Instagram project empowers dark-skinned Filipinos to push back against discrimination and change old perceptions
- Moreno Morena is a photography project created to encourage appreciation of darker skin and end discrimination based on skin tone
- Started by Filipino photographer Juro Ongkiko, the project shows unretouched photos of beautiful Filipinos with darker skin
“It’s been 120 years since our colonisers left the country, and we’re still holding on to their beauty standards,” says Juro Ongkiko, the Filipino freelance photographer behind Moreno Morena, an Instagram project created to encourage appreciation of dark skin.
Ongkiko is referring to the persistence of colourism (discrimination due to skin tone) in the Philippines that took root during the period of Spanish colonisation from the 16th to the 19th century. For Ongkiko, colourism began with power issues between ethnicities, where lighter-skinned Spaniards were in positions of power over darker-skinned Filipinos.
Skin colour would later on become a signifier of socioeconomic status even among native and mixed-raced Filipinos. To have dark skin, or to be moreno, suggested the person was a manual labourer, while those with lighter skin, or mestizos, were seen as privileged enough to avoid working in the sun as well as having Spanish lineage.
Remnants of this archaic system remain in modern Filipino society, where fair-skinned celebrities (often half-Caucasian) are hallmarks of aspirational beauty and whitening products are staples on grocery store shelves. Glutathione pills – supplements that claim to reduce melanin -are particularly popular, with their billboards peppering Metro Manila’s busiest roads.
The supremacy of fair skin is so ubiquitous that when Ongkiko posted samples of his photography highlighting moreno and morena skin on Twitter in 2016, it went viral. “A lot of people resonated with it,” says Ongkiko. “People got the message right away. They saw a need for a project like that.”
Initially started as a project to strengthen his photography portfolio, the overwhelming response prompted Ongkiko to make it his new mission. Through editorial photo shoots with dark-skinned models, and a firm eschewal of photography and post-processing techniques that lighten dark skin tones, Moreno Morena is pushing back against the current beauty standards. “The main point of the whole thing is to show dark Filipino skin in a way people would find appealing.”
It is also a personal issue for Ongkiko, who in childhood experienced first hand the undesirability of having darker skin. “I studied in a Filipino-Chinese school, so a lot of my peers had fair skin. I was one of the few darker-skinned students in my batch.” he shares. “I didn’t look like everyone else; I was an easy target to make fun of.” The teasing only ceased when he went to college.
His story echoes the universal experience of dark-skinned Filipinos.
In a survey conducted by Moreno Morena last year, more than a quarter of respondents (25.7 per cent) had experienced name-calling, such as slurs likening their skin to burnt objects, or worse. Other prevalent insults involve unsolicited solutions to “cure” dark skin (12.4 per cent), not being considered attractive (12.4 per cent), and insinuating that dark skin renders them invisible (11.6 per cent).
Ongkiko’s own scholarly research into colourism in the Philippines and nearby countries returned similar results. “There weren’t many studies pertaining to the positive side of dark skin. There’s almost always a negative connotation.”
Moreno Morena is a response to this lack of dark skin empowerment in the Philippines. “The mere existence of this project and how relevant it is reflects the current standard of Filipino beauty,” insists Ongkiko. “In any other universe where we didn’t have this preference for skin colour, this project wouldn’t be special.”
The project also distinguishes itself from fleeting inclusivity campaigns by brands held to appeal to underserved markets. “This one doesn’t end,” Ongkiko promises in a post.
I don’t think a standard of beauty should be one that favours one group of people and then puts down another
Despite the continued relevance of – and even need to – advocate for those with dark skin, Ongkiko has noticed a burgeoning pride in brown skin among young Filipinos; people are using fewer photo filters that make them look more fair-skinned.
“I’d like to think that Filipinos are reclaiming the beauty standard, realising that the preference for fair skin doesn’t make sense,” he says. “People are starting to be happy about how they are. That’s a step in the right direction.”
He believes the empowerment of dark-skinned Filipino can be furthered through education. “Educate people on how archaic current beauty standards are, and how they don’t hold up well in modern society where skin colour shouldn’t matter any more,” he says.
For Ongkiko, visibility is also crucial. “Represent darker-skinned people in TV and movies, in the things people consume.”
Moreno Morena continues to feature dark-skinned models in photo shoots, as well as offer merchandise that encourage dark-skinned Filipinos to embrace and take pride in being moreno or morena.
As for the future, Ongkiko thinks the three-year-old project is still in its early stages. He has big plans for Moreno Morena, with an aim to be a “driving force in Filipino culture, setting our own trends instead of subscribing to trends of other countries”.
However, Ongkiko doesn’t know what the standard of beauty should be. What he does know is what it shouldn’t be: “I don’t think a standard of beauty should be one that favours one group of people and then puts down another.”
