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IS IT REALLY JUST A FAD? SKIN WHITENING?
Dr. Thawee Tangseree, deputy permanent secretary of the Mental Health Department said on 24 September 2012 that the craze for “white and shining skin” among young Thai women was “just a fad.” That young Thai women spend their precious Bahts on products that will make their skin ‘white’, bright and shining in order to make them appealing to men or to gain social status is a “normal” social phenomenon. Matichon quoted him saying:
“This white skin business is just a fad that comes and goes. Soon it’ll be replaced by other fads. Now it’s not just women who pay attention to white, shining skin. The men are also starting to adopt the same value and want the Korean-style white skin as well…”
The doctor would be right. If this advertisement of whitening deodorant for men is any indication, Thai men are also into whitening their armpits. Like the advertisement of the vagina-whitening wash above, none of the characters in this armpit-whitening deodorant looks like an average Thai person you’ll see on the street. But that’s the point, isn’t it? It’s the business of selling beauty ideals. Ideals are to be aspired to and emulate, not what you can find walking on the street.
IS THIS CRAZE FOR WHITE SKIN JUST A THAI THING?
Certainly not. Skin Inc. reported in 2009 that the global skin whitening market was expected to reach $10 billion in this 2010 decade. In Asia-Pacific the market would grow to $2 billion by the end of 2012:
“Japan dominates the global skin lighteners market with the lion’s share, as stated in the new market research report from Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA). The market for skin lighteners in Asia-Pacific is projected to cross the $2 billion mark by 2012, driven by the fast growing markets of China and India. Apart from Asia, Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom are emerging as potential markets for skin whitening products. The growing proportion of ethnic groups—Asians, Hispanics and African Americans—in these regions is a major contributor to the enhanced demand for skin lighteners.”
If skin whitening is just a fad, it’s a fad that seems to be pervading all continents, growing increasingly extreme and intrusive, reaching into people’s private areas. A brand of whitening feminine wash was launched in India earlier this year and met with outrage. No such outrage in Thailand so far, though there was a small gentle cry in the Bangkok Post.
As far as commentaries go, Shakira Hussein from the National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne made a fair point in her interview with Radio Australia.
BAHFEN: And most people outside of India and Thailand have reacted a little bit incredulously to the notion of skin whitening being expanded to a particular part of the female anatomy, and that is intimate skin washes. What was your reaction?
HUSSEIN: Well I was also incredulous and really taking the skin lightening obsession to a truly bizarre link. On the other hand, I don’t find it any less bizarre, but of course the tanning aspirations in the West, seeking to extend your tan to any part of your body that’s going to ever be visible for anybody, that does seem to be a market for that so I suppose it’s logical that the skin lightening market have a similar level of thoroughness.
White people want to look tanned to signify beauty, status and prestige, distinguishing themselves from the rest in their pale-skinned society, while the brown-skinned people want to look ‘white’ to achieve the same things: prestige, status, beauty and desirability. What is stranger? Whitened vagina and armpits on a bleached body of a previously brown-skinned person? Or a tanned vagina and armpits on a tanned body of a previously pale person?
WHERE WILL THIS SKIN WHITENING CRAZE END?
From where I stand it certainly looks set to go quite a distance before finding its final destination. “The male market is yet to be fully tapped,” Louis-Sebastien Ohl of Publicis Thailand told The Guardian. Who knows, the male equivalent of whitening feminine wash may hit the market soon. Perhaps balls whitening wash, gel or cream, with anti-wrinkle properties?
As for the ladies, once nothing more in the ultimate feminine parts can be made any whiter, the next step could be “glow-in-the-dark.”** No more fumbling for that flashlight in a dark night when the lights are out.
I am no futurist, but in about 10 years we could be talking about “natural light-emitting, self-navigation chips-embedded” masculine and “eco-friendly, feminine bright” products that are powered by the sun. Or maybe not, if ‘white’ skin is still in fashion. They could be powered by dark energy then. Like I said, I’m no futurist and I flunked Physics.
