Bonus Material---Skin Bleaching

The concept of race has been the foundation for mind frames dealing with the perception of skin color. This has caused skin color to have racial and individual importance, because skin color has the ability to identify an individual. Skin color identification was caused because of the globalization and cultural imperialism directed by the Western world. As a result, a new ideology has consequently created a globalized image of beauty that enforces the White ideal, yet encodes the support of white supremacy as cosmopolitan whiteness. With the result of the Western world imperializing outside of their borders, cultural imperialism was also created. Western cultural imperialism is the exercise of encouraging others to take on Western ideals and culture, because it is superior to the “other”. This is possible because culture is not static and changes with time and current beliefs. When a society begins to culturally imperialize another society it often leads to conflict, because culture is seen as a way for people to identify themselves, historically and spiritually, as well as with their core beliefs.

During the months of June, July, and August of 2006-2008 the United States Cosmo began printing tanning ads that expressed the skin color tan as desirable without undermining the Caucasian race. The tanning ads provoked the idea of summer and postmodern playfulness. This was accomplished by taking a different approach than that of skin bleaching ads that encourage race change. When looking into the vocabulary used in tanning ads within the United States there is never the use of racial condensations. Instead imaginary skin colors are created like: bronze, tan, and deepest bronze, which show that these ads do not want to use words such as black and brown, because that would represent a racial transformation. The biggest difference is that tanning ads aim to enhance one’s skin tone, while whitening ads aim to perfect and alter one’s skin tone. A great example of this is a quote by Saraswati (2010), “In whitening ads the English word “white” and foreign models function to infuse whiteness with a cosmopolitan flair. Skin-tanning ads in the U.S. Cosmo, by using the word “tanning” or “bronze” instead of “blackening,” urge women to bask in the postmodern desires of playful color transformation while freeing them from the accusation of emulating blackness and hence still privileging (cosmopolitan) whiteness in its ability to travel and consume eroticized others.”

This background information is important due to skin bleaching products being the most purchased cosmetic items for the past two decades. The issue of skin bleaching is transnational and effects African Americans, as well as, other marginalized people of color. The extreme usage of skin bleaching products is seen as such a large epidemic that Ghana has decided to ban all products including hydroquinone in August 2016. The banning of this product (which is found in skin bleachers) will make Ghana the first country to ban skin bleaching products.