Monica Butler - 4-16-12 - Beauty and Globalization

Monica Butler - 4-16-12 - Beauty and Globalization

Evelyn Nakano Glenn’s article “Yearning for Lightness: Transnational Circuits in the Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners” began the readings for this week by outlining a historical timeline of skin lightening, the current status, and the negative effects both individually physical and socially. Glenn begins by defining skin color as a form of capital, which contribute or become a leading factor into one’s success in life or “life chances.” With in the increased globalization over the last two decades the search for lighter skin continues to increase steadily. 

The internet has become a tool for this lightening market. It is a place that is used by advertisers of skin lightening products but also as a place for research. In today’s world more and more often the internet is used to find out everything and anything. People are using the internet to research, attain, and to discuss skin lightening products. Many countries have tried to bans on skin lightening products however, more often than not anything can be bought over the internet and smuggled into a country. 

Glenn points out multiple cultures across the world that participate in skin lightening and cites multiple reasons that I found interesting. Some include, white supremacy and the idea of upward mobility, caste status, fascination with western culture, television and media advertising, and this idea of “first worldliness.” I think what is really interesting are these social conceptions that she points out about lightness being associated with cleanliness, wealth, modernity and dark skin being associated with primitiveness and dirt. These are all social constructions that have been perpetuated by the western powers that have led for centuries. These ideals have continued to be perpetuated, in order to, maintain that white power, and white being the ultimate goal of beautification. She points out the increasing presence of the beauty industry across the world. Which said that this problem was not going away but even more present than before. With the rise in beauty consumption, comes a rise in beauty awareness. People across the world are more and more concerned with their appearances which could bring lightening into the mainstream even more. For example, she pointed out entertainers, Halle Berry (who has a child with a white man and is engaged to a white man) and Beyonce, arguably the most popular African American female entertainers of the current time. However, they are light skinned, and have white features. This speaks to Glenn’s theories of success, that these women could never to succeed to the extent that they have by being dark-skinned African American. 

Dewey’s chapters connect with Glenn’s article in pointing out this westernization of skin color and the idea that light is more beautiful. The competition for Miss India seemed to be loosely follow the same patterns and characteristics of the American beauty pageant. From the televising,  to the commercialism, to the actual competition the Miss America pageant was echoed. Similarly the type of woman they were looking for resembled that of the Miss America pageant. Girls were attempting to be thin, light, and beautiful. I thought it was interesting that the girls were required to speak english in order to compete. This enforces that each girl be exposed to westernization and in order to do so these women must be somewhat educated. In the Glenn article, it is noted that in India the lighter skinned people are the educated ones because they are privileged to work inside away from the sun. This implies that most of the girls competing would be of the upper caste. This is the idea pointed out by Onishi in the NYT article about the Nigerian competition. The only time when a Nigerian woman won was when they finally picked someone who had an “international” look. This means that the Miss India competition recognizes that the perception of beauty across the globe is westernized and therefore presenting a “national” girl would only help them lose. 

The Onishi article explains that for these “third world” countries to prevail in beauty competitions they need to mold to the international image of beauty. Media is perpetuating this phenomenon of impossible beauty. Hollywood actresses and models are the images that are presented to young girls in India and Nigeria. Therefore, these young girls believe this to be the image of the western world. Like Glenn points out this idea of “first-worldliness” is associated with the beauty of these celebrities. Young girls who are exposed to these pageants and this media see this beauty and the light skin as a way to achieve success in the global society. In contrast, the TIME article included a quote from designer Deepak Perwani “The West can make a better black dress than anyone else. We [Pakistani designers] also believe that if you are going to show something in the international market it should be international with your own regional flavor. That is what the real buyer is looking for.” I believe what she is saying is true, that in order to create a multicultural and international world society each culture must represent their own. This means not promoting skin whitening or white features or exclusively western dress. However, what I think she is missing is this idea of what the buyer wants. I do not believe that the buyer has progressed so far that Pakistani clothing would be successfully sold in Western department stores. I believe, however, that both the clothes and the models should represent the collections of the culture and there should be no importation of westernized models. This idea of westernized models was addressed by Barrionuevo in the NYT article regarding Brazilian models. As a culture Brazil is both indigenous people and European immigrants. The women that are considered beautiful and the quintessential beauty in Brazil are those of European descent like Giselle Bundchen. While the societal place of black Brazilians is rising, and their income is rising at double the rate of whites the perception of beauty is left unchanged. The way Brazil associates beauty with success is seen in the school where Director Silva allows scouts to visit students during class breaks. The image of a model and beauty is seen as the ultimate way to success.