Bleached Chicks: Are You the Fairest of Them All?

Mirror…mirror on the wall, who´s the fairest of them all? I wish you could see that I am raising my hand over here behind my computer. In some parts of the world like Asia, Middle East and Africa, some women go to great lengths to fulfill her long time dream of having fair skin like Caucasians. The influence of popular Hollywood icons blessed with ivory white skin like Nicole Kidman and Julienne More together with fair skinned and red haired super models on the cover of fashion magazines may have created an impact on women´s psychological mindset that white is beautiful. Well, is it really?

In Asia, whitening skin products in the form of creams, foams, injectables, pills, soaps, gels and laser procedure containing toxic chemicals like mercury and hydroquinone are selling like hotcakes. Commercial advertisements both in print and TV have successfully inculcated in the mind of a woman who has an insatiable desire -or –more- like- a secret- fantasy to be Hollywood celebrities looks a like. Bleaching products offer exaggerated sales pitches that using skin whitening products will outrightly turn your uneven rough skin and dark blemishes into silky soft and flawless- akin to a magic wand that once twirled around will instantly make the complete eye popping changes from a poor rugged dark skinned Cinderella to an elegant porcelain skinned princess.

It´s no wonder why there is a huge proliferation of skin beauty clinics in every mall and commercial centers in Manila not to mention in some corners of the city´s main streets. Yes, there are, trust me! These clinics cater from all social and economic levels of Filipina women giving them promises that their magic potion contained in a box, tube or injectables would do the trick. Surprisingly, there is a wide margin of consumers religiously patronizing bleaching skin products holding on to their faiths that within two to five bleaching treatments or gulping one box of whitening pills will completely cover all the dark spots. Oblivious to the dangers women risk, they still continue to adore these skin whitening products which sometimes make them go to the extent of scrimping and saving their last penny to buy the promise. After all, a promise is a promise! So after few weeks of conscientiously gobbling down whitening pills and going through beauty treatments which entail endless scrubbing, painful skin peeling and inhaling pungent odor of chemicals painstakingly spread all over your body ( arms, legs, armpits and butt included) and voila!-a new- person- emerges -like –going- through- water- baptism- and -coming –out- a –born- again Christian.

For some women who may not be aware or pretending not to be cognizant of the hazards of skin bleaching, some countries have already banned some skin whitening cosmetic products in Asia and Africa particularly in Tanzania. They have already put a halt on the production of some skin whitening cosmetics due to dangers they have brought to some avid users. Recently, Philippine Bureau of Food and Drugs have issued a skin whitening brand product recall due to lack of glutathione content.

Never mind the risk of ingesting toxic chemicals called hydroquinone which is basically used in film processing and hair coloring let alone mercury a potentially fatal chemical once absorbed by the body. What is important is that you look beautiful. Correct?

Behind the rigor of skin bleaching beauty treatments that one has to endure, the truth that lies beyond is the undying colonial mentality that Caucasians are more gorgeous than colored skin. Unfortunately, this misconception that women strutting with flawless porcelain skin exude class and elegance hideously still prevails.

There is no exact formula in reshaping the minds of women with unwavering belief that women with white skin are more attractive than colored skin. But stronger media hype on awareness campaign rectifying the false notion that white is beautiful would give these women duped by bogus advertisements a –aha- moment. It wouldn´t hurt to embark on an equal amount of print and TV media slogans propagating around the globe that would proportionately send a valued message to cherish, appreciate and enhance whatever skin tone a woman is blessed with and- not- to- mutate- as- a- totally- new- Michael Jackson clone. It may be considered as shooting in the dark but it is still worth the shot. Isn´t it?

Vanity is both a boon and a bane for women. But being obsessed with vanity becomes more of a bane than a boon. For whatever it takes to be beautiful, complex as it may seem , depthless as it may sound and preposterous as we might perceive it- the truth is, that beauty is only skin deep- (at least that ´s what the old adage say.)