Skin-whitening ad ignites race row in India

they wanted to start showing adverts for it for the asian community in this country a while ago (i think on satellite/cable tv). It was in the news, don't know what came of it.

In parts of the US (so i have been told, correct me if i'm wrong) in black communities, the lighter skinned are seen as more attractive. Seems like a wider cultural thing than just India.

In the past it has been highly fashionable for white people to be pale too. Hence why Elizabethan women put lead based white powder on their faces.

Media has a huge impact on what society marks as beautiful. The dominating features currently leading are white skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair, especially for the "All-American" girl. (which is so inaccurate, but when you pick up your local magazine, or the leading ladies you see on tv or the big screen, diversity is limited.

Its amazing how over the centuries, the image of what beauty is tends to affect woman more than men. Woman have suffered from foot bindings, binding your chest, wearing insanely tight corsets, using chemicals in your eyes, bleaching skin and hair to the latest phenomena of cosmetic surgery, and these examples don't even cover half of them.

The sad part is that all these "beauty techniques" have documented negative side effects that have left woman crippled, disabled, blind, and sick with numerous health problems they would have never encountered had they had the opportunity to learn how to love their unique beauty.

Its amazing that people in this day and age, think that bleaching your skin is a GOOD thing. Its amazing, and sad.

unless you look into it deeper its hard to come to a conclusion about it. is it portraying negative views about race, or is it just the same as tanning? without further research and knowing people's motives, manufacturer's motives, taste-maker's motives it's hard to come to a conclusion about this.

but ignoring the race aspect for a second, beauty ideals are constantly changing. as misticblue mentions, they want from binding womens chests in the 20s to get that flapper boyish look, to corsets to give curvy hips-waist-chest in the 40s/50s/60s then you got a skinny thing coming through when you get to the later 60s. Things change. This could change again.

Most Glaswegians are whiter than toothpaste and will spend months in sunbeds just for a "healthy" glow. this is just people associating success with looking like one of those famous skanks

Aryan has nothing to do with being blond haired and blue eyed(only), and everything to do with a certain spiritual and noble class of being. This is a huge misconception.

J_current

I don't think this has anything to do with racism; people are always attracted to what is rare and exotic and in Indian society, that happens to be pale skin!

I think it's no different from tanning unless it is more ingrained. Of course if the skin bleaching products are more harmful to the skin then tanning it could also be a problem.

it does remind me a lot of we pale westerners and our "tanorexia" trend. if u ask me, nothing looks (or feels) better than healthy, natural skin.

Maybe I should move to India. I'm as pasty as they get.

I was thinking that it was just like tanning but not.

I wouldn't want to take something like this away from people that are doing it for a better reason than wanting to be like a "white" person. I don't know what that reason is, but I'm sure there is one or two.

I think this has more to do with who is going to use it than why it was put out to be used. It is a psychological thing, I think. It's important that people understand that beauty starts from within and reaches out, it doesn't start from out and reach in.

These shows like Extreme Make-over do a great thing for people that have problems that they could not over come physically, but all the beauty on the outside cannot convert all the "ugly" on the inside. That's something that the person has to do.

So no matter the alterations one might do on the outside if they leave their inside a mess, they are still only a mess.

Shhhhh, heaven forbid the world should know that Indians perpetuate a form of self hatred in their own country.

ugh, being white is a pain in the butt!!

This is nothing more than the urge to be different. To want what you don't have.

I am Irish/French/American Indian and I am always looking to tan to make myself darker.

Younger and older alike in the US are always tanning. I see the skin lightening as nothing more than reverse tanning.

Though I think it is much harder and costly to acheive. In my opinion, discrimination is not the case.

Why would you WANT to look pale?

It's the same as tanning--it's just what's in fashion. I personally prefer pale skin while most in the U.S. prefer darker and more tanned skin (on myself, not on others).

personally i don't care what skin color a woman has as long as she is looking good it doesn't really matter.

although i do have a thing for redheads....

This has been happening in West Africa for a while too.

But I'm sad the commercial preying on women's insecurities is not restricted to America, or even the western world. You have to be skinny, or bronzed, or pale white, or have big boobs. I guess that's just human nature.

Where was this when Micheal Jackson was 18? Could have saved him a lot of cash.

I was amazed by the number of skin-whitening beauty products on the shelves in Asia on my trip last year. I finally asked some locals about it in Cambodia and they said that in their society - your skin color is perceived as a reflection of class and education. Those that do manual labor outside have darker skin from being in the sun than people that work indoors in professional occupations. One of the owners of our hotel told me he always wears a hooded shirt so he can shield his face from the sun.

im going to have to agree with most people that this is not about race and the desire to appear "white" but rather a mixture of the desire to appear exotic (and in india pale skin and light eyes is exotic) and also like ajcowley mentioned, throughout time pale skin has been considered a standard of high class because it means you are indoors all day and dont have to work outside. Theres a beautiful Punjabi wedding folk song called Madhorama Pehncha which speaks of picking a bride and one of the lines (more or less) says "lets pick the fair one with skin like butter."

I for one though have always found Indian skin to be absolutely gorgeous and would kill to have that rich caramel skin....but sadly no matter how much i tan I will just be either pale or sun burned heh. I guess you always want what you arent!

If your pale you want to tan, if your dark you want to be lighter, the grass is green or is it greener?

Some say the roots of this are in the fact that the working classes of old would be working outside in the sun, therefore becoming darker. Whereas the rich and powerfull would be shrouded and protected from the elements.

Im kind of yellowish which is fine by me. lol

in times of yesteryear a tan was gained from working in the fields, so being tanned meant you were of working class, so the rich made their faces pale to show they didnt have to work in the fields. why cant people just be happy with how they are?

Haha, I can't believe this story has made it on current. I've been talking about this for years.

We americans are always trying to change our outer appearance so why are we should we look down on them for doing the same?