Bleach, Nip, Tuck: The White Beauty Myth

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1. History does play some part in why people from certain regions of the world want to lighten there skin, as the colour caste system was also used in latin America and the carribean (not just in Asia) by the Spanish, British and portuguese, whereby the lighter you were the better jobs you got the better you were paid etc etc and now its been engrained in peoples head for so long that over time, it has become part of their culture, to see lighter skin as being better. Our more recent history as also has its part to play, in giving ethnic minorities inferiority complex's, cause America's media, film productions and music reach's a wider global audience than others, yet in most of that, its nearily always the case that when they show attractive black women they will be light skinned or with almost European features whilst unattractive, obese or average looking black women roles, are played by dark skinned black women with typical black features, in some cases they've just used mixed race women to play the roles of black women because they are usually light skined and look less black, actress's like Halle Berry, Thandie Newton, Sophie Okonedo and Marsha Thomason to name a few. You would have thought that black Americans would re-adress this balance in their music videos, but sadily this is not the case for in most rap and r&b videos they only ever feature attractive black women who are light skinned or on the rare occasion she's not, she will at the least be almost European looking. A simular practice in America also happens to other ethnic groups in their media productions, for instance when showing a attractive latin American woman or Native American woman she will be someone who is very mixed and will have very little of her ethnic features, infact even in the case of men very few latin Americans chosen for acting parts, are of Indian or Amerindian descent and may look more European and how many attractive oriental women do you see star in American producions, yet in nearily all their productions you will see attractive white men and white women without fail. But britains not been much better, I've hardly ever seen images of beautiful dark skin black women in the magazines, papers or tv or of attractive Asian or oriental women since growing up in England in the 1970's, infact now you got these magazines like zoo and nuts as well as papers like the sport and the Sun and daily star which only ever feature loads of images of attractive white women only. The problem is that in the West, white people are seen as the epitome of beauty and all other races are judged according to their standard, rather than seeing that beauty comes in different forms, like they do in art, like Picasso and Michael Angelo. The thing is when are we going to stand up and say enough is enough before it goes further, it is pyscologicaly damaging and theres no one to go to and no one seems to care about it.

   Posted by RyonChristie on 11/11/2009 09:44:10

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2. Listen up guys, here we go again. Black people are not into anything call "skin whitening". Again the words are conveniently chosen to suit the racist agenda of a certain group of people. Within the black community a lighter shade of black is seen more than a darker shade - and simply has nothing to do with white. In fact, black people in general thinks white skin are too pale or too white, and find it just as unattractive as white people would find the darker shade of black. Within the black community, the lighter shade or brown skin finds the white skin a turn off just a the very black skin. They think they have the perfect shade. This is what lead a few black women to LIGHTEN thier complexion, NOT WHITEN. Black people don't be cajoled, tricked or fooled.

   Posted by ChocolateBar on 11/11/2009 00:33:13

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3. This article is very interesting, and much more accurate then the bleach, nip and tuck documentaries, particularly in relation to the desire that some non-caucasian people have ie, to want lighter skin. The article doesn't suggest that this desire for lighter skin is deeply rooted in colonialism. Actually, in South Asia, lighter skin has been prised as beautiful since before colonial times, it has been suggested that when the arayan people (who originated from central asia) came to northern India, they forcibly took over the country and made the local darker skinned people feel inferior. This is where one theory comes from with regards too the hindu cast system that is still quite prevalent in modern day India. The British and Portugese colonialists may have taken advantage of this existing prejudice against dark skin, and reinforced the existing idea of fair skin being more beautiful and connected to power, money and status. Non of this was explained properly in the documentary on the subject, and just like the first programme (about surgery done on the body), the secound documentary on the face also made the mistake of presuming the poeple on the programme wanted too become 'white'. The Bangladeshi woman (Tahira) was lightning her skin in order to be a lighte skinned Asian woman, not to 'become' caucasian. The programme on faces has featured people who do seem to be trying to look more caucasian, which the previous programme on bodies didn't. However, I found it offensive and rediculous to say that each race has certain features and there are never any people who originate from that race who don't fit into that stereotype. Yes there are certain differences that can be noticed between the races, but it would be foolish to suggest that no one ever blurs the lines of the stereotypical features of the race that they belong too. It is wrong to stereotype people into certain catergories by looks, aswell as behaviour or lifestyle. The documentary 'Bleach,nip,and tuck' only served to reinforce the stereotypes of 'racial features' and appearence.

   Posted by Shakirah on 09/11/2009 03:07:42

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4. Very interesting Dr. Mire and very disturbing at the same time. I now have a new take on the advertisments aimed at North American women that are meant to fade age spots and discolouration that we see everyday in Canada. I had no idea that these products contained bleaching ingredients. It is so sad how superficial and "skin deep" our world view of beauty really is.

   Posted by AleyshaDerksen on 04/11/2009 18:58:15

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