WHILE Philippine history — as the joke goes, we stayed 300 years in the convent (under Spain) and 50 years in Hollywood (under the USA) — would logically push us to a preference for pale skin, the obsession with whiteness is not confined to this archipelago. It is a global mission that is as old as the Egyptian, Roman, and Greek civilizations.
Some of their ancient beauty rituals include the use of olive oil and honey to maintain a blemish-free fair skin. They would also use chalk powder on their skin — also a practice in China where the privileged put white powder on their faces to set themselves apart from the working class, who got a tan from working hard under the sun.
Aside from chalk, a far deadlier product was used for centuries to give the skin a whiter appearance — lead. Greek women applied white lead powder; Roman women used white lead paste; during in the Italian Renaissance, women used water–soluble lead paint, while in England, for centuries women wore ceruse, a mixture of vinegar and white lead. The pursuit of beauty was often fatal.
Things started to change — at least in Europe and North America — in the 20th century. While for centuries pale skin was associated with affluence, as a visible sign that one did not have to do manual labor, suddenly a tan meant that a person had the time and money for leisurely activities — to go on a cruise, for example. In one article in the Guardian, “A Short History of Tanning,” this change was attributed to couturier Coco Chanel when, in the 1920s, she “caught too much sun on a Mediterranean cruise.”
A “sun-kissed” glow became the epitome of beauty — and with it came the development of sunbeds and spray tans for those who could not make their way to a beach. Despite this new preference for brown skin by the colonizers, this did not make its way to the colonized.
