Unmasking a dark obsession with fairness
The growing influence of the skin whitening industry is due to entrenched beliefs on beauty standards, experts say
Paradoxically, it’s a dark obsession. Across the world, millions of women are in daily, even hourly, pursuit of a fairer skin colour. Such is the obsession that the global skin whitening beauty industry is expected to touch $23 billion (Dh84 billion) by 2020.
According to Lester Davids, a physiology professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, “Africa is experiencing a “massive trend of increased use (of skin bleaching), particularly in teenagers and young adults.
“The older generation used creams - the new generation uses pills and injectables. The horror is that we do not know what these things do in high concentrations over time in the body.”
Asia Pacific is the fastestgrowing market for fairness beauty products, and women from India, The Phillipines, Indonesia and other countries are some of the largest target segments.
Hundreds of products that promise lighter and clearer skin are now flooding the market, with social media influencers promoting the effects of regular application.
The obsession with fairer skin, unfortunately, stems from ideas in our world regarding the privilege and distinction of being fair-skinned, Dr Tara Wyne, Clinical Psychologist and director at Lighthouse Arabia told Gulf News.
There are constructs around the superiority, success and prestige associated with lighter skin. “All this certainly influences the demand for cosmetic products that would lighten skin and perhaps make people feel as if they will be perceived as more attractive, appealing and acceptable,” she explained.
These products relate to the most “primitive instincts” among people that by lightening their skin, they can influence how well liked and wanted they are, added Dr Wyne.
She pointed out that women are generally conditioned to focus on their aesthetic appeal and many rarely see themselves as “good enough.”
Is the answer in history books?
“Typically in history, nations with fairer skin colonised nations with darker skin. They assumed power, enslaved these peoples and set up an age-old assumption that powerful people are fair skinned or white,” explained Dr Wyne.
People, Dr Wyne said, are inherently attracted to power, choice and freedom. “Fair skin became synonymous with self- determination, liberty, achievement and status. People with darker skin pursue fairer skin originally to seek freedom and now to achieve the status of conventional beauty,” she added.
“However, in our world today, social media plays a huge role in setting the trends.”
Many influencers have a clear ideology about beauty and they embody and sell a vision for their audience.
“They are often sponsored by beauty moguls and cosmetic companies.
“Commercialism doesn’t care about people’s feelings nor for their self-worth. It will undermine their birth right or their skin colour in order to persuade and convince this audience that they need to be told what is beautiful and appealing,” said Dr Wyne.
She added that many influencers often teach us to distrust our own beliefs and instincts about beauty and well-being because they want us to rely on them to tell us what to think and feel.