African American Women

The women in Nigeria believe that in order to find a husband they must be fair skinned and the only way to accomplish this is through the use of the skin bleach. They did not come to this conclusion by themselves. While watching the documentary Skin Bleaching Addiction, I noticed that the Nigerian men also showed a preference for the lighter skin women. The men in the documentary made comments about how they prefer a woman with lighter skin due to preference but they did not approve of the women that bleach their skin since these women “look like ghost or sickly”. Among African American’s the ideal has evolved into wanting a woman with light skin and hair that is Caucasian type. (Hall, 1990) This blatant kind of colorism is what is helping
Indian ads that are used to set up dowry and marriage proposals usually look for women that are fair to light complexion and women that are darker try to make themselves look as light as possible. There are many stories in which Indian men that are seeking marriage with these women will not meet the woman if she appears to be of darker pigmentation. One prime example of this is an advertisement that mimics the Bollywood film and it is an advertisement for Fair and Lovely, a very popular skin bleach in India. The scene opens up to a family that is struggling with their finances and the father exclaims that if only he had a son then their troubles would all go away. His daughter feels saddened to hear this so she escapes to her room where her mother gives her a large tub of the Fair and Lovely cream. She uses and cream and is able to become light skinned and prosperous because she is able to get a high paying job and support her family. At the end of
They believe that skin bleaching in multiple cultures has to do with white supremacy. The effect that white supremacy has on people from different cultures is amazing since this idolized “white standard” of beauty is seen around the world ranging from Africa to Asia and India. In all the countries where skin bleach is abundant and used to become the ideal image of beauty there is an aversion to darker skin. In Japan and Korea people avoid going outside frequently because they do not want to get a tan. The tanned skin in Asian cultures is associated with a lower caste and they have a negative opinion of people with darker pigmentation. In Asian countries having whiter skin is associated with a class of people that are wealthy enough not to have to work out in the sun. For example in South Korea and Japan some women and men obsess with having pale almost milky white skin and use skin bleach or whiteners to achieve this. Japan is one of the largest commercial distributors of skin bleach in the world. In India being fair skinned is associated with a better likelihood of being married and being successful. In India skin whiteners are used and advertised quite a bit too. In recent years the market for skin whiteners and bleach has grown exponentially and has revenue of over 6.1 billion dollars. This raises another question, Are these products