Beauty is as beauty does

Ninety-degree weather will not diminish my flat-ironing efforts. The hair-straightening shall continue!\nApplying heat to any extension of my body is the last thing I thought I'd be doing after a week in the heat and humidity of the Philippines. But seven days of sleeping with the covers over my head has caused my hair to take the shape of a small sheepdog.\nIf you're wondering why I've reverted back to my childhood sleeping habits, it's because every night, three-inch lizards called tiki scamper across the wall next to the bed I share with my mom. \nAnyhow, despite the impracticality of it all, I'm killing the curl for a sleeker look, even though it will regain the small-sheepdog shape by morning. I know my flat-ironing efforts will be labor done in vain, but hey, impracticality is the stuff beauty's made of. Why else would companies get rich off complexion-lightening lotion in a country where the sun's strong enough to burn a hole through a peso?\n"White with no worry," says a poster in a Bacolod City supermarket, advertising Pond's Skin Whitening Vitamin Pearl Cream.\nWatch "Asia Myx," and between videos from Chinese boy band F-4 and interviews with Maroon 5, it's possible to see Palmolive lotion commercials suggesting you "impress him with your fairness."\nI had a chat with my family about Filipino society's standards of beauty, and though they didn't completely agree with the requirements, this is what topped the list: thin build, fair skin, pin-straight hair and taller-than-average height.\n(And as a side note, when I say "taller than average height," I mean 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-7. In the Philippines, anything greater than 5-foot-9 kinda borders on freakish.)\nI asked my 13-year-old cousin Irene for the definition of beauty, and her answer was simply puti, or "white." After prodding her a little longer, she mentioned "Chinese" eyes. I assume this refers to the archetypal Asian "pale-skinned, doe-eyed, exotic beauty" image, described in a column by ELLEgirl writer Peaches Geldof. \nFlip through Cosmopolitan: Philippines Edition, and most of the models fit my young cuzo's description. But the women depicted are much lighter in complexion than any of the women I've seen in my mom's hometown of San Enrique, Negros Occidental. The observation leads me to believe my Aunt Helen's theory that the need to meet such beauty standards has a lot to do with socio-economic class.\nIn San Enrique, where most families base their incomes on farming and women do a lot of day-to-day tasks outdoors, the desire to be light, bright and dang-near-white is not only impractical, it's unrealistic -- unless, of course, you only come out after sunset. This makes beauty a near-impossible goal for the less fortunate and something of a status symbol for the more wealthy.\nI might be quick to laugh at some of the Filipino advertising, but I can't deny it -- I'm a victim, too. It's much easier to manage my mane without the curliness, but somewhere along the line, I was taught going straight was the best alternative.\nAnd beyond my own personal dilemmas, in a circle of brown people, the whole concept of tanning always solicits a few laughs.\nIn many cultures, we are taught from an early age beauty is something to be attained, and in our most natural form, there is work to be done. Despite the heavy doses of Spice Girls-infused confidence boosters we've been fed, the widespread -- self-imposed, media-supported -- answer to the question "who is beautiful?" unfortunately seems to be reduced to one category: "Not me"