"Catering To Your Skin Whitening Needs"

[dixiegrrrrl]

http://www.skinwhite.com/

**The unique "Skin White Serum" formulation was launched on 30 July 2000
and is now marketed in over 30 countries. **

I am speechless.

[pnutbutr]

1. why?

It's a product for people who want fairer looking skin.

[Raineyb]

12. Are you for real?

[pnutbutr]

13. *feels arm, checks head*

yeah...

[Raineyb]

17. If you can't get how pathetic it is that someone would feel the need to use

skin lightener then there's really no point in continuing this discussion.

[pnutbutr]

19. One can never be too

white you know.

Come on man. It's a product that provides something lots of people actually want. Blemishes and stuff, skin discoloration in areas all can be reduced using products like this. It has nothing to do with racism or anything else negative you may be assuming.

[Raineyb]

38. As per usual, you are wrong

Check post #29 for a more in depth reason as to why you are wrong.

[lumberjack_jeff]

20. Exactly. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment with a tanning bed.

:eyes:

[Dorian Gray]

25. It's pretty popular in Asian societies

Japan/China.

Bizarre, but true.

[Raineyb]

37. You can find it in this country too.

It does not change the mindset that this cream represents.

[Hannah Bell]

41. status of white/pale skin in asian countries being originally derived from

its association with not having to work in the fields (class-based), & not through some comparison with caucasians.

another example of how folks who privilege race go wrong in their social analysis.

just as tans became privileged in the west when they *stopped* being associated with outdoor work & started being associated with leisure.

[OhioChick]

2. Hmmm....

Guess I'm ass-backwards with trends. I tan. :D

[TahitiNut]

15. Ditto.

I never feel better than when I've spent so much time in the sun that I can go tubing down the Salt River outside Phoenix ... spending 5-6 hours on the water and NEVER bothering with sunscreen because my skin's so deeply tanned.

It drove my dermatologists nuts ... they consistently gave me full rein to sun tan as much as I want. (I got good skin.)

Friends and coworkers used to find it remarkable. I was darker than my black friends and coworkers ... but BLOND. (An aged "surfer dude.")

[Bucky]

3. Check out the names from the testimonials page

http://www.skinwhite.com/testimonial.htm

Posting by:

Deepak, Turkey, on 15th January 2007
Kamal, South Africa, on 11th January 2007
Partho, USA, on 7th January 2007
Sanjay, Ireland, on 4th January 2007
Timothy, United Kingdom, on 29th December 2006
Constance, USA, on 28th December 2006
Reza, Canada, on 20th December 2006

[QueenOfCalifornia]

4. I give people

snow blindness when I wear shorts.... I have to warn entire rooms of people to look away or lose their sight.

[pacalo]

6. If you prefer not to tan in the sun, Lancome has the BEST self-tanner on the market.

I've tried them all & this lotion's tint is the most believable, by far. I've recommended it to friends & they love it, too.

[supernova]

11. Thanks for the rec

I've gotten into self-tanners the past couple of years.

[pacalo]

26. This one dries quickly; you can see the results right away -- an added bonus.

[AllieB]

24. Thanks-most of them make you look orange and smell awful.

I certainly don't aspire to the John Boehner look. :D

[pacalo]

27. I've been a user since they first came out. The absolute worst was QT!

[supernova]

5. Skin lighteners have been around for ages

But us tightie whities don't usual notice them.

In this particular instance, I'm really thinking this is satire?

[imdjh]

7. Porcelana nt

[supernova]

8. Oh yeah, I remember that

Doesn't Jolene cream have one too?

[mainer]

9. some people may need it for melasma and other pigmentation irregularities

not necessarily just to make their faces whiter, but to bleach dark spots.

[supernova]

10. Yes, a lot of

these products are sold as a way to even out skin tone.

[AspenRose]

14. They're based out of Singapore

In just about every culture, where you have lighter skinned vs. darker skinned, the dominant forces within that society usually promote lighter over darker. It happens in Black culture, Hispanic culture, Middle Eastern culture, and Indian culture (as in the subcontinent).

"Everyone wants a healthy fairer looking complexion that will show our good poise and greatly illustrates our image."

Poor English, to be sure...but I think the underlying meaning is understood. :-(

[supernova]

18. Yes, because in colonial times

the lighter skinned folks faired better with the white occupiers.

Brutal, but that's the truth.

:-(

[DrCory]

36. It Goes Deeper Than That...

Skin color as an indicator of class status predates European influence, at least in Asia. As it was explained to me when I lived in China, pale, smooth skin symbolizes the luxury of not having to labor in the fields.

[sakabatou]

16. I have to ask

if Michael Jackson is the biggest user.

:yoiks:

[Freddie Stubbs]

21. No more bizarre that white people who use tanning beds, spray-on tanning products, or

sunless tanning lotions.

[Chovexani]

29. It really bugs me when people attempt to equate these things

Skin bleaching != tanning. The two practices come from entirely different sets of neuroses born from entirely different contexts and expectations about beauty.

White people who choose to tan do so because looking like an Oompa Loompa suddenly became fashionable. That beauty trend comes and goes, and is honestly on its way out at the moment. Class issues do come into play with it to a certain extent; in the Victorian era, pale skin meant whites were idle rich and didn't have to work outside, now tans mean whites have enough disposable income to jet set to beaches and tan. But at the end of the day, it's an issue of vanity and aesthetics divorced from any kind of political pressure or consequence.

In contrast, some PoC use skin bleachers because it has been drilled into our heads that the white European standard of beauty is the only valid one so many times that some of us have sadly internalized that. Women of color have a certain dimension of politics to our beauty choices that white women never have to deal with (the only thing that comes close is the shaving debate--which women of color also deal with). No white person has ever had to endure anything other than teasing about being pale, or maybe sunburns. Whereas PoC have been indoctrinated almost since birth that in order to succeed in life you have to be as light as possible. We are bombarded in the media with images of almost entirely light-skinned women of color with European-looking features and told that this is the only way a woman of color is beautiful. Until Michelle Obama came along, all of the "it" black female celebs lauded as beautiful were light-skinned (Hallie, Thandie, etc. and this goes all the way back to Lena Horne for crying out loud). Hollywood is not alone, Bollywood is just as guilty. Dark skinned actresses struggle to get roles.

See also: "Good" hair vs "Bad" hair, passing, etc. And just about every ethnic group of color has wrestled with issues of colorism, exacerbated by colonialism. I'm not exactly Halle's complexion but I have had to deal with the "high yella" taunts since I was a child. This colorism is even encouraged and profited from by our modern-day colonialism called capitalism. Ask yourself why Unilever launched a "Real Beauty" campaign in the United States with ads that laud "real" women's bodies and diversity while simultaneously marketing a skin bleacher called "Fair and Lovely" in South Asia, with ads that play into every neurosis born of colorism in Indian culture. Search Fair and Lovely on YouTube and prepare to vomit. Similar ads in other countries, particularly in China and Japan, play on women's fears of being dark and therefore ugly.

For all of these reasons I just fucking hate when every discussion of skin bleaching and/or colorism among PoC gets derailed by talk of white people's tanning habits. They are not the same thing, at all.

[AspenRose]

40. Yep

My jaw dropped when Alicia Keys was chosen to "portray" Michelle Obama in a magazine recently.



Nothing against Ms. Keys, but couldn't TPTB find a beautiful chocolate woman closer to Michelle's complexion? :eyes: Say, like Aisha Tyler? She even has Michelle's tall build!



If they pick someone like Beyonce to play Michelle Obama in the inevitable made-for-TV movie, this high-yella sista will pitch a fit!

[Hannah Bell]

42. value of white skin in asian countries has the same origins as it does in the west.

it meant you weren't part of the working class.

& since most chinese were until recently members of the class who worked in the fields or outdoors, i doubt the use of skin whiteners in POC has much to do with white people, still.

[pnutbutr]

48. so basically

you are saying everyone should go along with the trends? Trying to compare social trends of other nations with ours doesn't work either. Social trends are rooted in culture and unless you wish to see other nations replace their culture with ours you shouldn't be making comparisons like that. You also tried to compare a trend from the victorian era to today which isn't going to work either. The reason people bleached skin back then is not the same reason as today. Today it is done for vanity, same as tanning. Not to show financial status or class elitism. Besides, who really cares what people do to themselves.

[Cleita]

22. Similar stuff has been around for decades. White women have used it

to bleach out freckles. Although some of my Asian friends have told me that among Asians having whiter skin is more desirable. I don't remember any of them doing anything about it. I can't imagine any one of African or Native American heritage wanting to use it.

[Chovexani]

32. This is an issue that has been around for decades in communities of color

Black, East and South Asian, Latina, you name it. I've known women of color from just about every ethnicity that have used these products, and they are almost always sold exclusively in "the hood". It is truly nothing new, except that it's been under most white people's radar (except those who used it for freckles, as you said).

This was my longer post on it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5736211&mesg_id=5736731

[AllieB]

23. Skin Whiteners were originally marketing toward women w/age spots

or sun damamge. I am fair and now have sun spots all over me. In fact, I have a permanent tan of freckles on my chest and shoulders.

[scrinmaster]

28. OK, but compared with all of the tanning salons, spray on tans, etc, what's the big deal?

[Chovexani]

31. This is why it's a big deal.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5736211&mesg_id=5736731

[cbc5g]

47. That doesn't really explain much

The truth is, minorities in every country have to deal with that and more. When you are a minority and look differently from the majority, you have to expect that the majority will have differing views on what is beautiful than what you have. It sucks, but it's the way humans are.

[proteus_lives]

30. How odd.

I never got the tanning-bed thing either. Ah well, different strokes for different folks.

[meow2u3]

33. Who the hell would want melanoma after using skin whitener?

My skin is white enough without the crap they're peddling. Do the users know it can cause melanoma if they live in a hot climate with strong sunlight?

Ever heard of being proud of the way God made you? Who the hell would want to look as white as a sheet, unless you're plan on dressing as a ghost on Halloween? :shrug:

[Dora]

34. Judge much?

Sheesh. I'm a 39 y.o. white woman who used a skin "brightener" (whitener, lightener)to even out my skin tone. Why? Because I'm aging, and my skin is showing the consequences of living in Phoenix for 27 years. I was very happy with the results, though I did look too fair-skinned for a July in Texas.

Spots happen. Lighten up.

[Chovexani]

35. These products have a nasty history in communities of color.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5736211&mesg_id=5736731

[Dora]

39. I understand that, thank you.

However, suggesting that people are crazy for wanting to use it is a gross generalization that doesn't address the many different motivations people have for using a product like this.

We live in a big world, and we all have different needs and backgrounds. Some people use whiteners because they're effective on age spots. Some people use whiteners because they're victim of a cultural system that values paler skin over darker skin.

It's an effective product that meets a legitmate demand in the marketplace. Where's the harm?

[dixiegrrrrl]

43. The link I included in the PO suggests more than "spots" as a use.

The picture is of a woman with one side of her face dark, the other side white.
The picture is NOT suggesting a lightening cream for "spots".
( altho I get one could use it for that )
The ad suggests something else.
Look at the picture and see.

[EFerrari]

44. My godmother was a beauty as a young woman

and for YEARS, she hid from the sun and otherwise tortured herself in order that her brown skin would get no darker. One year, she finally stopped that and when she came back from a vacation in Cancun, she looked radiant. She had a tan and color in her cheeks from the outdoor exercise. I wanted to go back in time and argue with her over all those missed days outdoors.

But that was the standard where she grew up in the Salvadoran oligarchy. You had to be as white as possible.

[democracy1st]

45. dayum Michael Jackson probably owns stock in this

[cbc5g]

46. Are you speechless about tanning lotions too?

hmmmm?