I will give you a non politically correct answer… no offense to anyone please!
Background: I grew up in Metro Manila, spent college years in Manila where I saw a lot of Western guys dating Filipino ladies. Saw same couples whenever I go on vacation esp Boracay.
Have also worked in the medical field and treated Filipinas (or gay transvestite Filipinos… no judgment) with their adoring Caucasian hubs by their side.
Dated a European fella myself.
One common perspective: that these Caucasian gentlemen have a different standard of beauty that Filipinos have. Our country was colonized by the Spanish so we have grown to admire fair skin, high bridged noses, and light colored eyes, as most Caucasians have. Curiously, the Caucasians we see are enamored of their spousies with native features: pug/pert noses, nut brown skin. My gay buddies term these girlfriends as “island souvenirs” with the unspoken thought, “How did *she* manage to bag this guy?!?”
Another pervasive thought: these girls are in it for financial benefits or visas and the guys are in it for cheap s*x. My European ex (who I met in the medical field) visited me in Manila, and people we encountered (service workers, taxi drivers) assumed that 1) he's made of dollars/euros 2) I'm with him for monetary self-gain. (Actually I probably made more money than him at the time.)
Unfortunately, this view is not entirely wrong. One hears of so many stories of Filipinas milking their foreign boyfriends and then leaving them once they get the money or the citizenship. Though other South East Asian girls also have this reputation, the perception about poor, gold digging Filipinas is wide spread. (Heck, even some well-off Filipino guys think their girlfriends are after their money, so it’s not necessarily a foreigner-Filipina issue. It’s just that in such relationships, the foreigner is more likely to be more financially stable. A guy with a modest income in his home country will look like a millionaire here once the currency is converted to pesos.)
Another popular notion is that if the couple has kids, they will be 100% gorgeous. This is not an utter delusion. Our more well-known beauty queens (Venus Raj, Pia Wurtzbach) are of mixed blood. We Filipinos are crazy about certain Caucasian features such as round eyes, straight noses, light coloured hair and fair complexions.
In general most people accept that this happens all the time and that there's a wide range of outcomes. Older generation is a bit suspicious, while younger ones who are globally exposed are indifferent. We are mostly pretty cool about it.
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