So i've been wanting to address this, but i've been to busy doing illegal med procedures (a.k.a. bout of lazyness).
Skin Whitening. You can bleach your skin, choose from an amazingly silly range of creams, face wash...ect.ect.
So, is it racial?
As i'm sure you know, i am a parasol tottering person who most of the times smack my face in this mineral foundation that makes my face paler per usual (btw, the foundation is called "geisha" and i like the geisha look). Half of that is for medical reasons, i carry a parasol because:
1) exposure to strong uv rays/sunlight causes me to break out really badly with MILIA, as my dermatologist has said to me "you have underdeveloped eye glands", so sadly, my milia does not disappear like it should, and there is no cure for it but a nice sharp needle to push under my skin and get those tiny cysts. And it really hurts.
2)i can't use sunscreen or any cream that has alot of chemicals or oil in it because it will cause me to break out.
Now, there are such products as "Ponds Flawless white" a 7 day regime to make you "achieve the desirable whiter/fairer and visibly clearer skin" or a money back guarantee- is this racism in disguise?
In India, it is acknowledged, the more fairer you are, the more "beautiful" you are. And skin bleaching is done, even to kids. This thinking has been ingrained through the ages- so is that alright? Or is it still "wrong" in terms of being racially correct? There was an ad in india where a
dark-skinned girl used whitening skin creams to make her father happy because she got a well-paid job as a flight attendant. (huh??!)
So the markets are flooded with skin whitening products- especially in Asia. In my magazines i brought back from japan, in the face cleansing section they happen to have, its all flooded with "super photo white c gel cream", "super photo white c mask", "camu camu whitening lotion", "UVC's white plus", "Pond's double white", "labo+labo moisture white", "fancl white essence"....I mean, when did the world get so obsessed with being "fairer"? as blogger Nikki has said "Is it some form of self-loathing so much that people think they will be deemed more attractive if they have a lighter shade, or different color? It sounds like a clear statement about how we perceive our racial image or class image. Is it racism? Or are we merely a victim of beauty companies cashing in on society’s desire for white skin?"
when did white skin get equated with social acceptance, and seen as a "higher" form of beauty?(in asian countries)
There are people whom i know who like their fair skin, so alls fair (no pun intended) and well- they like their fair skin, and they don't mind other skin colours, but its their preference.
But of course, there are skin bronzers out there, which is quite the western craze...and...it seems alright- it doesn't provoke the same kind of response "skin whitening" does...but, i think, most of them, they're it both doing for the same reason- they think it makes them look more attractive. So how does this all ad up?
p.s. i'm sorry for the disjointedness, my eyes feel funny in a bad way.
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What is the Active Collective?
The bloggers here were formerly of the Active Collective, a group of young women banding together to discuss issues of critical importance in today's society, and working out ways to raise awareness, especially among youths, based at Wellington East Girls' College. Everyone on this blog has left WEGC and so moved on from the AC, but we'll continue to use this space as a soapbox for discussing issues that matter to us.
There is a new generation of young passionate young activists running the Active Collective at East this year, with their own blog. Go check it out.
There is a new generation of young passionate young activists running the Active Collective at East this year, with their own blog. Go check it out.
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8 comments:
but dude, theyre really hard out about skin tanning too.
i think just as equally, if not more mainstream (especially in new zealand).
everyone wanted to get a tan before the ball.
i think its supossed to show youre fun, spend time at the beach in the sun and are carefree.
the indian thing is partly a traditional class issue, for example if you had dark skin, you were a worker or middle or lower class, who laboured in the sun.
if you had light skin it meant you were higher class and could afford to pay people. so its not neccesarily a "LETS BE WHITE TOO" thing,
it might just be a traditional thats what is asthetically pleasing thing, because people would fall for the richer, lazier people. not the workers. but if you were a worker, you had to make do.
ah yes, but thats in the past, what i'm talking about now is the current trend, which does not involve showing off your "class", because that is obviously not the case in asia right now- maybe in india, but not in china, taiwan and japan, where the market is the biggest. but it would be oddly funny if there was a whitening cream called "I do No Labour, turn white and rich whitening cream UV+30".
lol at the "LETS BE WHITE TOO".
wtf man?
who the f*** wants white skin??
seriously? the more tan i am the happier i am
you go too white you end up looking like...........*dramatic pause* a VAMPIRE!
i dont see why white is considered beautiful..prolly some sort of western thing
maybe being white is associated with the type of people that swanned around in parlours all the time....back in the day i mean
gee everyone in singapore loves white skin. Mothers hate it when theyr kids are out in the sun because they get darker. Apparently the whiter you are the prettier you are. But really, thats not the case because when you bleach your face it looks artificially white and thats quite unappealing. Everyone should just be happy with theyr blackness. *grin*
^argh, my sis wont stop about all the comments about how nice her skin is. I kinda think she looks like a washed out banana/cloth.
well, its a social and personal issue isn't it, and the companies feed off that. i guess thats it.I would never use that stuff too, zomg all the chemical reactions!!
I think it's all about wanting what you can't have. More tanned people may pine for porcelain skin while fairer people say they would love to tan instead of burn.
I'm completely generalising here but you could say Asians would like blue eyes and blonde hair while Scandinavians admire darker hair (wait, are people fairer in Scandinavia?).
Anyway what I'm trying to say is someone somewhere would rather your skin tone and you'd probably rather theirs.
IT was a class/status thing in the olden days too, so perhaps it's not purely trying to look 'white' in terms of ethnicity. Poor people were more tanned, because they had to work outside in the fields. Rich people were paler because they could stay inside or have people carry parasols above their heads. So that whole porcelain look was desireable if you were trying to match-make your rich daughter.
I think nature has a balance in the end - if you burn easily, your colouring probably suits being pale.
I guess the whole tanning salon thing is because being tanned can make you look skinnier in that it hides celulite, and it also makes your teeth look whiter.... maybe.
I think bleaching and fake-tanning are equally odd things.
An interesting point about the Indian (and also hispanic) ideal of the whiter the better.
A friend of mine once said...
"As Indian we want to be lighter. But here in New Zealand you want to darker."
Maybe we all want what we don't have. Strange complex. It's agood thing though because it motivates us.
But this obession with chemicals for skin whitening and sunbeds is very bad.
This also shows a huge difference in culture. LOL.
Another fun fact: in India the fatter you are the more fortunate you are because it means that you are wealthy.
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