Over the years, the standards for beauty have changed remarkably, both for the good and for the bad. In the age of technology and social media influencers, the pressure to look “perfect” on our Instagram feeds has taken away the fun and excitement of being unposed and candid. However, there’s one other aspect of “beauty” that women have started to shed some light on: skin color.
For the longest time now, women with fair complexion were always considered to be the most beautiful (or at least that was the mentality here in the Philippines), and although the mentality has somewhat changed over the past couple of years or so, the logic that light skin is more beautiful than tanned skin still sticks in the majority of the population. Skin care companies always release “skin whitening” products and would not hesitate to advertise them as loud as they can–until the women who wanted to raise their voices about this issue got even louder.
Gandang Kulay Filipina Tote Bag by The Scoop Asia (Php 249)
Kutis Filipina Tote Bag by The Scoop Asia (Php 249)
Morena x Mestiza Tote Bag (Php 249)
Although there really isn’t anything wrong with skin whitening products (because after all, we can make the necessary changes to our own bodies as often as we want), the marketing teams behind the whitening products in the Philippines could take another look at their strategies and angles when trying to sell the product. Make your desired changes to your body because it is your own and you have the freedom to do so–not because society tells us we have to look a certain way to fall under the spectrum of attractiveness.
Gandang Kulay Filipina T-Shirt by The Scoop Asia (Php 459)
My Favorite Color is Filipina T-Shirt by The Scoop Asia (Php 559)
Beauty Has No Color T-Shirt by The Scoop Asia (Php 499)
And this is exactly what Morena the Label stands for. MTL is a homegrown Filipino brand that celebrates brown skin and challenges colourism. Morena the Label, now in partnership with The Scoop Asia, promotes embracing one’s natural beauty, and going against societal standards of what beauty really is.
One of the biggest objectives of MTL x TSA’s collaboration is to promote the pride of being a Filipina and coming in all different shades of skin, and being beautiful no matter what.
To top it off, the collaboration between Morena the Label and The Scoop Asia comes hand in hand with exclusive and limited edition merchandise ranging from tote bags to t-shirts that can be purchased online.
The entire collection of exclusive and limited edition MTLxTSA merchandise is available for viewing and purchasing through this link: ideologie.studio/collections/the-scoop-asia
With the call to embrace being morena/our natural beauty getting louder and louder, I think it’s safe to say that we, as a society, have taken at least one step forward towards accepting how we look naturally. We even have Filipina celebrities who embrace their morena beauty such as Kathryn Bernardo and Nadine Lustre, both of whom are women that young girls look up to (including my 22-year-old self).
Morena skin is a natural feature of a Filipina’s physique, but it shouldn’t be what defines a Filipina. Filipinas are strong, independent, and come from a long line of culture and heritage, and I think that’s something to be proud of as well. Our identities are not (and should not be) limited to our physical beauty–even though we all know being a Filipina is a flex in itself.
I mean, hello? Look at us.
