By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
To be qualified to the Miss Universe contest, one has to be between 18 to 27 years old and never been married or pregnant. These are standards set by the organizers of the pageant. It doesn’t say anything about height or body mass index or color but how come, all the contestants are tall and slim and young and winners are usually fair-comlexioned women? There must be other unwritten standards of the judges. Miss France met those standards and became Miss Universe 2017. I rooted for Miss Haiti but my vote didn’t count.
I would rather, though, that society did away with these “beauty” pageants. What do these events promote, anyway? Increased knowledge of the world, perhaps, because the spectator gets to know that there are a lot of countries pala in this world. Countries such as Barbados, Maldives, Sierra Leone. But I would say this is not of vital importance. It is nice to know, but it is not must know. So what if you don’t know a country named Kiribati ever existed if all your life you live in Puerto Princesa? Many people don’t know Mountain Province and they are living well. And yet, because of television and aggressive promotion, this Miss Universe event reaches almost everyone in the world & creates a big impact on society’s norms on appearance. People are immensely diverse in beauty but Miss Universe promoters (likewise for Miss International and Miss World) is telling the world that “beautiful” means tall and slim, young and fair. I protest!
It is good business. This beauty thing, I mean. Women (and men) would gladly buy any soap or lotion that is “whitening”. They would do anything that promises to make them fairer. I was so dismayed to find out in one store that was selling herbal soaps to see that all its products were either “whitening” or anti-wrinking”. Geez. In the past, Igorots and other Filipinos didn’t care about Miss Universe. Well, for one thing, we didn’t have TV then. For another, we didn’t have much cash then. Now, we are awash with cash. Now, we have TV. Now, we want to look like those we see on TV. We want to look like Miss Universe.
I wouldn’t mind so much if these standards for appearance were only for Miss Universe. What worries me and what should also worry you is that the world wants to set standards for almost everything under the sun. Let us take a look at some standards for health that the World Health Organization sets which is adopted by our own Department of Health. The most popular one is weight-for-age for children under five years old which our barangay health workers get during OPT (Operations Timbang). Recently, the Department of Health added a height-for-age standard for children. What for? The reference standard for weights has been changed many times through the years because of debate on what should be the standard. Now we are using a standard that is supposed to have been based on children of different countries. If the child does not meet this standard, he or she is labeled as underweight. Worse, she or he is labeled as malnourished or stunted. It is demeaning and discriminating to a child if we label him or her as “malnourished” or “underweight” or “stunted”. And we write their names on the board for all to see. Especially if that child already knows the meaning of the word. Kawawa naman. It is also demeaning for parents or caregivers. It is like the parents are not feeding the child well. Okay, I know there are parents who may be feeding their children just instant noodles but the fact is that there are really differences in child growth across nations, communities & even families. Height is very much genetically determined and that would affect weight.
Who is to say that a child should weight this much or be this tall? How did our Igorot forebears determine if a child is healthy or not? What if the child fails to meet this standard for weight and height? What worries me further is how we, health workers, focus on those who have less weight and height. What then will the parents do if the child has less weight or height? Eat more? It is natural for a child to eat only when s/he is hungry. You cannot force feed a child, unlike us adults and older children who will eat even if our stomach is nearly bursting. I know a child who has been forced by her parents to finish all her food in her plate when she was child. Now she’s an overweight adult and has metabolic problems. I also know of a child who was labeled “malnourished” when he was a child, was not given any added intervention and now is a tall guy.
Take heart, parents, height is not a good indicator of health. Weight is an indicator of bad health, if excessive. Overweight and obesity in childhood or adulthood are correlated with a lot of degenerative diseases like hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, etc. Excess is what should worry us, not the lack.
Our indigenous indicator of child health is how the child moves about and if his arms and legs are flabby or firm – “maliksi,” “bassit ngem nasikkil”.
Another indicator of health that we use nowadays is blood pressure. Like weight and height for age, this was determined by western medicine. And likewise, there have been changes over the years in the standards we are using. When I was a medical student, a blood pressure of 140/90 was still acceptable and labeled high normal. Nowadays, 140/90 is considered high, not normal. 120/80 is the upper normal level that we use now. Is there low blood pressure? This is the debate. Again, what’s our experience here in Igorotland? There are people who have blood pressures of 80/60 and they are well and strong. When I was in Sadanga in 1980, I was surprised that the men had blood pressures of 90/60. They were hunters and farmers. If your blood pressure is 90/60 and it goes up to 120/80, that would be high for you. See, we need to take all these so-called standards in the context.
Same goes true with standards for blood cholesterol, blood sugar and all those substances that our gadgets at present can measure. (By the way, these gadgets cannot measure every substance there is in the blood.) What we need to watch out for is if the level is above what is set as normal. But what is normal? Who is setting the standard or “normal” for blood pressure, blood cholesterol, sugar, etc? One thing for sure is that it is not the Philippines. Nope, we don’t have that world power. Whatever, if your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar is below the upper limit set at present, thank yourself and keep it that way. Don’t wait for it to go up before you take precautions. Don’t be falsely assured that because your blood pressure is “normal” that you can eat anything or do anything. As it is then so it is today. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”***
“Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” Acts 10: 34-35
