"Ang Ganda Mo!": How Young Filipina Women Use Aesthetics in Navigating Identity Creation

Abstract

Asian women have constantly been hypersexualized and tokenized in the mainstream. Young Filipina women, in particular, face unique issues of identity, especially as it relates to the intersections between gender and ethnicity. This study aims to closely examine how young Filipina women use aesthetics (i.e., fashion, makeup, hair, etc.) to traverse the process of identity creation. My hypothesis states that young Filipina women use aesthetics to reconcile two seemingly contradictory goals: to attain increasing levels of autonomy and, at the same time, to comply with established norms of femininity from both the United States and the Philippines. I conducted 25 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Filipina women ages 18-26. The results of this study supported my hypothesis, while also revealing that Filipino familial and communal norms denied many young Filipina women the ability to entirely transgress institutions which are so heavily influenced by the patriarchy and white hegemony.