My "fair" lady

It all started several days ago, with the provision of several social networking sites, the FHM cover spread like a wildfire.Initially, when I first glanced upon the cover, I thought that people are making a big deal out of it because of the cover girl, Bela Padilla. At that moment , I thought that a lot of people are reacting against it because  of their dislike with the cover girl since she had a  controversy in the past with Marian RIvera.But as I ran through the comments about the circulating photo, that's when I finally understood that it was not about Bela Padilla alone, but with the claim that the cover was "racist."

In the magazine cover, we can see that the other women are darker in terms of skin color with the help of  make up  but more importantly, the women in the background are perceived as inferior to Bella Padilla. For  others, what makes this cover racist is simply because it emphasizes how Bella Padilla is said to step out of the "shadows" because of her skin color that deliberately  radiates more than the rest of the girls in the background.

I'm quite surprised that people actually took notice of this cover as a bad thing because it seems to indicate that we actually do care about the perception of inferiority with regards to the perceived beauty.We do not only look at the smaller picture and just be mesmerized by the flawless white skin of a cover girl, but we also look into the impact that it creates.By impact,what i mean is the assumption that the fair skinned would triumph over the "shadows." 

I could not help but think about the perception of beauty alone in our country. Quite honestly, we have been surrounded with tons of whitening products in the market promising to give fairer skin with just a few weeks use.There are even a lot of people who go to drastic procedures just to lighten their skin tone.I am personally not against these things since it's their choice to make, not mine.But the problematic thing is that through all these years, we have this perceived idea of "the beautiful" that society dictates to us.And because of that, we tend to conform to this ideal beauty.For instance, you got to have fairer skin in order to be considered beautiful and have more opportunities.

And this magazine cover alone signifies that we actually do care about these issues constantly surrounding us.We do not only think about how a beautiful a person can be but we look into how the "ideal" beauty was projected in a way that it degrades other people who are perceived as inferior.

With much ruckus about the said March cover of FHM's magazine, the publication made a move in order to minimize the chaos that already has been done. They have released a new cover so that all the controversies would stop soon.I think that the publishing company  made a wise move of changing the cover instead of tirelessly refusing all the accusation whether they are guilty or not.

By Nikki Cea

Photo sources:

http://i.cocoperez.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/bela-padilla-fhm-cover-march-2012__oPt.jpg

http://www.pep.ph/news/33205/New-cover-of-%20FHM-Philippines%20-March-2012-issue-now-out-in-the-market