The amount of times that my own family, friends and sometimes random people in the shopping mall will tell me to use papaya soap or whitening products is crazy, considering I was born with darker skin and I can’t really change anything. Constantly hearing “you would be prettier if you were whiter” is sickening. This is not just applicable to me, as the media and celebrities also endorse the idea that you should have whiter skin, whether it is advertised subtly or overtly. You would be surprised by the amount of whitening products that are currently on the market right now, from soaps, skin care sets, bleaches, diets and pills.
There is a distinct desire in certain regions, say for example, east Asian countries, to have whiter skin. This idea of whitening your skin is not a new idea. Historically, having lighter skin was attached to the idea of achieving a higher social, economic and wealth status. In the Philippines and other east Asian countries, you could identify who was poor and who was wealthy based on skin colour. Having darker skin has all these negative connotations and stereotypes attached to it, even though most of the time it’s not true. The idea of having white or whiter skin has the attached idea of purity, beauty, wealth and higher social status.
In a way the media and society see people of darker skin as “the other”. Historically “the other” was seen as deviant and existed outside the boundaries of what society considered normal. Mentioned in the lecture slides and readings, Robert Ferguson describes the concept of the other as “a means of imposing meaning rather than negotiating meaning through dialogue… This has meant that the concept of the Other has become an ideological signifier or considerable discursive power”. I guess you could say that even in your own country where the mass majority of the population are the same ethnicity, we still come across discrimination between skin colours that the media and society tend to highlight and that you can still become a minority in your own country.
In the end, does it matter who’s white and who’s not? Why should people like myself, born with the supposed ‘bad luck’ of having dark skin have to augment our appearance just to have a semi-decent shot at life; to avoid the negative connotations of having dark skin? Why should we artificially apply these products, and maintain them every day just so my family and friends will value me more?
‘F’ the soap.
‘F’ the soap.
I agree with you so much. I did my blog on a similar product and it is so sickening that these products exist. As you said, it shouldnt matter what skin colour people have.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time ive seen the GlutaMax ad you posted and i cannot believe things like this even exist. They portray the dark skinned version of her as minority as shes in the background. Her hair in the lighter version is straightened and shown as the ideal. The ironic thing is that she looks more beautiful with her natural skin tone and hair.
I can't believe derogatory advertisements like these still exist in our society! The first picture in particular reminds me of a late nineteenth century Pears’ Soap advertisement. Here is a link to an image of the advert:
ReplyDeletehttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Pears-1884.jpg
These advertisements were not only an extreme example of overt racism but also were used to justify imperialism. The above advertisement illustrates a white toddler effectively 'scrubbing the blackness' off of the black toddler - turning him white and implying that 'blackness' was akin to dirtiness. In doing so it reflects the idea of the 'white man's burden' - the widespread belief that it was the responsibility of the white man to ‘cleanse’/’civilise' non-Europeans – and portrays non-Europeans as racially and culturally inferior. The advertisements portrayed in your blog above reflects many of the same ideologies and I would not be surprised if they stem from early racist and imperialistic images such as those depicted in nineteenth century Pears’ Soap advertisements.
I agree with what you're saying! Because Im Indian i understand the issues behind having fair skin implies you are from a wealthy family etc. With Europeans it's usually the other way around. Thanks to the perception of beauty that the media advertises there will never be a perfect especially when it comes to skin tone.
ReplyDeleteWe are born with our skin tone and i think we should recognise that this is no longer due to your socioeconomic background.
I think the issues with beauty also stem of the casting and roles of models in advertising you hardly ever see a coloured women as it is not considered the norm.