I was perusing news articles on CNN.com earlier and although I don’t stay on any single article for more than 20 seconds (hey, those bulleted points were created for people with internet ADHD like me!) this one in particular really held my full attention: lawmaker in India blasts skincare company product as racist.
Say whaaaa??? (Yeah, that was my initial reaction. :S )
Said lawmaker alleges that an ad for Emani skin whitener is racist because of the dialogue between a man and his lighter skinned friend. Basically, dude is complaining that he is unlucky because of his face, but his friend disagrees thinks it’s because his skin is dark. The commercial then shows darker skinned dude using the lotion and ends with a much lighter darker skinned dude. Oh, and he finally gets the girl because he’s lighter.
While the dialogue is pretty harsh, this is not news to me. Asians use several skin lightening creams to be lighter while North Americans are literally dying, thanks to those tanning death-beds, just to get more color in their skin. Why? I don’t really know.. Some argue that it’s due to Asians associating darker skin with labour and poverty while North Americans associating it with a more leisurely lifestyle and health.
It’s really amazing just how much culture and the media influence our perception of beauty, no?
What are your thoughts?
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