Now there's an offer you can't refuse...

[Deleted User]

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Mirandola

I noticed this morning that Pak's has a poster for a skin lightening product in the window. It's depressing, and surprising - I thought those creams were illegal in the UK.

RedSturgeon

@Mirandola For some reason I feel I need to declare before writing more that I'm what I believe some police call IC7. I guess there's an argument that it's not therefore for me to comment on skin pigmentation products - who after all is a ginga to lecture someone else on what colour skin they'd like to have... I still reckon it's revolting though. Looks like you can get this stuff in lots of somewhat unexpected [places](http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=2611&prodid=2889&cid=220&sid=0&afid=70&safid=AG&scid=14581&cm_mmc=Aggregates-_-Comparisons-_-GoogleProducts-_-HBMVPCGP&of_tid=zbUpaqW9ILs1GxDLgXZSpiXLo7vS77F1n6DexEs8WDzAf5o5Z_xiH-p6Qt039OMB) There was an article on skin lightening in the Guardian supplement a couple of [days ago](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/04/racism-skin-colour-shades-prejudice?newsfeed=true). Some big names do what in my view are some quite extraordinarily depressing things (viz Unilever's Vaseline's skin-lightening Facebook app). Compare and contrast with the same company's Dove (UK) nicey-nicey all-colours-shapes-and-sizes advertising for (again, in my view) a stomach-churning lesson in cynical hypocrisy. I began wondering after reading the Guardian article whether they'd not drawn the battle-line in entirely the wrong place. Query whether the pursuit of perceived beauty isn't what's fundamentally wrong, rather than merely this aspect of it. Perhaps that's for another day. I'm pretty sure the people in Pak's would feel as awkward about making me over as I'd feel about asking them to!

Mirandola

@Red Sturgeon,

Seconded. I'd go in and say something, but feel awkward as I'm white (other) on the census.

Arkady

When pale people stop thinking it's fashionable to give themselves permanent, cancer-inducing skin-damage in pursuit of a tan then they can lecture darker-skinned people for doing the same for the opposite reason.

Mirandola

@Arkady,

It's a bit more complicated than that, isn't it?

Arkady

Nothing is so simple that it can be summed up in a sentence. I don't deny that skin-whitening has more sinister origins than the (historically recent) fashion for tanning, but the consequences for health are comparable. And both are partly due to society telling us that a particular look is desirable despite the consequences.

RedSturgeon

@ Arkady. First up, I'll butt out once I've said my piece. Like I suggested above, I'm aware that some people might be hostile to my entering into this discussion. I meant no offence. That said: This particular pale person never thought tanning was fashionable, avoids strong sun when he can and wears high-factor skin protection when he can't, but I don't claim any of that as justification for having a view on this issue. For what it's worth I'd welcome as many people of whatever skin colour to the cause of attempting to convince people their skin colour shouldn't be mucked about with in the pursuit of purported aesthetic improvement. I'd be surprised if a black person didn't have a view on the wisdom or otherwise of the existence of tanning clinics. The author of the Guardian article I referred to above is black, the directors of the film she's largely talking about are black, the film is on at the international festival of black cinema and my wild stab-in-the-dark guess is that most if not all of the people in it are black. I don't need to be of a particular skin colour to be aware of issues that affect predominantly or solely that colour. I don't need to be black to be repulsed by racism. I don't need to be a woman to have a negative view on breast augmentation, or bulemic to worry about the glamourisation of unhealthily-thin bodies. Or do I? Like I said, no offence meant. I hope none taken.

miss annie

I agree. It is that simple and that depressing. There is a rather nice skin lightening recipe from Elizabethan times when they were also fond of whitening the breasts and painting blue veins on them. This recipe is for the poor people, the rich added almond oil. 'One takes pure silver and quicksilver and, when they are ground in the mortar, one adds ceruse and burnt rock alum, and then for a day they are ground together again and afterwards moistened with mastic until all is liquid; then all is boiled in rain water and, the boiling done, one casts some sublimate upon the mortar; this is done three times and the water cast on the fourth time is kept together with the body of the lye. And this is used oftentimes among ladies who have no great means to spend' I feel a bit sorry for young folk these days, there seems to be a lot more pressure to conform to what society deems to be a desirable look. I read that many young men are shocked that ladies have any body hair at all nowadays because they have grown up with images of hair free ladies in magazines (and porn films). Of course, we had those lovely drawings in 'The Joy of Sex' to remind us that both sexes can sprout hair in all kinds of places.

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