• astreus@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    79
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Man in 30s married to a half-Filipina woman here. When we went to visit for our honeymoon it was really gross. LOTS of very, very old men with teenage girls.

    I had women falling out of their chairs to look at me.

    I had a woman literally fall over while trying to ogle me while walking down the street.

    For our goodbye dinner, her Ate toasted us by saying “You have fulfilled all our dreams: you’ve married a white man.”

    I had several people say how ugly they were because they were Filipino.

    EVERY convenience store and super market had skin whitening creams.

    It was my first experience of the Philippines and the first experience I had of racial fetishism. My wife got preferential treatment for being Mestizos.

    The Spanish did a real number over there with their racial hierarchy bullshit.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      8 months ago

      Oh man I need to go there!

      …for the peace and calm.

      …and maybe actually feel attractive lol

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          8 months ago

          I don’t even have a dad bod! I’ve actually heard women say they prefer someone with a dad bod when I spent time on dating sites lol

          I’m just whiter than white bread, short, hairy in all the wrong places and not at all in the right ones, and as for my face I’ll just say I’m pretty aesthetically challenged lol

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        The stereotypes may be those places but it’s certainly not limited to them. A bunch of years back I was touring Indonesia and somehow ended up with some way too young girls. We noped out of that as quickly as we could find our driver, but I was freaked out for weeks after. I don’t see how anyone is comfortable with that situation

        Still tipped the driver though, for taking us around all day. I don’t know if he misunderstood going to a club, or the club jumped right to the stereotype

      • astreus@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        10
        ·
        8 months ago

        You do see how your last statement is not okay and plays into racial fetishism, right?

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          If it wasn’t a joke yeah I see that, but I was just using it as an opportunity to make fun of myself lol

          But also, it would be them fetishizing me which I’m not against being as ugly as I am lol

          • astreus@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            8 months ago

            Gotcha! Though because it’s fetishism due to internalised racism spread over the centuries that means “white is right” it’s not okay to exploit!

    • Match!!@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      8 months ago

      The Americans also colonized the Philippines and it got worse during that time

      • astreus@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        35
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Not…really. The racial hierarchy and the self-loathing are really Spain’s doing via the Church.

        Spain was in control for 400 years and had clear racial caste system. They brought a new religion and used it to justify an incredibly evil rule. Lain America had governors, the Philippines had Friars (read Touch Me Not or Noli Me Tángere).

        Compared with America, which in control for around 50 years and about 10% of that was the Japanese invasion. They are seen as liberators and saviours because of how utterly horrific the Japanese were (wasn’t just Korea with comfort women). In the early 20th century, a lot of the reforms in the Philippines by America were based around giving land to the farm workers and laying ground work for independence via the Insular government (so the cheap sugar supply could be blocked from entering the US market).

        • Match!!@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          8 months ago

          Read Renato Constantino’s Dissent and Counter-Consciousness about how Rizal in particular was elevated by American revisionism to justify the Americans crushing the Katipunan.

          • astreus@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            8 months ago

            Renato Constantino

            Just asked my wife about this (she’s an author that’s just won funding to research and write about the history of the Philippines in her novels). These are her words paraphrased:

            Oh yeah, Rizal was a reformist and thought of Spain as more of an abusive parent than something to overthrow. However, even at the time his work was really important to the revolution and his arrest led to the founding of the KKK (not that one) which was succeeded by the ongoing communist revolution. He directly, and against his will, led to the uprising that’s still a big feature of the country today.

            America’s history with the country is a lot more complex than Spain. While Spain gained dominance by throwing their weight into an ongoing was between datus and changed the landscape to impose their hierarchy, America never really wanted the Philippines to begin with. Now, the Americas worship in the country is straight up horrifying, but that isn’t from the American period of rule but because of the brief period of Japanese rule as a contrast.

          • astreus@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            8 months ago

            That’s interesting, I’ll give it a read. But I don’t entirely see how. He was first banished and then executed for his writing and thrown in an unmarked grave. During his life, his writing was the cornerstone of the burgeoning revolution against his wishes. This was all a fair chunk of time before the Spanish-American war.