Tag Archives: skin-whitening

Dark and light skin as fashion

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by Emina Miki

From this week’s presentation, I realized interesting similar situation between South Africa and Japan. In South Africa, they tried to have lighter skin by using skin lightener, in contrast, in the past in Japan a lot of young girls tried to have darker skin by using cosmetics. Their ideal skin colors are different from each other, but it is same that they try to be different skin color from their natural skin color.

In about 2000, there were a lot of young people especially girls with darkened skin and white lips in Shibuya, Tokyo. They changed their hair to gold, burned dark their skin again and again at the tanning salon and put on almost same figures because that style was the vogue at that time. Japanese young women would think darker skin is more beautiful as same as that South Americans have thought lighter skin is beautiful. Moreover, Japanese women painted their eyes using pens. In general, young Japanese girls with dark skin have been called “yamanba” ironically. “Yamanba” means the ugly old woman who lives in the heart of a mountain. However, they didn’t change their figures. On the contrary, they made a community and one culture at that time. The center of the trend was absolutely people with dark skin. So this age ended cause of the current of the time, but in South Africa they banned to use skin lighter because that was bad for face and they might lose pride in being black. I think this is a big difference between them. In Japan, though there were some people who don’t like their looks and their looks caused a lot of fuss, it wasn’t punished. Actually I thought they lost their natural identity because the face after making up and tanning was too different from the face without makeup. Also they didn’t want to make appearance in natural face, but people with dark skin were some of Japanese, so it might not ban their behavior.

In conclusion, I think the use of skin lighter in South Africa was considered as bad thing to face and the product which was promoted of hating the color of their skin, so many opposition movements occurred there. In contrast, young women’s behavior such as tanning their skin and painted their face by pens was considered as just the vogue. So I thought many people have thought that it would end in the near future though their behavior affected their healthy bodies.

Skin Colour, Gender and Marriage in India

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by Isabel Cabaña Rojas

 

When the moment comes to look for reasons of why Indians conceive beauty as they do, it seems that nobody can come up with a clear explanation. Many argue that the ideal of fairness has existed since ancient times, manifested in the stories and myths from Indian gods and spirits, where darkness and light were in battle for the primacy of the world. Whereas some others state that, more than that, the presence on history of British colonizers, and the socio-economic structure they established in India, pervaded all the cultural spheres, including the ideals of beauty. But, regardless of the origins of this particular and powerful feature of Indian culture, is interesting to notice how deeply rooted is in the daily life of Indian, especially women, who define their life according to this value, the value of being ‘fair’. As Philips (2004) points out, fairness has become a ‘symbolic capital’ that is ‘disempowering’ women, particularly in their freedom and election to marry someone. The fact that in India marriages are arranged emphasises more the power of skin colour on their lives, because both are things, at the end, women cannot choose.

For men the things are not much different either. For them, white skin is also a value and an attribute worth to fight for, but the responsibility of achieve this colour is less strong than in women. A dark-skinned man can still have chances to marry a fair-skinned woman… the other way around, no way! So when thinking on the relevance of race in the contemporary Indian culture, and its linkage with marriage (and all the industry surrounding it) one should necessarily connect it with gender. And somehow with social class. Inasmuch as I wonder how strong this really is in the general culture in India: is this situation in all the regions of this country? Are people living in rural areas really concerned about their skin colour? Is it a middle/high class issue? As, supposedly, a post-colonial heritage, fairness is at some point linked with belonging to a certain social level, that of the ruling class in opposition to the darker working class of Indians.

But, what seems very important here is the role that new generations, especially those of Indian descent abroad (as Indian Americans, for example) will have in the perpetuation of this custom. There are people already criticizing what this perception of colour is doing to the culture, especially to women (and not only in the social sense, but also in health, considering the massive use of bleaching creams). According to Vaid (2009), in the Indian Diaspora, at least in the United States, there are no signs that this is something to be left behind.

References

Gosai, A. (2010, July 19th). India’s myth of fair-skinned beauty. The Guardian online.

Guha, S. (2010, March 23th). India’s unbearable lightness of being. BBC News.

Philips, A. (2004). Gendering Colour: Identity, Feminity and Marriage in Kerala. Anthropologica, 46(2), 253-272.

Vaid, J. (2009). Fair Enough? Color and the Commodification of Self in Indian Matrimonials. In E. Nakano Glenn (Ed.), Shades of Difference. Why Skin Color Matters (pp. 148-165). Stanford University Press.

Vaidyanathan, R. (2012, June 5th). Has skin whitening in India gone too far? BBC News-Magazine.

Fair Skin and Marriage in India

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by Cherry Zhou

In marriage advertisements, there are numerous ways to describe yourself or your desired partner. Detailed information can be divided in to non-physical factors and physical ones. This chapter (“Fair Enough? Color and the Commodification of Self in Indian Matrimonials,” by Jyotsna Vaid) shows that skin color matters in Indian matrimonial over time. Although there is no single origin of the conscious of fair skin being beautiful, one possible explanation is that British colonization led to a preference of lighter skin and the introduction of Western notions of beauty. In India, fair skin was and probably still is considered as an indicator of belonging to a higher caste, social standing and hierarchy in society. People are likely to link fair skin tone with wealth and education, whereas those with dark skin may be perceived as low-income workers.

Through the reading, I also found that there exists a gendered pattern of mentioning skin tone in marriage ads. Women mentioned fair skin more than twice as often as men. Figure 9.5 shows that the the percentage of mentioning fair by women increased a lot overtime.

It may also be possible that Indian women are more sensitive to messages about social norms than men; they fully understand that to highlight fair skin in marriage ads is advantageous for themselves. On the other hand, however, men are less conscious about the importance of their physical appearance, skin color in particular. Men face far less pressure than women to have fair skin. Darker skin tone in men may be compensated by assets such as having a well-paid job, overall economic security and a good personality, whereas women are likely to be evaluated and judged only on their physical appearance

But there may be a change in this idea since more and more cosmetic companies like fair&lovely are staring to sell products targeting male customers. With more and more male celebrities endorsing skin products, male’s consciousness about fair skin may change in the future.

What this chapter didn’t mention much is that whether fair skin really improves marriage prospects, especially for women. So I did some research about this question.

The author is right about the fact that a large percentage of marriage in India is arranged marriage, even nowadays. Since the socially constructed idea is that fair skin is ideal beauty so it certainly can influence a person’s chance of finding suitable partner. For women, marriage is considered to be extremely important for lifelong economic security within Indian cultures. Sahay and Piran (1997) suggested that: ‘In many Indian languages, the words fair and beautiful are often used synonymously, and there is often a preference for a female with light complexion in marriage, if other considerations are equal’ (p. 162).

Moreover, this chapter argued that there basically is no resistance or critique of the emphasis on fairness as a marker of beauty even over periods of time. So through the diaspora, future generations of immigrated Indian people still remain to have their traditional ideals about skin tone. Overall speaking, what I found shocking is that there’s so much emphasis on looks in India, especially about being fair. In Indian culture, fair skin was perceived to increase one’s likelihood of an arranged marriage, and this suggests that some aspects of physical appearance are more important than others factors.

Reference:

Sahay,S., & Piran, N. (1997). Skin-Color Preferences and Body Satisfaction Among South Asian-Canadian and European-Canadian Female University Students. Journal of Social Psychology,137, 161-171.

Globalization and the image of success

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by Asako Morita

Globalization brings us so much information by mass media such as TV and Internet. Historically, America and other western countries have led world economy and therefore they who have succeeded in business and living sophisticated life became the model of success. Whether they are actually happy or not, media especially TV dramas which shows how free city life were broadcasted all over the world and people tend to think this would be the life when they become rich. The scariest thing is globalization even change typical life style and people’s life aim.

Especially, I was interested in women’s global beauty. The globalization made the ideal women and people take it as a big market. This global market and the typical ideal beauty invades society and culture, and sometimes people think it can destroy tradition and originality, I think no one can stop it in this capitalism leading world economy and even it influences a lot, the basic identity and tradition would never change.

For instance, since pale became the image of success among worldwide women, whitening products were targeted by multinational companies and sold thousands of them. These advertisements such as TV commercials also created the image clear and even more penetrate in society.

Not only whitening products but also choice of clothes is influenced. When I visited India, I was so surprised when I saw TV programs. Most shows broadcasted totally western lifestyle. Women are dancing at dance club wearing sexy dresses. Even woman wear a sari which is a traditional Indian dress was exposing shoulder and the breast. It was like Indian actors and actresses imitate part of American culture. I remember that I felt so strange the pictures I saw on TV were completely different from what I saw on the street outside.

However the fact TV programs, other multinational products and other factors affect on different countries and culture, I think this is the result of globalization and capitalism. As long as America which is a capitalism country leads the world economy, we can never stop the image formation and marketing of multinational companies. It may influence on different cultures, but it does not ruin each culture. Traditions and basic cultural morals cannot be changed easily since they have taken over for long time. The western influence may create different life aims but culture and lifestyle have changed in each time and I think people are just adapting how to live the present age.

All that you can be

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by Hsinmin Wang

As a woman, what do you want? The eternal desire of beauty, to satisfy self-esteem, getting better occupations and a happy marriage? Believe it or not, you can get all of these as long as you have a light skin tone. Just spending several pennies buying a bottle of skin lightener, woman can achieve whatever you want. “Because you’re worth it.”

It is the message we get from our daily life, a image constructed by beauty merchandisers.

In Shades of Difference: Why Skin Color Matters, Evelyn Nakano Glenn discusses three questions: 1) “How is skin lightening interwoven into the world?” 2) “What are the media and messages, cultural themes, and symbols used to create the desire for skin-lightening products among particular groups?” 3) “How do consumers learn about, test and compare these products and what they seek to achieve?”

I’d like to categorize the attitudes toward global trade of lighteness into three discourses: beauty discourse, public health discourse and global marketing discourse. Assuming you have already read this chapter, this article composes of criticism of the book.

Shall we regard there is an invisible manipulation of people’s aesthetic?

Beauty discourse

The main idea of aesthetic comes from each country’s culture and ideology. “White is right” is comprised of culture and ideology, though nowadays scholars tend to assert that people’s preference on lighter skin is the outcome of colonial racial ideology, but I want to highlight the importance of culture influence here. In fact, we can also discover the highly valued “white is good” culture in history. White means noble, purity, innocence and intellect whereas black means lazy, evil, and ignorant, isn’t it just like the image of angel and satan? Angel can give anything you want and ask nothing in return but Satan will take away one’s soul.

Public health discourse

Obviously frights over mercury, hydroquinone, corticosteroid and peroxide couldn’t beat up the eagerness on demolishing black pigment and melanin. When authority severely banned the toxic in skin lighteners, it neglect the reason behind the demand on these products—color discrimination.

Yes, I swear I know the importance of healthy skin., but what if I can only get what I want from lighter skin color? I admit that I don’t like when scholars talk about skin lightener always trying to emphasis the toxic chemical ingredients in cosmetics and skin care products. It made me feel that they view woman trying to lightening their skin as a ridiculous behavior. In my personal opinion, toxic skin productions are not only a public health but connoting social hierarchy problems.

Global marketing discourse

It’s impossible not to mention the role of mass media and internet in global markets. Especially with the rising of social media, in one hand it enhances the influence of mass media, on the other it spreads the concept of western aesthetics to the world and changes people’s outlook. Under marketing strategy, audiences believe we can control our own body, the body is changeable. Look at those celebrities, they must have done something to make their skin tone so different. I recognize the beauty industry’s marking strategy is not only to change the aesthetic but to provoke a concept that one’s body is one’s property which can accumulate social capital. In a way encouraging people to chase the “improvement” of body.

To summarize the pursuit of skin lightening, I regard these behaviors more likely to fulfill Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. For safety (employment); belonging (sexual intimacy) and esteem (confidence), and unfortunately the beauty merchandizer penetrates it.

Lighter skin or Photoshop?

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by Isarin Furutani

Evelyn Nakano Glenn covers the previously discussed concept of how people seek whiteness in terms of cosmetics and creams more from the corporations’ perspectives. According to the basic economic rule of demand and supply, there are extremely high demand for skin whitening creams (many reasons we have discussed before), if high demand exists, capitalists will then seek to fill up the space by creating the supply and make profit through this. In this, people, especially women, demanded the product even if it was made illegal. Therefore we see the smuggling being done. The market is also huge and segmented at the same time, meaning that despite the existence of the same demand for skin whiteners, people in different categories demand for something a bit different. This category can be done through age, race, ethnicity, or location. This concept is pretty standard as different cultures have different perspectives on whiteness but more do share a trait of seeking for “whiteness”.

Global whitening is currently a huge market especially in Japan. According to one of the sources, Japan has the largest market in skin lightening ($2bn) and this market has been estimated to grow more in the future to $10bn. This might not as surprising from seeing how men are also starting to buy cosmetics or facial creams looking at the ads in Japan.

In my presentation I will talk about the market in Africa, America and India. I have found one interesting article on the Fair & Lovely company that originated from India.

This picture has been criticized by consumers and specialists in providing the wrong message through the use of “photoshopping”. Dermatologists have analyzed the product and the product actually contained no chemical that could bleach or whiten the skin. The product is safe because there are no bleaching chemicals but without those chemicals the whiteness created in the picture was very questionable. The picture was not taken from the women who used the product throughout time but a mere fake illusion of the product image the company wants to make. Is this type of advertising really ok is very questionable.

Sources

http://www.whiterskin.info/global-skin-lightening-market-predicted-to-reach-10-billion-by-2015/

http://www.whiterskin.info/images-in-fair-lovely-ads-are-allegedly-photoshopped-or-retouched/

Consuming lightness

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by Ayano Tsukada

It seems like more people are eager to become “whiter”. First, it looked very weird to me that more people are wanting to be whiter in today’s world where “we are perfect in our own way” type of idea become more wide spread than ever. However, where the yearning for lightness comes from is far more complicated than I thought. People have different reasons and different ways to be whiter.

Evelyn Nakano Glenn shows what drives people’s desire for lightness in different regions and how that is influenced and used by the cosmetic and pharmaceutical firms.

In African and Indian diasporas, the legacy of colonialism seems like to be the biggest cause of people’s desire to become whiter. Skin tone is a major marker of status and a form of symbolic capital. In Latin America, too, skin color and tone are closely related to one’s social status and capital despite the national ideology of “mix is beautiful”. The majority of elites has light skin and European appearing whereas rural poor are predominantly dark skinned and indigenous appearing. In these countries, lightening one’s family line by marring with a lighter-skinned partner is also a common way to become whiter. Migration from rural areas to cities or has been another way to be socially whiter. And, of course, many use skin lighteners to change the appearance of one’s skin. In Asian countries, light skin is also a symbol of modernity and beauty. In Southeast Asian countries, the notion that Japanese and Korean women represent ideal Asian beauty has created the huge market in skin lighteners that are dominated by Japanese and Korean companies Whereas in East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, and China, people are wanting to have European appearing, therefore, whiter skin is necessary as well as having bigger eyes and shape noses.

Multinational biotechnology, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical corporations play an important role in the skin-lightening game. They approach to different targets by using different strategies and it seems like they are accelerating people’s desire for light skin. Connecting lighter skin to other social factors, we internalize the idea of white is right and have become more attracted to those products even more.

From above, people’s, especially women’s, desire for lightness is pretty obvious as is evident from the wide spread and growing use of skin whitening around the world. The author says the desire for lighter skin and the use of skin whitening products is accelerating in places where modernization and the influence of Western capitalism and culture are most prominent. This desire can be seen as the result of colonialism, a manifestation of false consciousness, and the internalization of “white is right” values. The fetters of self-hatred were created centuries ago, and therefore, freeing ourselves from them would not happen easily. The author also says only educating people about the diversity of types of beauty does not change the whole picture. But it can be changed. It has to.