A story appeared on Jezebel.com about a video for an intimate wash that advertised that it will make a woman's private area cleaner and brighter. It's been circulating for about a day or so now and people are...well, let's just say surprised?
Fairness creams and bleaches have been around for a long time in Southeast Asia and Africa. This is not a new trend and this is not something we're unfamiliar with. It's been an ongoing debate that hasn't died down. In fact the woman in the video above is a well-known Indian actress.
Most people who are white take this as a woman's rights issue, which it is, but it really is no different than fairer skin women going tanning or laying out in the sun. The adverse effects may be different, but both can cause damage so the outrage should be more equal.
As someone whose mother has told her countless times how fair I was when I was born; it's seen differently in Pakistani/Indian culture. Modern women in those countries are outraged in a way that the generations before them were not, mainly because it has been acceptable to see a girl as "too dark" (as being ugly) and "very fair" (as being pretty).
Maybe it comes from the caste system or maybe it's a side-effect of colonization. Whatever the case may be, this is not a new debate and I personally feel that it's a little hypocritical for people who embrace tanning so much to be surprised if someone wants to be fairer.
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