Skin Bleaching

As stated above, African-American women have been subjected to measure themselves against white women. White women are viewed, in this society and since the beginning of the concept of race, as the epitome of beauty. Logically, African-American women attempt to emulate the white standard. This creates an inferiority complex, because the epitome of beauty is white woman, than any other race can be deemed as inferior; this deteriorates African-American women’s self-worth. To remedy worthlessness, many body modification techniques have been made to fully mimic white women in terms of beauty. This emulation still is being done and it is continuous, because of the psychological ‘white fantasization .

As of recently, the media has been flooded with positive interpretations of beauty standards all over the world. According to various sources, beauty ideals, in women especially, are socially constructed in order to judge a person’s value based on physical attractiveness; therefore, it is highly encouraged that people pay attention to their looks and take care of themselves, in order for others to create a positive first impression of one’s character. It is no secret that beauty standards vary from one culture to the next and it is difficult to establish a universal principle of what is considered beautiful. Many countries’ ideals contrast one another and, as a result, allow for stereotypes to emerge. This is the case between American

If a black woman had dark skin she would resemble a man, therefore making her ugly in society’s standards. This pressures black women to constantly be "compatible with the white female standard of beauty" (Ashe 580) in order to be socially accepted in society. Intuitively black women understood that in order to be considered desirable, the less black they had to look. This unfortunate perception of beauty stems from a long pattern of "sociohistorical racial injustices" (Bealer 312) towards darker skinned African Americans. Maria Racine states in her review that since slavery black people who approximated closer to whites were sexually sought after by black slave men and white plantation owners and were considered to live a somewhat "easy coexistence" because of their appearance (Racine 283). Since it’s start, colorism laid the pathway of racial prejudice towards dark skinned individuals. The result of treating dark African Americans as subhuman beings led to the altering of the black psyche by creating a "pervasive hierarchy" of beauty that black woman constantly combated or were forced to accept. (Bealer 312).

While beauty is not limited to social media and online authority but has started from the ground up in stores such as Claire 's and Sephora which birth new trends and encourage women to “Be Yourself”. Claires, a store generally shopped at by pre-teens, has began created light BB & CC creams for sheer to light coverage. In Claire 's there are less than 2 Deep complexion shades for these young pre-teens… With the simple act of secluding African and African American teens from shopping at Claire 's diminishes their confidence in their skin from such a young age. With in-store technology advancing the precise matching of skin complexion Sephora has continued to break skin shade boundaries… or so we think. In a recent interview with a Sephora employee she states, “When an African American walks in looking for a complexion product the girls run away because they “can do it” (Amy). Sephora does offer a mandatory SkinIQ matching class which does show how to properly match shades (which also matches undertones). Shea Moisture (A hair and skin brand known for being African and African American promoted) created a groundbreaking commercial showing race being a divider

According to McIntosh’s suggestion, “we should acknowledge enormous unseen dimensions, talk about the obliviousness advantages, and raise our daily awareness on the perquisites of being light-skinned.” McIntosh’s approaches are characterized as reasonable to resolve the issue. By listing down every advantage she takes for granted, she is raising awareness in the society. By

Its cosmetic department may face a similar situation to Gerdeman’s article where skin color bias is promoted through advertising. Skin whitening creams can be found in the cosmetic department along with propaganda to encourage customers to buy their merchandise. To ensure that there is no bias portrayed in the media, managers must reconsider how to portray an impartial view on fairer skin tones leading to happiness. If I were to lead the marketing campaign for skin lightening products at Macy’s, I would equally promote the product for restoring an individual’s natural complexion from damages of the sun. By taking this course of action, there is no particular skin color that is favored by the Macy’s establishment.

The article for “Aveeno Active Naturals,” advertises their lotion through extensive use of ethos, pathos and logos. With the use of various techniques and phrasing, they favorably present their product and provide evidence to convince a customer to buy their lotion. They use ethos by featuring the widely known actress, Jennifer Aniston. They extend their credibility by writing on the label,“dermatologist recommendations” and being a famously known, well-working brand. They use pathos through selective phrases such as “Naturally beautiful results,” the promise of skin thats soft to the touch and the use of this lotion will be consumingly delightful. Aveeno uses logos to attractive the customer, by promoting “healthy-looking” legs and natural

Although, all of this has been overlooked. What is overlooked is how media portrays one. Media tends to portray women as being thin and being beautiful.

As the research continues it becomes ever more important to discuss how exactly the differing pigmentation of one race of people actually occurs, because I feel that it has an effect on the way colorism is handled throughout the African American community. There are two ways in which a person of African descent can be of a lighter complexion; the first being amalgamation, which is the coming together of both the black and white races and reproducing to make a mulatto or mixed race child and the second is the use of cosmetic creams in attempt to bleach one’s skin until they too appear mulatto (Dorman 48). This is relevant because, it shows the extremes that people are willing to go to reach the highest plateau of social acceptance. Many of these creams were painful acidic chemicals slowly burning away the pigmentation as people slept, while others were considered mild abrasive materials used to “gently” scrape away dark pigments (Dorman

Could she get him away? Would he fall for that long, wavy beautiful hair? Why take chances?” The language employed in the Hi-Ja hair advertisement was intended to provoke shame among African American women and instill fear of competition from more glossy haired, beautiful women. Advertisers intentionally employed this technique to convince anxious female readers that they needed to buy more beauty products in order to keep their men happy and faithful. Additionally, when describing the Hi-Ja hair cream, the advertisers were careful to include that the product was white in color. The advertiser’s decision to include this seemingly insignificant detail painfully reveals the racialized nature of early twentieth-century African American beauty culture and advertising. African American beauty advertisements overwhelmingly correlated lighter skin and straightened hair “with femininity, beauty, and romantic

Even with the concept race not being genetic, discrimination has prevalent in society and in the society Una Marson lived in where she writes “ I like me black face And me kinky hair. I like me black face. And me kinky hair. But nobody loves dem I jes tink it’s fair.” Marson describes an instance where she loves who she is, from her dark skin to her kinky hair but no one else does. Her constant instance that she loves her features, in some ways makes the reader believe that she only recently come to accept herself for who she was. A problem many people face growing up, but the feeling of not living up to a fair skinned and haired standard is common among many ethnic communities. With women who have darker being told they were ugly and being rejected the opposite sex who wanted light skinned or white women so there children come out pretty (Newmany). Although she know feels confident in with herself and her identity, she knows that due to other racist beliefs they won’t like her because her skin is dark and her is kinky. It’s not fair and in 2016, it’s still not

Being a woman this heightens my social awareness as how others perceive me. Society dictates ‘the body beautiful’. Magazines, Bill-boards, TV and newspapers constantly suggest the need to have a perfect complexion. This influences

The research findings showed that a man’s sexual attraction to a woman was increased by young women associated with red, but it was not increased by older women with red. It also revealed that the older participants found the two age groups of women equal in their sexual attraction, while the younger participants did not find the older women, as sexually attractive as the younger women. The color red did not affect physical attractiveness, intellect, and empathy. In addition, the article greatly contributed to the theories of social psychology. In Exploring Psychology in Modules, the author discusses physical attractiveness. He discusses how among different cultures, men are attracted to women through signs of the body. These signs indicate fertility, which makes the man more attracted to a woman. This understanding may help to show why both age groups of men were equally attracted to the younger women in the pictures, as opposed to the older women, where only the older men found them equally attractive to the younger women (Schwarz & Singer,

Everyone loves to feel beautiful, but what is the price? Everyday there is a woman painting painting her nails, a man running gel through his hair, and a mother rubbing lotion on her childs skin. These are looked over like normal activities but they contain a dark secret. This secret can lead to death, pain, and injuries. In fact, it has been in the dark so long, that many people choose to ignore it. What is this secret? Well, the beauty industry hides an ugly truth: It has flaws in the system that lead to mislabeling of products, unregulated chemicals in formulas, and dangerous diseases in cosmetologists.

Often times, women are pressured by the mainstream media to upkeep a stellar appearance. They are expected to measure up to high standards without question. Even before most girls reach puberty, commercials are bombarding them with small Barbie esque makeup kits filled with lip glosses and chalky eyeshadows. The impact it has on impressionable children, both girls and boys is something that will likely last a lifetime if unlearned. Cosmetic companies who are marketing to young ladies say they can simply improve their looks to gain acceptance from their peers if they use the products they are selling. The makeup industry is a multi million enterprise that makes a profit from women’s insecurities and amplified pressures from society as a common tactic many cosmetic campaigns use is to push women to embrace the ‘natural look’ by providing products that will make it appear as if the individual is not even wearing makeup. Companies will spout out that with these products, the end result will be ‘you, but better.’ It is somewhat of an underlying and slightly manipulating slogan, as if to say how a woman appears could be improved because it is lacking in the moment. This distorts how we all believe how a woman is suppose to look.