There has been an interesting debate going on lately about skin whitening creams. Skin whitening? Yep, skin whitening. Many people in the States complain that their skin is too white. Hence all the tanning beds (one of the most disgusting inventions ever!), spray on tans, and tanning creams. But here its about having lighter skin and not dark. And it goes for both men and women. I once heard a mother say that her son was (and I quote) “a little too black.” Because of this, she was worried that he wouldn’t find a good wife. So the solution? Skin whitening creams! And there are a lot of them!
The following commercial is in Hindi, but you’ll still get the picture:
And here’s a CNN bit about the commercials (although I have to say this is somewhat making news out of nothing, as all news agencies can do at times):
There’s also a popular Indian soap opera called Bidaai about two sisters “one fair and the other rather dark.” The mother starts to mistreat the “rather dark” one because of her looks. You can see the idea of lighter skin is still very ingrained in the culture.
I’m not going to get into the correctness of this idea, nor of the companies using this idea to sell their products. But this is a great example of difference of thought in different cultures. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say.
I believe this issue is much deeper than just skin tone. In the US it’s got a lot to do with vanity. There isn’t much judgement that comes along with being fair skinned or not. In other cultures (India for sure and some African from conversations I’ve had) it’s the basis for a great deal of judgement.
I think you’ll be hard pressed to find many cultures where increased fairness tends to impart drastic judgement or stigmas. It’s generally the other way around for reasons beyond the scope of this comment :).
I certainly agree, Jaisen. But I didn’t want to bring racism (for lack of a better word) into the discussion. This is a matter much deeper than I showed in the post, but I brought it up only as an interesting point of conversation.
Last year when I was in Kolkata, I had my skin (face) bleached. That wasn’t part of what I had requested, but it was part of the overall bundle of services that were forced upon me once I was in the seat! It stung a little for the next few days. But it also caused me to think about exactly what you are thinking about now.
interesting… thanks for posting!
in 20 years we’ll probably being hearing about all the lawsuits against these companies for causing skin cancer…