I don't know how I missed this yesterday, but The New York Times just ran a pretty unsettling article about the Indian beauty market — specifically, the proliferation of skin-lightening products. A Unilever brand called Fair & Lovely has been selling skin lighteners for decades, but now an increasing number of cosmetics companies — including Avon, L’Oréal, Ponds, Garnier, the Body Shop, and Jolen — are marketing their own products designed to alter dark skin.
Though this sounds offensive to those of us who believe that diversity is an inherent party of beauty, the makers of these products say that reaction is just the result of cultural differences and bias, so read more
Writes the NYT:
Global cosmetics companies — which also sell skin-lightening products throughout Asia and in the United States, where they are marketed as spot or blemish removers — argue that they are just giving Indian women what they want.
Taking offense at the products is “a very Western way of looking at the world,” said Ashok Venkatramani, who is in charge of the skin care category at Unilever’s Indian unit, Hindustan Lever. “The definition of beauty in the Western world is linked to anti-aging,” he said. “In Asia, it’s all about being two shades lighter.”
So-called "fairness creams" are one of the most booming categories in India's fast-growing beauty market. The products are also sold in Asia and the U.S., so this may just be a case of Western journalists discovering something that's already very ingrained overseas. What do you guys think?
Pedro Garcia
Marlies Dekkers
Promod
hmm very true. this is nothing new, i have friends who have been using whitening soap for years. in the philippines, lighter skin is associated with being beautiful. the lighter you are the more people see you in a favorable way. just the way it is. and to be honest, i like light skin. i become very unhappy when i tan, and i tan fast!
1I have used whitening creams before to even out my freckles. However, the minute you go into the sun without protection, the deep color comes back. (Freckles are apart of your skins defense against sun.)
2It's no news that Asian woman perfers lighter skin tone. It's a cultural preference deeply rooted in history.
Back in the days when farming was done by human labor, girls from less wealthy families have to help out with chores on the farm, resulting a tanner looking skin tone.
Only wealthy people who doesn't have to preform hard labor can afford to stay out of the sun, therefore having lighter skin tone.
So lighter skin has historically been associated with wealth and fortune, not with race and ethnicity.
Western journalist should research the social and historic background of Asia before making a judgement.
I would love to be 2 shades lighter, but I've learned to accept my skin tone and save the money on expensive lightening creams....
3I don't think the problem is wanting to be paler. Pale skin has been a beauty ideal for centuries (you can blame Coco Chanel for the tan=beauty ideal). However, I think the quote from Unilever is a clever use of misdirection. What is unsettling is perhaps the underlying reason WHY pale is considered beautiful. Perhaps not in all cases where these products are popular, but many countries were formerly colonies of "Western" (read: white) nations.
I'm not saying its wrong to want to lighten your skin any more than it is wrong to want to tan, as long as both are done in a healthy fasion (both tanning and bleaching can be very harmful depending on the method). I do wish people would be more aware of why they do things rather than being slaves to fashion.
4I was going to say that many Asian and Latin women also use skin lighteners. I think it's really sad that light skin is associated with beauty. AND also how ironic it is that us lighter women want to be darker!
5A lot of our US lighteners are based upon Asian ones from a while ago. It has been a trend over there for centuries.
6I have a Indian friend who told me she does not sun because "she doesnt want to be dark". Needles to say I am African American. She never thought anything of what she said.
7I was mortified!!! So this does not surprise me..
If you go to big stores in the Philippines, you'll often find a whole isle dedicate to skin lightening. It's horrible.
8I love the sun and I do not care how dark I become from taking advantage of life and not hiding in the shade. I believe that the caste system has a lot to do with why light skin is preferred. From what I have observed, most people of color do believe that lighter skin is more desirable. I think that other people use some skin lighteners to get rid of dark spots and other areas of discoloration.
9It does seem unfortunate to me that Asian women want to lighten their skin, but it's not all that different than Westerners wanting tan skin. Here in the U.S. we associate a tan with being active, outdoorsy, and wealthy enough to vacation at the beach, while in other parts of the world, it is seen as the result of doing physical labor out in the sun. I wish we could all be happy the way we are!!
10Ironic since here the fake-tanning industry is booming. Grass is greener on the other side!
11Yeah, whenever I go to Asia, I see tons of stuff that has a whitening ingredient in it. It does kinda bother me. But it's also kinda funny, cause the girls over in Asia are using whitening products to lighten their skin, whilst girls here in the states, use all these bronzing products. Niether really work, some whitening products makes it noticable that you've used something to enhance your skin, whilst the tan booster leaves you looking orange like an oompa loompa.
However, not every lightening product is aimed at whitening skin tones, some just aim to even it out. And i think that is also why so many Asians use it, because they want that procelain look that is ideal.
But then there are always those Asians who are proud of their tans. My friend is Asian, and whenever she goes to Asia, people also comment on her tan skin, but she loves it. The funny thing is, she isn't even dark, just a healthy tan - her skin tone is the same as Jessica Alba.
12Oh I just wanted to add, even though I'm against the whitening aspect of the product, I'm kinda all for the even out of skin tones. cause even though I hardly ever breakout, I'm always left with some discoloration due to acne - which sucks. But I've never tried a whitening product, so I wouldn't know if it does help even skin tone out or not.
13Ok gals,
Why are you against whitening but not against tanning?
How is this any different from the tan phenomenon that is such a big obsession and industry in the our western societies. All the girls I work with - are crazy about tanners even darker ones because it supposedly gives a "healthy skin look" and makes you look "rich & relaxed" i.e. just got back from a relaxing beach vacation...vs. whiteners give the impression of "pampered"
It's cultural differences and we need to embrace it instead of propagating the fact that it's unsettling - the beauty industry will use any twist to sell products - that's what they do!!!
14Hmmm for some reason this article offends me...but I guess I gotta have an open mind
15It is different from the tanning phenomenon taking place in the United States because this is based on deep-seeded racial/cultural issues. Sure, people here want to be tan to look good, but skin color also has to do with your place in society in Asia.
Generally, those with darker skin were those who work outside (AKA toil on farmland, fisherman etc.), so that definitely is an influence on why skin color is taken into consideration in the Asian's perception of beauty. Also, the way it was with any other place, those with darker skin are looked at as "uncivilized."
16edit: those with darker skin were*
17Most of the advertisements for skin whiteners that I've seen were promoting evening out the skin tone by elliminating spots and anti-aging effects.
18From what I've read, skin gets a grey tint as we age, and lightening it up again can do more to make us look young than botox can. This may be a naive way to look at it, but it is another point of view. Then again, pale skin has been a cultural do for centuries in many regions. As others have said, it indicated that a member of society didn't need to work, and was therefore wealthy.
I'm not surprised, in general. But I was shocked to hear about the Body Shop engaging in skin lightening products. The Body Shop seems socially-concious and a lot about empowering the lives of women and facilitating activism. I understand that most cosmetic companies have people dedicated to understanding the insecurities and physcologies of different women for marketing purposes but I always assumed the Body Shop took an empowering approach. I need to check it out.
19How terrible.
20agreed with kaleigh and mademoiselle and anyone else who's sitting here and criticizing skin lighteners while rubbing self-tanner on. it's two sides of the dissatisfied with our bodies spectrum. if you want to be critical, we should ask why there are so many different products to change our natural skin to a different shade, and what cultural imperatives create the need for them. why aren't we okay the way we are? all of us?
21It is kinda funny how da west wants darker skin while its the exact opp in the east. Being an indian and livin in the middle east, i see it in both cultures- people- even men - prefer girls with lighter skin- deyre automatically associated with beauty. My bestfriend always complains abt how lucky i am to be fair skinned even though she's beautiful and tan (not dark), and even i feel like i look less cute when I'm tan. I think it has alot to do w/ our parents talking about " that girl having good colour" or " that girl is nice and fair" but hopefully, things are changing now coz the Indian beauty industry has a majority of darker skinned supermodels and many beautiful, darker skinned actresses are becoming popular too- fingers crossed!
22These creams always scare me. My college roommate was from Nigeria (and never had to wear any makeup with her gorgeous skin, always jealous of that!), and she told me about her aunts back in Nigeria that would lighten not only their skin, but their little girls as young as five. It would damage their skin so badly, and they would pretty much have to keep using the creams, because their pigment was damaged.
23Even in Africa light skin is valued. It's nothing new and has been going on over centuries amongst all races. If we are going to talk about lightening being awful and kind of an insult to diversity etc why shouldn't tanning be attacked.
24im from india. and growing up in the states my mother never let me goto the beach with my girlfriends (im from florida! come on!) and its all because over there being fair is beautiful. but thats nothing new as everyone is pointing out. obviously the more time you spend outdoors working etc you become dark. the richer more afluent people enjoy the indoors. hence lighter skin tones. so i think that must have something to do with it as well. besides, its no different than self tanners over here. lets not judge lightening creams when america is all about darkening creams.
25i guess i don't see this as much different than self tanners.
26its just as it says in the article, 'cultural differences'
27being an asian who lives in the west myself, i have come across a lot of differences amongst my friends and just come to understand it as one of the many cultural differences.
it is true that a lot of asians, latin americans, african americans and many other gals with darker skin tend to want fairer and paler skin. but its not like how you would rub self-tanners on and suddenly we would turn pale-white like geishas! lol
its more about having fairer and even skin tones. its to do with the stereotypes of the society we come from, where it is viewed that people have darker skin tones if they don't take care of their appearances, if they work outside (eg farmers) stuff like that, things that dont really apply anymore.
it really depends on the person, i dont really care about my skin tone as long as it doesnt break out and its not oily!
ooops i think this is by far the longest comment!
i just wanted to write n explain, coz most gals out there think that tanned=healthier skin, for no reason?!
I'm not suprised or offended. Look at how obsessed America is with being tan!?!? The new reality show on E! called Sunset Tan showed a little girl (I think she was 11) going in and getting an $1,100 tan for her school pictures! So this side of the world is trying to be darker, while the other side of the world is trying to be lighter. I guess the grass IS always greener on the other side.
28There's a huge market for skin-lightening creams in Asian too, especially Japan. I've heard that you'll often see "ninja" workers outdoors, simply because they're trying to keep their skin fair so they can pass themselves off as higher class.
29Bella... why is it unsettling?? We do it in the US all the time! Only it's not a skin lightening trend... its a tanning trend... same issue, just reversed...
30the irony huh! Darker skinned people want to be lighter and the pale skinned people want to be darker, or lighter for that matter. We always want what we don't have, it is natural. I am VERY Pale and which I had a nice beautiful tan but I don't want to have to put goop on myself everyday or get skin cancer from tanning too much.
31I don't see the problem if a woman wants to lighten her skin.
It's not too different from tanning. I visit China about once a year and everyone notices that I'm way darker than most of them, but they don't treat me like scum for it, or anything.
Most of the time they do ask if I'm a foreigner, though.
32not a surprise, in my country, indonesia, all beauty products have whitening thingy on them. The demand for this kinda thing is very high, i guess in most Asian country. Me myself don't like the pale look, I dunno I just don't like it. That's why it's very hard for me to look for beauty products here. Because they all have whitening effects in it. And I don't want them. But yea I guess it's kinda the same situation with those of u living in US, for intance, the whole tanning frenzy. In here, it's whitening frenzy! It's very crazy and annoying. I'm not feelin' it at all.
33I know that everybody is all crazy about bronzers and tans here in North America, but honestly, I prefer the lighter skin. I just think it looks prettier.
And if you think about it, aren't tan-loving people trying to change their own skin tones too? So really, whitening products of Asia are the equivalent to tanning products in North America.
34ditto to all above: what's up with the tinted moisturizers? Clearly we're all working toward some perfect-color ideal around the world.
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