Comments on: The quest for a lighter shade of pale

By: gavin

gavin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:18:25 +0000

that notion was correct 100 years ago or more, and was a sign of wealth, not physical beautiy necessarily.

By: The quest for a lighter shade of pale « ~Random Musings~

The quest for a lighter shade of pale « ~Random Musings~ — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:01:13 +0000

[...] Comment! The following is an article that I recently came across in MacLeans: The quest for a lighter shade of pale. [...]

By: Do Indian Women Want Lighter Skin? - Page 3 - Specktra.Net

Do Indian Women Want Lighter Skin? - Page 3 - Specktra.Net — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:00:59 +0000

[...] Re: Do Indian Women Want Lighter Skin? Quote: Originally Posted by tottycat So, it’s not just pale redheads that have tons of freckles! I have just as many, but they are not as noticeable because I am not extremely pale Me too!!! I’ve got Asian skin with slight yellow undertones but around my cheekbones, I have some spotty freckles and they really annoy me. I admit to buying some of these whitening creams/masks before but it’s because I use them to try to even out my skin tone and imo, I feel that a slightly fairer complexion works better with the makeup I put on. And as a side note, I flipped through my Maclean’s from last week (I think it was last week) and came upon this article, which is imo, similar to the first article and it scares me that it’s so common for advertisers to demean other people based on the colour of their skin to promote their product. I’m all for capitalism in some respects, but when this happens it just makes me sad. Here’s the online link to the article I was talking about if anybody’s interested!!! Macleans.ca » Blog Archive The quest for a lighter shade of pale « [...]

By: Lisa Willen

Lisa Willen — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 02:26:57 +0000

Interesting. I’ve been watching ads for bronzing products and tanning salons for years and yet I had never heard them referred to as racist or offensive. We all know that ultimately advertising is only concerned with the bottom line….dollars. If you find the commercial or product offensive, don’t buy it. I would like to give more credit to the ladies in Asia. I just can’t believe that the advertisements for these products are responsible for low self esteem. I do believe that some savvy advertising firms and companies noticed the issue and decided to exploit it. Why is this a surprise? The pharmaceutical companies do it all the time. What we should be investigating is why this product is popular. Maybe it’s as simple as we all want what we don’t have and we have a problem just accepting and being happy with who we are. We need to stand back, take a look, and decide which came first…the chicken or the egg?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:55:24 +0000

“I’m by far from an expert on what Asian women want but my limited understanding is that dark skin is a sign of working outdoors (ie manual labour) and light skinned is a sign that you can hire someone to do your manual work.”

This was the same perception that operated in the West until the 20th century. Pale was the ideal. Once the industrial revolution was complete, the toiling masses went from working outdoors in the sun to indoors in factories and offices. Suddenly, having the leisure time to develop a tan was mark of wealth and the whole perception of beauty was turned on its head.

The whole point of this exercise is that beauty is a moving target. If ever a large number were to achieve some old standard, a new standard would arise that was more exclusive.

In other words, I’m not sure how racist it is. At least, I don’t think it’d be more racist and denigrating that those industries in the West.

By: The Power of White « Gender and Asian Traditions

The Power of White « Gender and Asian Traditions — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:21:31 +0000

[...] Recently in the MacLeans magazine (yes the same one that ranked us so highly there was an article on skin whitening creams http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/11/14/the-quest-for-a-lighter-shade-of-pale/ [...]

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:01:24 +0000

I’m by far from an expert on what Asian women want but my limited understanding is that dark skin is a sign of working outdoors (ie manual labour) and light skinned is a sign that you can hire someone to do your manual work. Nice to see the outrage industry is flourishing elsewhere in the world.

By: TobyornotToby

TobyornotToby — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:31:14 +0000

So we have discovered that Asians are susceptible to the same sort of Inadequacy Advertising as North Americans and Europeans?

It seems that advertisers have succeeded where Esperanto failed. We are finally all one people, all stupidly feeling bad about ourselves and trying to look and be something else.

Now me, I have a real problem, I’m too tall. Anyone know where I can buy leg shortening cream?

By: Amal

Amal — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:22:44 +0000

I don’t get it, there is a tanning salon on almost every corner of the Continental U.S./Canada. Our women are trying to look like the same women who are trying to get darker?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:57:16 +0000

I currently live in Korea and this is all too apparent in Korean culture. It is not only the cream whiteners that women use, but myriad of methods to appear more ‘caucasian’. One of the most common in Korea, and maybe elsewhere in Asia, is eyelid surgery.

I believe this will become an ever more important socio-cultural issue as the East becomes more influential in this global age. I’m glad to see a dialogue is now being formed in India and in the West.

By: Raj

Raj — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 04:44:57 +0000

Seems like all the skin whiteners are not helping the Indian women in their quest to become fashion models. Indian fashion houses prefer the real white, as in European, not the pseudo white, ie., an artificially whitened Indian!