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Filipino Men & Foreign Women
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Why don’t many Filipino men marry foreign women? Why is the mother always a Filipina and not the father being a Filipino?
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The concise answer is preference. In the long answer, we will consider four parties: Filipino men, foreign men, Filipino women, and foreign women. Five if you count the history of the Philippines. Let’s look at Filipino men first. Most Filipino men look within their race for a partner to marry. The Philippines has a very conservative culture (the exception is Metro Manila), and many Filipino men know how foreign women can be liberal with sex, drinking, and et cetera. This kind of behavior and culture is not attractive to them. What is attractive to them is a woman with a “Maria Clara” attitude and image (or as modern as it can get). An attractive woman for Filipino men also often falls within their race. Filipinos see the beauty of Filipinas differently than Americans or other men of foreign races. Because of Spanish colonization, Filipinos’ typical view of a beautiful woman often consists of a high nose bridge, a sharp nose, and fair skin. Look at the Filipina stars like Liza Soberano and Angel Locsin and you can observe that they have these facial features. Now, let’s look at foreign men and how they see Filipinas. The typical foreign man who marries a Filipina is white, often from the US. However, more men of other cultures are also into Filipina women. They often see Filipinas as “exotic” beauties. Personally and as a Filipina, I don't know what they see. Many of the women that Americans chase after look plain to the Filipino eye. Some foreigners like Koreans or Chinese have beauty standards that some Filipinos will agree with. The notorious “Filipino hospitality” and family values are also sought after by many foreign men who’ve had their hearts broken or who want a good and stable life. Let’s not forget that many Filipino women know how to take care of a home and children. (Sadly, this is a fading trend among the Filipina youth, especially in big cities like Manila.) We also look at the history of the Philippines for context. The Philippines got colonized by Spain, Japan, and the US before it became its own country. What typically happens when you’re a colony or when soldiers from foreign countries fight on your soil? During wars, a lot of pillaging and rape happens. Look at port cities or places where American bases were established. A lot of middle-aged women today with American blood don’t know their American fathers. The same goes with slightly older women with Japanese blood whose mothers got raped by Japanese soldiers. Even after the Philippines gained its independence, port cities like Subic and Cebu still got visited by many foreigners. A big reason why many Filipino women have children with foreign blood is when foreign ships carrying foreign seamen would port there. If you’ve been on a boat for a long time without any woman to help you relieve your fantasies, you go to the nearest pub or brothel. Sometimes, you meet an attractive woman during the day that you start courting in the short while that you’re at port. Once you’ve relieved yourself, you never turn back. Flip this story and look at the perspective of the Filipino woman. Some women look at marriage to a foreigner as a way to improve their life. The US is so successful at selling the American Dream that a lot of Filipinos dream of immigrating there. However, the US’ migration policies won’t always get you in. One quick way to ensure that you get in is to hook a green card in the local tourist spot or port city. Filipina women know that foreigners see them differently than Filipino men. They know that they can look beautiful to an American yet incredibly plain to their Filipino neighbor. If they are really looking for a way out of the country, they will use their “exotic” beauty to do so. Once they’ve settled in the US, they’ll bring their family members in one by one to live a better life. (My mother knows of an older woman who married an American solely because it was her dream to live in the US. When she was younger, she really closed the doors for Filipino men to court her and opened them only to Americans.) If you were a lot older and you got raped by an American soldier during the war, you really had no choice. Finally, you’ve got the foreign women. It’s rare for foreign women to marry a Filipino man because they have very different preferences compared to their male counterparts. Even fellow Asians like Japanese or Indonesians have different tastes. There are articles that say how women in Iceland or other far-away countries find Filipino men as “cute.” However, I doubt that that’s enough reason for them to go halfway across the world to marry a man. As a final note, what I say here doesn’t apply to all foreign and Filipino men and women. Everyone has different cultures, traumas, environments, and statuses. These things can change how you perceive a foreign/Filipino man/woman. For example, if you’re a foreign woman who grew up in the Philippines, you may find the typical Filipino attractive. If you have xenophobia (AKA racism), you may not find the exotic Filipina beauty as beautiful at all. Again, it all boils down to personal preferences (and intention.)
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Been curious about it and ask my guy friends (for research purposes) and random research and observation. This is for both Filipino living in the Philippines and Filipino who works and like to travel internationally. This is what I got. Filipino prefer Filipina. Filipina usually fall under 3 category: tisay (Mestiza,usually biracial mix with white), morena (Malay looking), chinita ( East Asian/Usually associated with Chinese descent but can be Japanese or Korean). Well, as stated from several answers here why foreign men married, I think it’s obvious. It’s not just the foreigners who see them like that but the Filipino themselves. From Filipino who usually just stay in the Philippines with minimal to no travel internationally: (This is more probably on middle class perspective) Regardless of height, Yup, some Filipinos and its not a rarity, are can be TALL – 5′10 to 6 ft something(Asian standard). My friends told me they want a petite and slim women. That generalization that foreign women has big bones and athletic sounds intimidating. They also mentioned that why looked outside when there are spoiled for option here. Sidenote: Even Filipino watch beauty pageants and their pride on their own actually increases due to some winnings recently.Language and culture barrier. Even if its well known that Filipino can speak English easily, they still prefer to speak Filipino/Taglish/Their mother tongue (Regional language like Bicol/Cebuano/IlocanoConservatism. They prefer an virgin/pure girlfriends. Yup, even this days!Religion. Most of Filipinos are Christian and prefer to married in faith. It can be Roman Catholic or other denomination like Iglesia ni Cristo or Mormons.It might come as a surprise but most of my friends are INTIMIDATED with pure FOREIGN beauty compare to biracial/half races. Foreign here is not only any white race but especially East Asians. Thus, “Chinita” is really popular, Chinita means someone with slant eyes, meaning a mix of Filipino and East Asian but popularly of Chinese descent like Alodia Gosiengfiao.Filipina maintain the balance of being highly educated but still being feminine.Possibility of living outside of the country. Filipino,like their other Asian brothers have close family tie. Filipinos are known to work in other countries but usually with thinking that they will eventually retire in the Philippines.From Filipino who usually who travel/work internationally: Let just say that upon checking out beauties during their travel, they might sound much seasoned and has wider wisdom than the first type but they also mostly prefer Filipina on the same reasoning. Mostly 1,2, 4 and 6. Side note: It might be a different case for a Filipino who grow up in other country like US. I don’t have any friend to interview as of the moment so I’ll probably update it in the future. But since Filipinos are known to immerse, those kids might only be Filipino by blood but probably adapt the culture wherever they live. I’ve seen a lot of answer but not reflecting the middle/working class. Some link: WOMEN IN THE PHILIPPINES: STATUS, STEREOTYPES, MARIA CLARA AND ABUSE https://psa.gov.ph/content/literacy-men-and-women-philippines-results-2008-functional-literacy-education-and-mass-media Women in the Philippines: Inspiring and Empowered