Born what way?

MANILA, Philippines –  Maybe it’s the shock of seeing the mestiza tween star Barbie Forteza painted a disease-like shade of charcoal that’s riling me up more than kutis-mayaman whitening advertisements, or maybe it’s the recent empowerment Lady Gaga lent me, a proud morena, through her Grammy performance of Born This Way that’s making me actually want to watch the show, challenging it to prove me wrong. Because as much as the terrible dialogue leads us to believe that this show is going to hell, I can’t help but pray for a positive twist that will make up for each and every brainwashing papaya commercial that made Filipinas think their skin color is a curse.

“A different lover is not a sin.” Scene-stealing partyphile tranny Xtina Superstar goes head to head with top model Pauline Prieto in a gender-bender of a shoot.

In true Pinoy fashion, we’re once again adapting an American trend in Filipino time blatant racial discrimination is the newest form of entertainment on national TV, no less than a teleserye that premiered on Valentine’s Day. Nita Negrita, GMA 7’s latest primetime bet, revolves around a teenage Filipino-African-American girl struggling with all the maltreatment that goes with being a more-than-morena lovechild in Manila. Judging from the pilot, the show’s drama is no-holds-barred, and judging from the title, so is its dark-skin discrimination.

If I seem desperately mad, forgive me. I’m a bright-eyed fresh grad working in advertising, and I was this close to being one of those guilty of planting little seeds of skin color doubt in other young morena’s minds. Being a junior in the advertising world means I’m idealistic enough to think I can reverse this aspect of the industry. Being the newest ad writer in the agency means not understanding that selling those products is paying for my night outs. Being a morena myself means I’m just taking their anti-morena campaign ideas a little too personally. Having little choice, I’ve found a compromise in trying to sell with a “pro-fair” proposition instead of an “anti-dark” campaign. And while I whine about not being able to write tag-lines for tan skin, I applaud the little gems of beauty truth that are too brilliant to be tarnished by media bull.

Skin-deep portrayals like Nita Negrita might give the masses the wrong impression.

First, there was the controversial and successful Dove Real Beauty. The global campaign featuring real woman sans Photoshop was provoking.

And then there was the locally-published book, When I Look In The Mirror by fashion photographer and model Sara Black. The book featured portraits of women of all ages and their so-called flawsa large mole, relentless freckles, dark skin, a conspicuous birthmarkand it illustrated the women they were beyond those flaws, and how their unconventional beauty makes them stand out.

Then there’s the likes of on-the-rise Pauline Prieto, whose supposedly awkward height and imperfect teeth are her source of confidence. She owned what she was given, and that’s true beauty that peoplenot even the most discriminating face huntercan deny. If Pauline subscribed to local media’s typical notion of beauty, would have represented the country in an international modeling competition? No, she wouldn’t. She probably would be drowning in scrubs and peels, buying one effective product after the otherlike a quarter of Filipinas are.

Andrej Pejic’s feminine looks give him an androgynous edge.

And how about the scene-stealing drag queen Xtina Superstar? This trannylicious party scene fixture gives a lesson in fierce anytime she’s on the scene, whether it be channeling the original Xtina or doing her own brand of dirrty.

More than a recent Twitter-frenzy, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way is a song that reminds us to embrace everyone’s uniqueness, whether “you love him, or capital H-I-M.” Hopefully, it’s a message that’s stronger than any skin discriminating soap opera.