Fashion + Beauty
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Is white skin more "beautiful?"
These kinds of beauty news stories really bum
me out: A Bollywood-style advertisement for a skin-lightening product
called "White Beauty" (subtle!) in India features two women and one
dashing dude, who is torn between a dark-skinned woman and one with a
paler complexion. Guess who gets the guy?
The "whitening" market in India is similar to the one in Japan,
where a pale complexion is considered by some to be a valuable asset,
teaching millions of women to feel ashamed of their natural skin color.
One Indian feminist speculates:
"It is strange. There is such a
premium placed on pale skin," said Urvashi Butalia, a historian and
director of Kali for Women, India's first feminist publishing house. "I
am not sure where it comes from. It may have something to do with
India's history of being colonised by various people and that there is
a hangover of the idea that Aryan people are superior and Dravidian
people--those who were already here--are inferior." --The Independent
When
it comes to many beauty ideals, the grass is always greener, so to
speak. It seems a part of human nature to desire what we don't have:
straight hair when ours is naturally curly; long, thin legs when we are
petite; and so on. But when it comes to altering the color of one's
skin, when does aesthetic become racism?
Hate to be left on such a suspenseful note? Here's the five-part saga in full, featuring Thai actors Benjawan Ardner and Wittaya Vasukornpaisan.
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Related: skin lightening, skin care, ponds, japan, india, bollywood, asian
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Posted by suffocate_me_2 Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:59pm PDT
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Besides, Michael Jackson made himself white and look how well that turned out...
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Posted by kaliluna Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:02pm PDT
Wow, that add is really sad. I can't believe Pond's put out a product like that, but I guess there is a demand for it. Personally, I have always loved darker colored skin. Maybe because that's I'm as white as a ghost, I don't tan for nothing and will turn bright pink at the drop of a hat (which I hate). I'm freckled and pasty. But women with color, wow! I can see the racism in a product like Pond's, telling women that they aren't good enough unless they are white, and that really disturbs me. I haven't watched the entire saga yet because I haven't decided if I want to. On one hand, I'm curious. But on the other I already know that the Indian girl is going to lighten her skin to get the guy and I don't care to see that. One of my favorite movies is Bend It Like Beckham, where the Indian girl falls in love with her white soccer coach, who were white best friend also has a crush on. But guess who the guy picks.. yep, the Indian girl! Parminder Nagra is so beautiful (Kiera Knightly is too, but also is kind of bland if you ask me).
I don't know, maybe I'm the exception here. I've always been fascinated with people who have different skin tones than me because I've just been one color... white. One of my best friends is a Native woman who has this amazing brown skin and gorgeous raven black hair. She doesn't like her hair because she can't dye it (it doesn't take color) and I want her hair because it's gorgeous! lol Women are just like that, like you said, we always want what we don't have.
Anyway, back to the discussion at hand... here's what I think: a) Pond's should be ashamed at itself for promoting a product like this and contributing to the idea that all women should be white and b) women need to become more self-empowered and love themselves instead of what they look like. It's all superficial anyway!
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Posted by gahrahstah Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:08pm PDT
I think skin color is a very individual thing. Some people look beautiful with milky white skin, especially if they have red hair and freckles to match, but for others, dark is beautiful. As a "white" person, I have so say, I've personally been struck more by the "sallowness" of pale skin rather than repulsed by dark skin. Dark skin is usually silkier in feel, ages slower, and doesn't show every red blotch. I think personally that is an advantage.
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Posted by drivesafely68 Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:49pm PDT
It isn't as much racial per se as it is socio-economic. It is about caste and class.... read "The Song of Solomon" watch "Gone With the Wind"
Women with darker skin in some areas were assumed to have been out in the sun ... working. Women with paler skin had the money to stay in doors. Scarlet's sisters freaked when she made them work out side and they got all freckled. "upper class" women carried parisols to block out the sun.
It wasn't until Coco Chanel started sporting a tan did it become fashionable... Usually a tan meant lower (working) class.
I am 40 and did my share of damage as a teen... young women out there.. STOP the Madness!!!! I see young girls the color of shoe leather and I want to stop them and tell them start saving for Fraxel now.
I don't tan anymore but with my age and coloring? A little bit of self tanner and bronzer go a long way. My sister is fair with red hair and gray eyes... and she rocks it.
No matter what shade you are...feeling good about yourself makes you beautiful... and if it takes some leg make up so be it.
Why dis pond's for selling a product... We don't get angry at them for selling us products that will supposedly make us younger or our hair shinier....If we didn't create the need for these products? They wouldn't sell them.
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Posted by radicaledward444 Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:57pm PDT
is it any weirder than adding dyes to your skin with products like jergens natural glow? It's the exact same principle except in the opposite direction.
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Posted by deedee Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:58pm PDT
That commercial is despicable. Shame on Ponds for selling such a product. That being said, whiter or lighter skin being thought "better" is still more prevalent in the US and around the world more than we think. The majority of our most famous black actresses are light skinned blacks and mixed race women.Halle Berry is the biggest black actress out there and she is mulatto, as they say. In black romances the women are usually lighter than their boyfriends and on hispanic TV darker people are rarely on and when they are, they are being ridiculed. I am Puertorican and my race is a mix of Spaniards, Taino Indians (pure bloods are now extinct) and Black. I am very light and we are encouraged to marry light skinned Hispanics to keep as much of the "white" as possible. I married a black man and my family was not thrilled even though black is part of our race. Its racism, pure and simple, and it still exists.
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Posted by devilishangel61401 Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:48am PDT
Shame on Pond's for promoting this. =( I think everyone is beautiful in the natural skin tone color and hue that they were created in, be it milky white, pinkish white, dark bronze, carmel, black, or skin with yellow undertones. I find it so strange that other countries push the milky white skin, and in America you're supposed to want to be tanned all year long. What is wrong with companies promoting beauty in all skin colors , shapes and sizes. Diversity is a beautiful thing
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Posted by dudette Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:38am PDT
WHy don't people as angrily towards the promoters of the the fashion to tan? Surely, if it's wrong to make dark-skinned people feel they need to lighten up to be beautiful, it must also be wrong to make pale-skinned people feel they must tan to be beautiful. Shame on Pond's? Shame on Banana Boat, too!
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Posted by just thinking Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:41am PDT
What's very interesting about the mindset of 'white skin being better' is how many white people that are always trying to become darker.
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