White People
White Perfect
My lack of internet at home has caused two things to happen: 1. I get a lot of reading done. 2. I watch a lot of crap TV. One of the terrible things that I have noticed while watching the crap TV is a recurring theme in commercial advertisement: ads utilize very fair-skinned people here. This trend is highlighted by ads for a product by l’Oreal called “White Perfect.”
These ads indicate that this product is intended to get rid of freckles and dark spots using a technology called “melanin blocker.” This technology will help with that pesky skin pigment that we all have so much trouble with. As a side effect, if everyone uses it long enough, we will all be white! No more racial discrimination.
Oh yeah. That won’t work.
These ads wouldn’t have disturbed me on their own, but the other day, when viewing an Egyptian friend’s wedding photos, I noticed that the bride had been air-brushed to be nearly chalk-white. The effect was unsettling at best.
I decided to do some further observation and instead of running away when I saw a wedding party leaving one of the 10,000 wedding reception halls in Alexandria, I approached attempting to get a better look at the brides. In nine cases out of ten, the bride’s makeup was done in such a way that she looked considerably fairer than she should have. It was as though the make-up artists had attempted to match her skin to the dress.
It strikes me as particularly strange, this trend, because brides in the United States seem to begin tanning and toning nearly half a year before their weddings in order to stand in stark contrast to those glowing white gowns. Not to mention the booming tanning salons that can be found around every University campus with no shortage of emaciated, brown-skinned, blond girls stumbling out of them with their giant sunglasses and designer handbags.
What is the deal? Is it a “grass-is-greener” phenomenon? Do people the world over define beauty as “exotic” and then define “exotic” as “something that doesn’t look like what is lying about on this side of the ocean?” Why can’t everyone accept that beauty has nothing to do with how light or dark your skin may happen to be?
I suppose that the products that make people whiter are no different that the products that we have in the US that make people darker. All of the fake-and-bake stuff, tanning oils, bronzers, accelerants. These all have the same fundamental goal: to make people look differently than they do. I can’t help but find this upsetting, though, when there are people attempting to be whiter. Maybe I have just been conditioned to feel this way because I was raised in the United States where this trend is generally associated with some sort of internalized racism or debilitating self-loathing. I certainly do not believe that there is any less self-loathing happening here, but I also don’t think that there is any awareness of it here, whereas there might be in the United States.
Any thoughts?
1
Hi John,
good thoughts. I do know this phenomenon and I fight it. In some Arab countries, a white skinned girl is more sexy (Syria, parts of Jordan, Egypt). and I do not know the basis of this preference. however, in other countries the dark colored girl (called “Samra” has in bronze-colored) is the way to go (Saudi Arabia, Egypt (south), parts in Iraq). If you listen to music, you will also find them in between, some singing for the white, some for the dark and some for both! (as in a debate). It is a matter of preference. but unlike in the U.S. it does not indicate a racist feeling at all, because for example the majority of Egyptians are dark colored. being white is just being different, and everyone wants to stand out. however, if you go to certain neighborhoods in Cairo, bronze is the way to go and girls who are already dark colored will portray it proudly. I grew up in Saudi Arabia, in a city where the darker the better, and a girl that is rounded is sexier. and I was skinny- and white. imagine how depressed I was!! lol
I believe the chalk bride is another mystery for me. She wants to stand out of the crowd for being the whitest, yet to me she looks like a ghost
but be assured, it’s not the skin color at all, it’s just a style. and come see her the next day, she is her color again.
keep in mind, that unlike the US history with black slavery, slaves in Arabic countries were not based on color, but on status. (tribes, families, etc.)
cheers!
Randah
2
I agree. It would be interesting to hear some impressions of Egyptians about the tanning phenom stateside.