Keeping up with the times: skin-lightening practices among young men in the Philippines

Abstract

The desire for light(er) skin is widespread around the world and has been the subject of extensive critical scholarship. But far less attention has focused on skin-lightening practices among boys and men, even as historical and contemporary data show that it is both a long-standing and growing trend in many Asian countries. This study builds on a focused ethnography of young men’s skin-lightening practices in two Philippine cities. Using Norbert Elias’ notion of ‘figurations’, we look at how shifts in gender ideologies, socio-economic changes, processes of urbanisation and popular culture trends are reflected in these practices. We find that the pursuit of a whiter skin is not an individual project, but a mode of body modification which is enacted in figurations among male peers, between men and women, and between men and their employers and customers in a globalising economy. Overall, skin practices and preferences among young men in the Philippines are best understood in terms of changing notions of masculinity, the unchanging quest to look compatible (bagay) with one’s peers, and the desire to keep up ever-changing trends.