Skin Whitening

As in much of Asia, in China you are not beautiful unless your skin has a ghostly white pallor. Chinese women soend an estimated $1.3 billion per year on lotions and processes intended to suppress melanin and thus lighten their skin. With names apellations as "white perfect," "blanc expert," or simply under the common guise of "pearl cream," many say this is tied up in distorted ideas about race via the appeal of the exotic "white" west, as well as the desire to get out of the countryside. In order to escape looking like a sun-darkened peasant, women slather on creams purported to bleach their skin or go to clinics to have it done by a professional. Having white skin is thus a status symbol in itself, but it also paves the way for further advancements in life. Not only have you evaded a life in the country, not only can you afford constant skin whitening treatments, you have the tools suitable for further increasing your status, perhaps via a husband with equally exotic "white" skin. In a culture where most women look to be married by thirty (and men not much longer afterwards), having white skin is one of the super number one ways to be beautiful and thus catch a husband. Traditional values make many women feel that if they have not married by thirty they have failed their parents and family and proven themselves somehow ineffectual at being a woman. It is the same the world over. Many women look to a husband for future security and personal validation, and being beautiful is how you catch a husband. This desire to be pale as pale can be seen expressed in the could-be-cute-as-a-burden (I mean, err, button?) habit of women constantly carrying an umbrella with them. It's a common enough juxtoposition to see women with rhinestone accessories in their textured hair ambling arm-in-arm with a girlfriend down a trash-strewn street in designer rip-off sequined heels. And always, to add a sort of genteelly burdened, Victorian touch to the scene: a pastel umbrella offering shade from the sun. Take a photograph of the ideal Chinese woman. What does she look like? Well, on her face you can see eyes and lips. If you can see her nose, she's just not white enough. Ask a kid to draw a picture of a pretty woman, and they will draw eyes, lips, and possible two darkened loops for the nostrils, but no nose. This isn't purely a matter of having a tall nose, because even a short little pug nose has sides. But aha, the most beautiful nose of all is one that cannot be seen for its overwhelming whiteness! These creams are oftentimes expensive moisturizers with sun block, but some contain toxins such as mercury, lead, hydroquinone and corticosteroids2. Lotions and creams aren’t the only dangerous substances that women in China use to make themselves more beautiful. The lack of a functional organization regulating the quality and safety of beauty supplies allows dangerous cosmetics to get on the market. Lipsticks in GuangDong province were recently found to have the red dye Sudan, which causes cancer in mice and rabbits.1 1. “Guangdong finds cancer causing dye in lipsticks,” 5 Feb 2007, Xinhua 2. Pigmentation and Empire: The Emerging Skin-Whitening Industry by Amina Mire, Counterpunch, 28 July 2005. Read more about skin whitening: Wallstreet Journal: Malaysia | The Age: Indonesia 2007 © alarana.net

Hunan