This is a horrible thing,I had an Indian friend and she had that issue, she heated dark skin,and it was a shame.We live in Florida and in the middle of the summer she would wear long sleeves and jeans so her skin wouldn't get any darker. I think that the color of your skin doesn't matter, dark is beautiful.

The products wouldn't bother me as much if it wasn't for the idea that one color is "superior". And actually I don't know if I would completely dissociate tanning from this considering how some people seem to think being pale is a bad thing and will be rude enough to make stupid comments towards someone who doesn't tan (fake or real). And it's especially disturbing to teach a child that there's something wrong with the color they were born having. There's nothing wrong with it to begin with. It doesn't need to be changed.

That's too bad, I think Indian women are completely gorgeous with any color skin tone. I never really realized that it was an issue with Indian women. I think that it's terrible that women are using lightening creams, but in the end, it's their choice. I think that kids shouldn't be able to use them though.

This is beyond "beauty product" and onto societal/cultural issue, I think. Yes, in America tanning by different methods is popular...but I don't know anyone who thinks that people with tan skin are "superior" or vice versa.

In some ways, too, it makes me think "the grass is always greener on the other side..." I know many Caucasians that would love to have the dark skin of an East Indian, and apparently, many East Indians what to have the light skin of a Caucasian (I'd trade any day!)

This sickens me as much as the US media pushing thinness.

I'm half Indian, so I luckily have the natural skin tone of a light tan. After living in Boston for four years, my skin became lighter with the lesser sunshine - moving back to California, I instantly became darker (even with wearing sunscreen!). Most of my friends in California said I finally looked "healthy". My relatives though, lamented that I became darker. Its really a cultural thing...

I am South Asian, and unfortunately the idea of 'white' skin being beautiful is very pervasive. It all goes back to the colonial times of when the British ruled over India/Pakistan/Bangladesh and the idea of white superiority and beauty became the standard. That being said, this issue is not just unique to South Asia, I have traveled widely and whitening creams are sold by Olay, Ponds and many of our favorite brands profit off these ideas in Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and even East/South East Asia (China, Japan, Indonesia, etc).

I always feel betrayed when I see those whitening products sold by these huge brands!

Sadly, I don't see these ideas of beauty changing anytime soon in these communities.

What disturbs me is that the creams have carcinogenic chemicals and how horrible it is to expose a child to those health dangers. Self-tanning by using creams like we do here as far as I know or haven't ever heard of them having carcinogenic chemicals (obviously tanning by the sun is a different issue) so I don't think it's the same thing- plus I've never seen or heard of children being forced to use bronzing products here. I do think though even in the US there is a something where people with tans are considered like better looking - maybe that's not the right word but I think there is a strong stigma to be tan here (e.g. why many people in Hollywood are orange all year round) but not so severe where people here would think tanned people are "superior" or anything that extreme.

I CAN'T BELIEVE ANYONE WOULD TELL THEIR CHILD THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE WAY THEY WERE BORN. THAT'S BEYOND HORRIBLE TO ME. IF YOU WANT TO ENHANCE SOMETHING FINE BUT TELLING A CHILD THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE LIGHTER SKIN, ABSOLUTELY NOT. THE WHOLE THING WITH THE AMERICAN OBSESSION WITH TANNING DRIVES ME INSANE TOO. AREN'T TANNING BEDS HARMFUL IN THE LONG RUN? I MEAN, C'MON. I WOULD MUCH RATHER AGE GRACEFULLY WITH MY PALE SKIN THAT'S BEEN FAUX TANNED THAN DEAL WITH THE LONG TERM DAMAGE OF TANNING BEDS. SAME THING WITH THIS.

It's a class thing. Too bad that the kids are being pushed into it so early

My Taiwanese family is the same way about light/dark skin. Whenever they see me with pale skin, they're all, "Oh, you look so pretty!" and when they see me with a tan, they make faces and ask why I've gotten so dark. Peek into my cousins' medicine cabinets, and all you see are a huge array of whitening creams.

I forgot the mention that I don't necessarily think the tanning obsession is equivalent to this, just that I wouldn't completely separate. Actually recently I read something where someone tanning in Central Park used the word "Yuck!" when talking about "pasty" New Yorkers and that kind of pissed me off so I was thinking about that when reading this.

As an Indian I can unfortunately say that these statements are completely true. What's more is, it's not really comparable to the tan-mania in the West which is purely a beauty thing, whereas the fair skin obsesison in South Asia has to do with beauty, social status and affluence all in one go. There are some very, very beautiful girls in there who are dark and therefore ranked as 'okay-looking' girls rather than beautiful. The most successful actress in Bollywood, Aishwarya Rai, is as white as a Caucasian and has light eyes and therefore considered the epitome of beauty. Now she is beautiful for sure, but she definitely earns points for her very light skin. Other naturally-dark actresses such as Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu and Deepika Padukone are miraculously lighter in their make-up ads compared to IRL. It's frustrating really. I'm all for light skin and eyes if it looks naturally beautiful, but I really hate to see dark beauties prefer an ashen, artificially light look to their own glowing bronze skin and derive their sense of self-worth from it. This kind of attitude is also present in the Far East and in African countries or at least so I hear from friends. A pity.

it's very popular amongst all Asian countries, we strive to be white while westerner's strive to get a tan. some people are not happy with their own skin color. it's all vanity but is definitely a big business

This article is 100% true!! Im from india...Everyone here wants to be in Kareena's colour(the one in the photo)My friends are obssesed over having lighter skin tone, even though they look gorgeous in their skin! I too use a skin-lightening cream, but not to become light, but to its a very-good face cream which suits my sensitive skin, it has sun protection! I will never want to become light, i dore my true skin tone!! But, this skin colour thing is becoming a very big issue in India, that too on children..horrible! To make matters worse, Even some girls here are not getting married for being dark...atrocious!!

I don't think it's just an issue with Indian women particular, mainly all over Asia. Including South East Asian countries and including northern parts of Asia. They have LOTS of whitening products and it's more disturbing they promote them on TV and having an idealistic reason that lighter skin is beautiful.

I just returned from a trip to Vietnam with my parents and noticed the beuaty counters lined with skin whitening lotions. From speaking to my cousins, I realized the trend is to be as fair as can be. I went back there wearing short and sleeveless shirts hoping to get some color while everyone else was covered head to toe in fear of getting dark in the extremely hot weather.

I'm Indian... born here though... and I have caramel colored skin, which in India is considered dark. If I get darker over the summer, my mom always makes a comment about it. In India, that's just how it is... and it really sucks... you almost can't even be considered beautiful if you have dark skin. And even though I was born here, the culture is so drilled into me that sometimes I wish I had lighter skin. :-/ Ironic... Indians want to be light like Europeans and people with light skin want a tan.

"Indians want to be light like Europeans and people with light skin want a tan."

I think in general, sad to say, it's human nature to hold up the rarer trait as the desirable and beautiful one.

Sad but true. Some people feel it's a post colonial hang over. Whatever it may be...it's wrong. Unfortunately it spills into every facet of an indian girl's life. Especially since most of us opt for arranged marriages. I'm indian and I have so many friends who've been 'rejected' by prospective grooms because they're 'dark'! Makes me sick to my stomach. I think all my indian sisters should boycott these whitening products. When I was in ad school, I remember a rep from one of these companies coming to talk to us and revealed that most of these products are nothing but sun screen. The ads are misleading and damaging. If any of you have the time, just take a look at any indian matrimonial ad and you'll FOR SURE see the word 'fair' used again and again...and you'll know why these companies rake in profits by the billions...

I'm asian and I love my Olive tone skin.

This concept of black is bad, white is good has such a broader reach than I once thought. It's so upsetting that people aren't taught to be comfortable in the skin they're in as children.

The idea of being lighter as beautiful is EVERYWHERE other than the US. My parents are African and my mom would tell me stories about how it was very popular in her boarding school for girls to use their allowance money for lightening creme, my mom on the other hand was "lucky" because she wasn't as dark as the other girls. (Then again she also got made fun of for being too skinny and tall, all qualities that is she were born in the US she would be a supermodel by now.) Also part of my boyfriend's family is from South America and they also talk about how the lighter a person is the better looking the person is, and how sad is that kind of self hate.

Just wanted to say that I am so fascinated by everyone's thoughts on this subject!

As a young woman of color, who is very proud of her complexion might I add, it really bothers me to see how many women believe that the fair complexion is superior or more beautiful. What bothers me more is the psychlogical issues behind these beliefs and other insecurities. This is a reflection of our nation and the ideals that we push forward. There is more to be done than just getting rid of the "whitening cream" market. The idea of "ideal beauty" the no one will ever be able to achieve is what we need to get rid of.

"applying self-tanner to get a 'sun-kissed glow'"??? Well those words were very choicy in not making that sound bad don't ya think. But isn't this issue just the opposite of making your skin darker...or tanning as we would like to call it? I'm not condoning it because the truth is both of these methods are quite weird to me. Many Americans don't really like being pale. I agree with lotuslight- "the grass is always greener..."

I am also half-Indian but have actually never heard anythign from my fam about my color. My Dad is pretty dark for being North Indian so I am decently tan without laying out, but still pretty fair when I am in India. Most ppl in India do tell me how beautiful my fair skin is which is so crazy coming from the States where everyone wants to be darker. It is really sad how beauty affects your whole life there! My cousin has vitiligo so will never marry.

I couldn't see the commercial - is the one with SRK getting all the girls where the dark skinned guy can't get a date? Some of thsoe commercials are SO atrocious. I think Bipasha and the darker girls look better than Kareena any day!

I hate this. I'm an Indian, and I guess I'm on the 'fair' end of the Indian skin colour spectrum. Set that aside, I'm nothing great to look at. My cousin on the other hand, has a gorgeous figure, AMAZINGLY clear skin, and beautiful features. She could be a supermodel, but the only thing she sees in the mirror is her dark skin. I'd choose her beautiful chocolate skin over my only sickly yellow one ANY DAY, but whenever we meet, she never fails to hold out our fore arms and make that STUPID comparisions.
They say that it's a colonial thing, that the fair- skinned British left this feeling of dark- skin inferiority behind when they left, but that isn't entirely true. Indians have valued fair skin since the ancient times.

I would say how sad this is, but I'd be totally hypocritical. I'm super white & no amount of tanning will change that--even sunless tanners don't work on me. I hate it. It's so ugly. I lived in China for a year & everyone thought I was so beautiful. They couldn't understand how I am most definitely not attractive in America.

"They couldn't understand how I am most definitely not attractive in America."

I totally see where you're coming from, but I don't think it's quite on the same level over here, culturally. Many of the women Americans consider to be "hottest" are actually quite fair--look at Megan Fox. And the overtanned look is mocked as often as not. It's definitely not as much of an absolute standard here, I think.

From south east asia here and this concept is very common here too. The amusing thing is that we also get tanning products marketed right along side whitening products... so well it just seems most people want to be another colour skin.

What bothers me the most about this is that it's not merely a vanity issue. If you don't have fair skin you are looked down upon or -as in another commercial shows- you won't be able to get hired for a job solely based on your skin tone. It's just said that something as shallow as this matters more in the long run than intelligence or talent or personality. It's just plain sad.

If Megan Fox is pale, good lord, what am I?! She's like 10x darker than me. Sorry, this isn't about poor me & my pale skin. I know it's not the exact same thing--people don't think I'm inferior because of my skin color. And I do feel sorry for these kids that have to hear such awful things from their parents. My parents never said they had to fix the problem of my white skin. I would also never do that to my child...although, she'd probably be half-Asian, so wouldn't have the same issues.

the grass is always greener on the other side.

As a human being I am disgusted!

As a human being I am disgusted!

This is definitely a cultural thing. And, I think it's exactly what soulight said which is "the idea of being lighter as beautiful is EVERYWHERE other than the US".

I'm South East Asian. So, you should be fair skinned and free of blemishes/freckles. I'm fair skinned but freckled. Ugh. My parents always tell me that freckles are not pretty and that I should always wear sunscreen to prevent them from appearing. OH WELL...=P I like my freckles just fine.

Wow, I really didn't know much on this subject, but it is quite shocking to hear that parents are having their children do this, especially since it contains harmful ingredients. This really is sad.

I'm Chinese, and most of what other people have said is completely true. This ideal of lighter skin is huge in Asia. Whitening products are everywhere, and everyone looks for makeup in light shades so to make their skin appear whiter. It's an ingrained cultural feeling, I think. My cousin makes frequent comments about how she won't wear certain colors because it makes her look darker. I am born with pale pale skin, and as a child, all my relatives praised how white I was. I thought it was crap. Also, pushing this stuff onto little girls is unacceptable.

However, growing up, I always thought that when people complemented my "whiteness," they were referring to kind of a glow. There are differences in undertones in skin, and I think that a pink undertone is what really makes people notice the "whiteness" of your skin. I always thought that the Asian products aimed at preventing sallow-colored skin, not necessarily to bleach the skin but rather to bring a glow to it.
That's just my personal take.

I believe that it is the same as tanning, straightening your curly hair, curling your straight hair, getting fake nails, whitening your teeth, surgically enhancing your body,etc. Only I don't believe that these are issues that a child of any age should be subjected to. Children should live serenely within the realms of childhood until they are of adult age.

DAMN YOU FAIR & LOVELY!!!!!!

My mom always scolds me for getting "burned" in the summer ... meaning getting darker. I personally prefer not to get any darker because I have eczema that looks 10x worse in the sun. But I wouldn't touch my beautiful Bengali skin with any of those lighteners ... I won't even go anywhere near holud. My fix-all for looking bright, regardless of how light or dark my skin is looking ... is loads and loads of Pedialyte to restore electrolytes to my system.

I'm so glad I don't have a problem with burning like light skinned desis.

I am really proud of BellaSugar for this article. As an Indo-American women, I have dealt with these issues all my life. As a child, I was lauded for my fair skin, which my relatives in India actually called "clean" (granted, something is lost in the direct translation, but still, I thought it was an interesting description). I got darker with the California sun, and although I can now accept myself for who I am, I still catch myself complimenting my friends on their light skin!

i cannot accept that skin lightening creams have any similarity to the fake tan products. one of these is a serious socio-cultural issue and one is a 'fun' cosmetic option for those of us who are pale to look tanned on occasion.

if you read the comments here, the women whose cultural background is indian, asian, or african -- their experiences are eerily similar. my family, as a group of descendants of northern europe, pays absolutely no attention to our varying shades of pale. if we just look at the comments by the darker toned women here, family pressure to be 'lighter' seems intense.

if family is pressuring women to be pale, imagine the greater social pressure??? i cannot imagine any caucasian family pressuring each other to use fake tan products. marketing the products to children is horrifying.

for interesting reading on the subject, check out Michael Korda's book "Queenie" as well as "The Sweeter the Juice: A Family Memoir in Black and White" by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip.

your resident anthropologist,
cheryl

When I was younger my family wanted to use this especially since I had freckles. They used to buy some uber expensive creams and then get mad at me because I would just chuck them in the trash. On the flip side now that I am older they love my freckles and when I am golden brown.

I think tanning is similar to lightening creams. The idea behind being lighter is that you're rich enough to stay in and not have to work in the fields like in Asian countries. For Europeans and Americans, being tanned is a sign that your rich enough to travel, and that being dark is exotic. I don't see there being any difference between these two ideals other than the fact that they give impressionable kids the wrong ideas about beauty.

As a few have pointed out though this is not really just an Indian thing. My female black friends don't use lightening products but do lament that the majority of the black stars are light skinned and/or half-white (so light). Some of my female Hispanic friends hate to be called morena. It seems to be more widespread than Fair & Lovely in India.

That being said, the stigma associated with darker skin does not appear to be so strong in other cultures. It is definitly no surprise to hear my cousin say he must be "untouchable" before even learning someone's name and family background due to skin color (and let's not even begin to debate the caste system). So sad that beautiful darker women don't appreciate, and aren't appreciated for, their beauty.

Well, the difference is that if you're pale or untanned in the West, you're not going to have to worry about not getting married, or not getting hired for a job! True, tanned people are people that can afford sunny vacations, but they're not going to get stigmatized if they CAN't. that's the difference imho.

you do make a point about perceived wealth, that is what tanning was all about in the beginning (first popularized by coco chanel).

the difference is, that having a fake tan doesn't help me find a husband or better paying job.

~my comment was in response to bengalspice

(me too) bengalspice

The same pressure occurs in so many asian countries. I'm Asian myself and I can feel how everyone thinks white looks best. I am so tan from the California sunshine and proud of it!