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It’s a familiar sight all around South East Asia. You might’ve seen them around in pharmacies and drugstores, the products that are inconspicuously (or sometimes blatantly) labelled as “dark spot reducers” or “skin lighteners”.
It’s so highly marketable and normalised in this day and age that many of the billboards on the roads are littered with advertisements promoting skin-whitening products. Not only that, but you’d even get paid promotional adverts on Youtube, or see influencers posting about it on social media.
They’re everywhere, and in recent years it’s come to light that these products aren’t telling you the full story. Behind the lull and promises of “quick, easy, and painless ways to whiten your skin”, lies a deeper and more sinister history.
Before buying into the idea of whitening your skin, it’s essential to educate yourself on how it started and why it’s becoming a shunned practice in the community.
Why it all began: the origins of skin whitening products
To understand how skin whitening products came about, we must get to the bottom of their very roots. Where did the need to be “light-skinned” or “fairer” begin? The answer lies in Western colonisation.
The Europeans who came to Asia on their ships not only brought along their culture, but also the influence in values that would change the way we perceived skin tones. Light or fair skin was superior, and darker skin was inferior–this is the essence of colourism, a form of prejudice that places those with lighter-toned skin on a higher value.
But that should leave us wondering: Why do we associate skin tones with preferential treatment?
Undesirable?
Darker skin was deemed as “undesirable” and often equated back to being poor, as it implied that the only people who had dark skin got it as a result of labouring for long hours under the sun. “Fair is superior” is the sentiment that perpetuates colourism. The rich had the luxury of staying indoors, which meant less exposure to the sun darkening their skin.
Associations with wealth and status ran rampant (and unfortunately, still do) within the racial communities, feeding consumers with the mindset that those with darker skin are worse off as compared to those with lighter skin, and the beauty industry plays right into these insecurities.
How skin whitening products work, and the cons of using them
If the idea of perpetuating a long-standing toxic mindset doesn’t deter you from purchasing skin-whitening products, maybe the ingredients list will.
It’s important for you to know that to “whiten” one’s skin and make yourself fairer is not something that can be done naturally, and is often extremely dangerous.
In fact, some of the most commonly used ingredients in skin-whitening products are mercury, hydroquinone, and steroids.
How bad are they?
These ingredients limit the production of our skin’s melanin, which is what gives our hair, skin, and eyes their colour. However, they can also build up in the bodies over time, bringing about disastrous health effects that some might not even be aware of.
Mercury, for instance, is a banned substance to be used in most products. It’s a highly toxic substance that can cause long-term damage to the nervous, digestive, and immune systems.
Continued usage of mercury also causes skin discolouration by settling into your skin cells and strips the natural melanin pigment, which leaves behind a greyish-blue sheen on the skin.
Unfortunately, despite the risks that come with using skin-whitening products, many of the population still choose to use them.
In 2018 alone, the World Health Organisation reported that the demand for skin whiteners reached up to 40% in Malaysia. Those numbers don’t seem to be going down either if the growing number of skin-whitening products are still available on drugstore shelves and online markets is any indication.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?
Well, maybe it shouldn’t matter anymore. But understandably so, learning to let go of the unrealistic promises advertised by the beauty industry on skin whitening is easier said than done.
Perhaps it’s time that we slowly learn how to embrace our skin tones for all their melanin glory. Being fairer or darker doesn’t change the essence of who we are underneath it all, and the focus should be instead on learning how not to continue this perpetuation of colourism.
Moving forward;
Taking the steps to break the mindset that has been ingrained into our culture starts small, but it isn’t impossible, as proven by the ongoing efforts on social media to lessen the promotion and manufacturing of skin whiteners.
All of these efforts don’t go unnoticed, as big companies like L’Oreal and Unilever have started to rebrand their approach to skin whitening products. But changing the labels and using different words don’t take away the actual issues, active advocacy for change does.
While breaking the image of skin tones and colourism may take some time to bring about even more progression, the easiest step you can do for your part is to try not to buy into the insecurities spewed by the industry, or even by those around you.
The amount of melanin we have in us shouldn’t hold us back from being the best versions of ourselves, so don’t let others discourage you otherwise. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it starts with you.