Although there are many beauty standards in Filipino culture, colorism, and weight discrimination are the two biggest standards that have the most consequences that impact your mental health. People go to extreme lengths to achieve these ideals that are generally unrealistic and unattainable. Trying to achieve these things will detrimentally affect both your physical and mental health.
Physical Health Impacts
Changing yourself to fit in always comes with a price. This video talks about the consequences of toxic beauty standards on women's health. The price of wanting fair skin leads to the use of harsh whitening problems that may contain chemicals such as mercury as said in the colorism video on the colorism post. Skin bleaching puts you at risk for chemical burns that could ruin your skin barrier and even cause deformities that could last long-term.
We are all aware of the price of wanting to lose weight. Eating disorders are very common among people who want to lose weight. Eating disorders are deadly and can flip your entire life upside down, They cause long-term damage to your body and can cause death if not treated professionally. In an article titled Eating Disorders for Teens, It is known to cause other health issues such as "heart failure, bone damage, hormonal imbalances, etc." (https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/eat-disorder.html). Along with this, the chance of a relapse is very common making people go through a vicious cycle for years that will affect them for the rest of their life.
Mental Health & Self-Esteem Impacts
In addition to physical health problems, the mental health issues come hand in hand with the physical ones. You won't only be struggling on the outside but on the inside as well. The article claims that eating disorders will lead to chronic depression, anxiety, thoughts of suicide, PTSD, etc. (Eating Disorders for Teens). Body dysmorphia is a common disease that comes from Eating disorders and it does affect people indefinitely for life it means living your life with insecurity every time you look into the mirror. Your self-esteem will always be impacted if you were to engage in wanting to change to fit into beauty standards. You may like the way that you look on the outside but on the inside, you will always be checking yourself to find problems because you will believe you are not enough.
Final Thoughts
People will do anything to achieve perfection and fit in, but at what cost? Will fitting in truly be worth the pain and misery to get there? You will forever be stuck with your insecurities haunting you for the rest of your life and be obsessed with your appearance over the good things in life. So is it worth it in the end?
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