Obsession to look white runs skin deep in Asia

By Mata Press Service

From India to the Philippines and across Asia a deeply rooted cultural notion that associates dark complexions with poverty and working in the sun is boosting the multi-billion-dollar skin-whitening cosmetic industry.

In many countries across Asia, advertisements and billboards feature light-skinned models touting products such as whitening creams, tablets, sunscreens and other related products.

It’s a big business.

A World Health Organisation survey found that nearly 40 per cent of women polled in nations including China, Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea said they regularly used whitening products. In India, 60 per cent of the skincare market consisted of whitening products.

The global skin-whitening market was valued at US$4.8 billion in 2017, according to Global Industry Analysts, and is anticipated to reach US$8.9 billion by 2027, with Asian countries making up a major segment.

Euromonitor valued China’s anti-ageing skin-whitening market at US$618.8 billion in 2014, while Thailand’s and Taiwan’s came in at US$432.2 billion and US$334 million that year.

Western ideals of white skin sell, says Nathalie Africa-Verceles, director of the Manila-based University of Philippines Centre for Gender and Women Studies.

“It’s a multibillion-dollar industry. It will continue for a very long time, and I don’t think it will stop,” she said, according to a report on SCMP.com.

In the Philippines, most people have tanned or darker skin, yet society favours those with fairer skin.

“At supermarkets, there are entire aisles dedicated to whitening products,” says Marvie Dela Torre, a university student in her 20s who lives in Quezon City in the Philippines.

“We’ve already accepted being white is equivalent to being beautiful.”

In Malaysia, make-up artist Manmeet Kaur is wary of such unrealistic beauty ideals. “Have you seen any Miss Malaysia who is hitam manis?” she asks, referring to the Malay term for an attractive dark-brown complexion.

“This belief is still inherent in our social upbringing. As children, we are always told not to stay out under the sun, not because UV rays can be damaging but because you will get darker.”

Kosum Omphornuwat, a gender and sexuality studies lecturer at Thailand’s Thammasat University, says: “Achieving white skin seems for some women to be a key to open a door of opportunity to achieve the highest purpose of their lives: acceptance, fame, men, money or class mobility.”

Some scholars have also pointed out that many Asian people don’t necessarily aspire for a “Caucasian whiteness”, but a “cosmopolitan whiteness” that transcends race and signifies mobility across national borders.

But do whitening products even work and are they safe?

A high percentage of skin lighteners sold worldwide contain dangerous levels of mercury, according to test results contained in a new report by the Zero Mercury Working Group.

In 2017 and 2018, 338 skin-lightening creams from 22 countries were collected and tested for mercury.

Ten per cent of the creams (34 creams) had mercury concentrations vary many times higher than levels allowed under the international agreement to control mercury, the Minamata Convention. The levels found in the cosmetics ranged from just over 90 times to an incredible 16,000 times the allowed level post-2020.

Mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin which builds up in the human body and cause serious damage to the skin, lungs, kidneys, digestive, immune and nervous systems.

Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, Project Manager at the European Environmental Bureau and Zero Mercury Working Group International Coordinator said: “The exposure and toxic trade in illegal high mercury skin lighteners is a global crisis which is expected to only worsen with skyrocketing global demand. To combat this, it’s important for governments to quickly enact and enforce regulations and effectively warn consumers.”

In a separate exercise, the Mercury Policy Project, the Sierra Club and the European Environmental Bureau purchased skin lighteners from eBay and Amazon websites. The brands purchased included many previously identified as high mercury by New York City, the state of Minnesota, the European Union, Singapore, UAE, the Philippines and many other national governments. Nineteen products had illegal mercury levels, typically more than 10,000 times higher than the legal threshold of 1ppm.

“Internet platforms Amazon and eBay must stop breaking the law with their toxic trade in illegal cosmetics,” said Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project.  “They have the responsibility and resources to prevent exposing their customers to toxic products.”

Over 50 civil society groups from more than 20 countries sent letters today to Amazon and eBay, calling on them to stop marketing illegal mercury-based skin lightening creams.

While the yearning for whiter skin remains strong, there has been some pushback too. A 2017 ad by health care and beauty chain Watsons in Malaysia featured a 15-minute short film, in which a merchant falls in love with a mysterious woman’s beautiful singing voice, only to be taken aback by her dark skin. In the climax, she washes off the dark make-up, and – suddenly fair-skinned – marries the man.

The advertisement shocked Malaysians, with many criticising the use of blackface and the racially charged message of the film.

In recent years, other advertising campaigns have attracted a backlash for promoting the whiter-is-better beauty ideal.

In 2016, Thai company Seoul Secret advertised skin-lightening tablets with the slogan “White makes you win”, prompting a backlash that forced the company to apologise and abandon the campaign.

Elsewhere, other grassroots movements are spreading the backlash against the idea of whiteness.

In the Philippines, the viral social media campaign #magandangmorenx – or “beautiful brown skin” – headed by half-Filipina, half-black actress Asia Jackson saw young Filipina women take to Twitter calling for an end to colourism, and demanding more diversity in local media.

Morena, which means “tanned” or “brunette” in Spanish, refers to darker-skinned women in the Philippines.

Experts say change has been slow, but these fledgling movements have helped launch more discourse on the topic.

As a society, we have to understand our past and how it affects our present. The colonial and imperial past affected how we think about ourselves now,” says Brenda Alegre, a women’s studies lecturer at Hong Kong University.

Alegre adds the discussion in Asia is related to status and social structure, but society needs to “challenge these expectations and experiences in media and education”.