filipiniana

Her eyes are bigger and her nose is aquiline
So let’s give her a contract and slap her on billboard signs
The thing is, not all of us look like that, you see
But her beauty’s been chosen to represent everybody

Oh, yes, think of the make up and the clothes that you’ll sell
All because of this so-called “ideal” belle
But I’m a Filipina and we’re not all the same
But somehow we’ve been sucked into this ugly, ugly game
Hey girl if you haven’t got round eyes like these
They won’t believe you’re Pinay and say you’re Korean or Chinese
And if you trip on your Tagalog but happen to be hapa,
People will say it’s ok because they think that you’re guapa
But people will also tell you that you’re just 50 per cent
If you’re not pure you can’t be of true Filipino descent
You find yourself wishing for that chico-brown skin
Even though the magazines say you should be tall, pale and thin
our concept of beauty is just a construct of the mind
It’s so naïve to think that there’s only one kind
Look around and you’ll see it’s not one size fits all
That’s an archaic idea that’s so narrow, so small
But it’s a thorn buried deep in the side of our culture
That makes us pick apart beauty like scavenging vultures

Listen –

Do you tell your beloved daughters to step out of the sunlight
Before its harsh rays crisp their skin and turn it black?

Do you hand them papaya soap in the hopes that some day it might
make up for the pearly white skin that your bloodline lacks?

Listen –

Do you ever lie awake at night and pinch your nose
And hope and pray, pray it decides to grow
Pray it elongates into an elegant shape
Instead of this big round appendage on your face that you hate?

Do you despair at the almond shape of your eyes?

Do you pull your eyelids outward in a perpetual look of surprise?

Do you straighten your hair til it looks like a sunsilk commercial

Do you do everything you can to ascribe to this beauty that’s supposedly universal?

You know what?

Forget that.
Forget the soap opera stars, the handpicked faces grinning at you from glossy ad pages
Enticing you to join them in their deceit filled cages
Cages meant to imprison your mind, cages meant to make you blind
Blind to the beauty inside you, inside me
I was deceived for so long but now I have the clarity to see
That no matter what they say, no matter what they believe

I am a Filipina
I am the Philippines
I am 7000 islands surrounded by cerulean seas
I am verdant beaches melting into waters of aquamarine
Of these sands, mountains and volcanoes I am Queen
And my Filipina sisters we are beautiful flawless and pristine
We are beautiful Filipinas
We are the Philippines.