A TWISTED FAIRY-TALE.
MONICA MAJUMDAR-CHOUDHARY, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT OFFICER, OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY (ALUMNI).
The twisted fairy-tale behind how light skinned girls are ‘trending’: Perceptions of skin lightening products among British Bangladeshi women. As a British Bangladeshi, I became aware of the common use of skin-lightening products by women in this community, when I was about 14. Skin colour was explained to me through the story of the ‘Three Gingerbread Women’. The first gingerbread woman was too pale because the baker had taken her out of the oven early and the other was left in the oven for too long which meant she was too dark. Third time round, the gingerbread woman was perfect, a light brown colour and everyone that came to the bakery had a desire for this piece. At the time this story had little importance, however as I grew older I realised much like the gingerbread women, family and friends were given labels. I would hear disparaging remarks about my aunt’s complexion and the pressures for her to look ‘whiter’ and use skin lightening products. I began to wonder how it is that on the one hand, skin lightening represents ‘positivity, happiness and acceptance’, and on the other hand girls’ resistance against, and at the same time acceptance of skin lightening. From listening to the voices of a small group of British Bangladeshi women I have delved
into the world of the skin lightening and its marketing; I have learnt there are broad societal issues connected to being ‘lighter’ such as marriage prospects, acceptance in the community and more generally, creating a better version of yourself. As identified through my research, some British Bangladeshi women encompass an entire lifestyle instilled with racial meaning. The act of skin lightening becomes a measure of improving self-esteem as advertisements advocate a socio-fantasy of a new identity and acceptance from the community that the women desire through very subtle depiction of images and words. Within advertisements, marketers have focused on delivering a message which signifies both the distinction and collusion of traditional Bangladeshi beliefs and values, and reinforcing the desire for light skin as a mark of status, privileges, beauty and asset; in the mass media the words dark and beauty do not go together. Due to the phantasmagoric nature of skin lightening products, it makes sense that women have often made fantasy of being ‘lighter’ as the focal point of their skin care regime and as inevitable parts of life. Offering the possibility of escaping the ‘darkness’, beauty becomes universal, it illustrates sameness rather than embracing
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