The campaign started when Research International, a custom market research
agency, revealed the results of the beauty perception study dubbed "The Real
Truth About Asian Beauty: Asian Women's Attitudes Toward Self-Esteem, Body
Image and Media Portrayal."
It was conducted on 2,000 Asian women from 10 countries, including Thailand,
Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the
Philippines, with a questionnaire based on previous beauty perception studies
in Europe and America as developed by Unilever and Harvard University.
The results
With the 2,000 respondents, the study showed that only about 60 (or 3 percent)
were comfortable in describing themselves as "beautiful." A third chose to
answer "simple or natural" while others opted for "average or normal." In the
Philippines, 5 percent call themselves beautiful.
It further revealed that Asian women mostly agree that humor and happiness,
dignity and confidence, kindness, intelligence and wisdom are more important
than sex appeal in terms of "feeling beautiful." Yet majority of the
respondents, especially Filipino and Vietnamese women, expressed the importance
of youth when it comes to "looking beautiful."
"In the Philippines, women are the most skewed toward youth, saying on average
that a woman looks most beautiful at 20 years of age," the report states.
Filipino women also look up to show business personalities and models as role
models for girls, the study shows. This makes them "feel inadequate when they
look at beautiful women" and wished that media did a "better job at portraying
women of diverse physical characteristics." They also show a preference to
whiter skin, indicating that if they are to undergo a cosmetic procedure, it
would be for skin whitening.
On a more positive note, Filipinas showed in the survey a stronger sense of
happiness and satisfaction with their bodies and their lives than other women
in Asia. This may be influenced by the Filipina's high regard for family and
religion.
Half of Filipina respondents also said they feel beautiful mostly through
compliments of their family, whose opinion to them counts the most.
And despite the booming practice of cosmetic surgery in the country, Filipinas
still showed the highest satisfaction than anyone else in "appearance, tone of
their skin and their breasts." Women in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan seemed
"the least happy with their bodies."
Sixty-one percent of Filipinas say their weight is "just right," the highest
percentage among all countries surveyed. And if ever cosmetic surgery is given
to them for free, Filipinas scored the lowest in the desire rate at 26 percent.
The debate
But while Filipino women generally showed in the survey a high self-esteem and
satisfaction over their appearance, they may not be really happy about how they
look, reason why only a meager 5 percent call themselves beautiful.
And so Dove launched the campaign to find out the beauty stereotypes that are
stopping Filipinas from recognizing their beauty. On August 3 at The Loft in
Rockwell, Makati, Dove and the Women's Media Circle (WMC), a nonprofit group
working to empower women, held a beauty debate, with no less than talk show
host Boy Abunda as moderator.
Debate participants included former Ms. Universe Gloria Diaz, who boldly
declared that "beauty is 99-percent youth, the rest after your youth, you have
to redo;" WMC board member and columnist Rina Jimenez-David, who said she grew
up looking up to her mother with "fair skin and a tall nose," and award-winning
debater Patricia Evangelista who firmly asserted: "I am beautiful!"
Others in the panel were Unilever marketing director Noel Lorenzana, Campaign
for Real beauty advertising talent Mia Sebastian, MTV VJ Nicole Fonacier, talk
show host Drew Arellano, renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Florencio Abad and
sociologist Dr. Josefina Natividad.
Unveiled during the debate were six images of women in various sizes, color,
and age. The blown-up images of a Japanese woman with natural grey hair, a
plus-size Australian, a flat-chested Thai girl, a freckled Singaporean, a
short-haired Thai and finally, Mia Sebastian as the Filipino morena did not go
through any editing process to highlight their respective beauty. Through the
campaign's questions, the images serve to challenge women all over Asia to
rethink current beauty stereotypes.
"We are here to encourage women to celebrate beauty that comes in different
shapes, sizes and ages," said Unilever marketing manager Dondi Gomez. "We want
to widen the narrow and unrealistic beauty stereotypes communicated by mass
media. We call on women to make their stand for real and honest beauty."
So, do you think you're beautiful?
Log on to www.campaignforrealbeauty.ph to join the beauty debate.
