Beauty Standards in Filipina Community | Advocacy Speech

AAS101 Advocacy Speech
As a Filipina young woman, I have noticed that in the Filipino community, our society appraises light skin, having Eurocentric features (mixed ethnicity), and having a slim and athletic body as attractive and beautiful. And Filipinas who do not fit the standard become ashamed of themselves and their skin color, which makes them want to reconfigure their dark skin color to a lighter color, or face/body shape.

This issue affects me and the whole Filipino community because the media presents this ideal image as beautiful. We shouldn't be ashamed of our skin color or our body shape. We are all different and beautiful in our own way, we shouldn't conform to this beauty standard.

A solution to this issue is to show the underrepresented people/actresses/actors often, such as the front cover of magazines. We should also identify that reconfiguring your skin color or face/body shape just to look attractive can be toxic.

We need to encourage everyone and the Filipina/o community to love ourselves and to respect who looks different from you. As Coco Chanel says, "Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself."