I’m the only one who belongs to his heart. And because of that, I am happy even if I do not fit somebody’s perception of beauty.
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