Thoughts on Wearing Bikinis as a Woman Born and Raised in the Philippines

You hardly see Filipino women wearing a bikini at the beach or swimming pool. In the Philippines, women usually wear long-sleeved rash guards or t-shirts and shorts. When you wear a bikini, you get attention and people really look at you that as if you’re wearing something improper; whereas the idea is to keep the skin almost evenly tanned as you sunbathe, which is what a bikini is for. In fact, there are even nude beaches in other parts of the world because people want the skin tanning to be as even as possible.

Most Filipino women don’t want to be dark. They spend money and time on Glutathione, whitening soaps, and use umbrellas all the time with the fear of getting any darker. In the Philippines, there’s this colonial mentality from the Americans or Koreans that white skin is the definition of beauty. When you get darker, you’re ugly and teased with every humiliating adjective related to skin darkness.

But don’t you know that in Europe, for example, most men prefer morena women? If you’re tanned, they compliment you for having the luxury to spend time at the beach. White-skinned women dream of every Filipina’s natural skin color, spending hours getting tanned to be as close as to having a naturally morena skin. They often tease each other there that when you’re too white, you look so pale and sick. In other words, there’s no problem with being morena. Skin color should not be an issue.

Another thing is that Filipinos are born timid and very conservative. It’s taboo when a Filipina shows more skin. People are quick to judge that she’s a flirt, wild and liberated, and not raised well. She also gets stared at from head to toe, with insecured-like words on how fat she is, how many stretch marks and other blemishes her skin has, and how it doesn’t fit her well to wear a bikini. In other countries, people don’t mind each other on what you wear at the beach. Sadly, body shaming is very common in Philippine society, which is something that has to stop.

I also didn’t wear bikinis before, but after getting exposed to different cultures, I realized that wearing one should not be an issue. Whether you’re skinny, plus size, older, or you feel like you don’t have a perfect body, you are who you are and it’s all about embracing and loving your own.

Shelly Viajera Travel