#1 January 12th, 2011 10:58 AM

ngaio

Member

Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/el … ndian_skin

It seems to be a pretty common practice - lightening the skin of "coloured" women for fashion magazines etc. I assume it's because it sells more copies in the wonderfully racist, whiteness obsessed Western world.

Still, shame when media companies compromise their integrity for the sake of money. I like to think that the media has the power to shape the world we live in, to open it up, instead most companies seem to do quite the opposite.

Maybe I'm just a naive idealist, but it's still damn disheartening.

viva

Member

Re: Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

Hmm. I agree that skin-lightening is just ridiculous, and I know that it does indeed happen and needs to be brought to the attention of consumers.  Skin-darkening - in the form of tanning, both natural and artificial, and in post-production Photoshop - happens too and we will have to condemn or enjoy both equally depending on our tastes, ideals, and preferences.

Being beautiful in the eyes of others tends to hinge a lot on the grass being greener on the other side, doesn't it? Where most hair is straight, curls are special and sought after. Girls with curly hair bemoan frizz and use products to straighten it out. In places where girls tend to be slim, ass implants have come into vogue. In Japan, and other Asian countries, an ideal for beautiful skin is skin untouched by sun, white and creamy, and the advertisements and products available reflect and create this ideal. And likewise, many white people in places like the US like to tan and look brown.

However in this specific case I would like to know more. I would like to have access to the original photographs before judgement. With her actually quite light complexion and the bright lights studio atmosphere clearly employed for the Elle covergirl photoshoot, it's possible that in the original photos Ms. Bachchan looked quite white.

In this photo for example : http://www.desipowerchat.com/bollywoodn … han_01.jpg , or this one : http://bollywood101.com/UserFiles/2009/ … 20IIFA.jpg - whether it's the lights or her own makeup choices, she is definitely on the lighter side of Indian complexions. In certain light she looks darker, in other light, whiter.

Now it may be the responsibility of Elle, given the actual tone of her skin in person, to light her shoot with the ideal of celebrating her gorgeous skintone. I think this is true, I believe it is their responsibility to light her so that she appears as close to the way she looks in person as possible, especially considering that she is representing the women of India for Elle magazine.

I am just not positive that the intention was to make her look white, more than to make her look "good". That is, Elle perhaps failed to represent specifically her darker complexion in order to popularise the dark beauty of many women of India, and should be taken to task for that, but may not have intentionally photoshopped her to whiteness either. Can we find a better source than change.org for information about this? I respect change.org and other activist communities but the fact is sometimes our passions can cloud actual fact.

So I will take a bit of a devil's advocate stance in order to open up this discussion to questions which I find valuable. Thanks for bringing this to our attention Nio.

Any one else, thoughts?

-v

blissed

Member

Re: Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

I love when the beauty of very dark skin is celebrated partly for anti racist reasons but mostly because it's so beautiful and rarely seen in media. The begining and closeups of the Tiny Tempah video passout does this. I've never seen a womans dark beauty explored in this way, I'm sure there must be examples but they haven't found me or haven't stood out for me to remember them. If I had skin this dark there's some lovely colour combinations and contrasts I could wear.

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alisha-x

Member

Re: Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

I think the cover alterations might be more due to issues in the target company and country than with the model in question... from what I knowof the modeling and photography industries she had minimal say on this with the magazines photographer and her PR agent with most the power. I can imagine somebody wanted her lighter (maybe due to pressures, maybe due to poor lighting) but it was taken too far to be natural looking. It is a good example of exactly how photoshopped glamour photos are.

Skin lightening in many countries is more than just an attempt to look western - it is sometimes for the same reason as our own (now out of date) western obsession with being pale was - paler people do not go out in sun sun as 'workers' and 'lower classes' did in England - many cultures have a history of favouring paler skin, tanned skin, slim figures, larger figures - the western ideal used to be curvy and pale or curvey in a busty corset and pale - now it is blond and tanned which is a modern hollywood ideal, yet nobody accuses British girls who tan of bowing to US beauty ideas... or goth girls who use white makup of trying to lighten their skin or change race...

I do agree skin lightening is very worrying, espacially as the products people use to try to lighten the skin are often very dangerous or contain bleach - however the reasons for their doing it are more than just to look Western - this is sometimes the case, however it is an oversimplification of a longer term cultural issue.

I think better understanding the causes and cultural aspects as well as clamping down on the illegal lightening products and pressures to conform would be a sucessful approach.

Also - I think magazines ought to be given legislation on altering skin tones... painting somebody gold is one thing for a cover, making them appear a different race is another thing altogether and one which is potentially damaging with our world as it currently is.

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kisses,
Alisha X
New folio! Me naked with a bass guitar http://ishotmyself.com/public/view_gall … ts&offset=

artist_dame_sar

Member

Re: Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

for me, the real kicker about this elle magazine cover is that the actress depicted is very angry about the way her image was manipulated to make her look more white:

http://feministing.com/2011/01/13/aishw … r-of-elle/

while i agree with viva that there are a myriad of factors to consider in cases such as this, the fact that the woman was so unhappy with the results makes me think this particular instance is pretty problematic!

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http://ishotmyself.com/public/view_arti … divination

blissed

Member

Re: Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

Yeah even if the paleness was just a technical due to lighting or an artistic judgement or whatever thr fact she was unhappy should certainly make them more aware of this issue in future.

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kohen

Member

Re: Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

I don't understand... if skin lightening is so sought after, why do so many people I know talk about going to tanning salons and using spray tan or lotions to make their skin darker?  I can understand wanting to lighten certain areas of skin because they get darker over time.  I don't agree with wanting to change your skin color so much you look like a different race. 

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"Art can never exist without naked beauty being displayed."-William Blake

Newest folio!
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alisha-x

Member

Re: Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

Different countries have different fashions at different times. Right now in the US and UK and similar countries tanning is in - whilst in India lightening is popular as paler is the current beauty. It varies by country, race and over time as well

Just think - women were curvey back in the day - then skinny was in for the last 50 years or so - now women in the US and UK are getting bottom implants to give them more curve with more 'bootilcious' famous people to emulate...

Equally tattoos on women were once 'ugly' or 'unfeminine' - but is becoming more common with many celebraties (jolie, GaGa, Cheryl Cole) having them as well as people like myself who have always been called 'alternative' for it.

Beauty is a changing goal and each generation has their own ideals. The more global a world we become, also the more global ideals effect beauty and this seems to speed up the changing ideals in beauty as it has fashion - looks at victorian, edwardian and other period fashion - it evolved slowly with the odd big leap like the world wars and rebellious 1920's - now it changes several times a year and we are even in loops with 80's looks back in fashion in the UK! Human beings as a race generally love change when it is available and times affluent and are always evolving their ideas when it comes to what looks good.

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kisses,
Alisha X
New folio! Me naked with a bass guitar http://ishotmyself.com/public/view_gall … ts&offset=

blissed

Member

Re: Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

Oh Alisha 80s lookbacks are so last year :) <3

About the racial theme in the thread. When I think of my friends and people around me. whenever race is mentioned it seems so out of place like a grumpy 95 year old had suddenly joined the conversation and brought it up just to get at least one person upset. Where most people are on race is theres no point in being proud of your race unless it's oppressed by racists and then anti racists of every race will join with you and support you. But while we're fighting racism couldn't we give racists the biggest insult and just dump the human classification system they invented. The classifications are arbitrary and based on appearance.  or even national borders (some people think "the French" are a race) The racial classifications have no basis in science.  (blood groups generally ignore races completely) so shouldn't we?

1st to go would be the worst offenders, black and white. A chess board is black and white. People have flesh tones and a fascinating graduation in appearance as you travel from Ireland through Russia to China or trace any on foot migration lines. Where do you draw the line to classify people, you can't and I don't want to.  Sometimes there's a stepish change either side of a huge feature like the sahara desert.  But my point is when a new lorry driver asks me at work who is driving the fork lift today I will say anything rather than it's the black guy. I tell them his name or he's wearing a woolly hat. But from now on if I have no option than to say he's black as a way to identify him I'm gonna say he's the guy with very dark skin. And if the lorry driver says "don't you mean he's black" I'm gonna say "No, you mean he's black, I'm changing an outdated social convention". If he had freckles and ginger hair I'd say he has freckles and ginger hair, I wouldn't say he's red or whatever silly name that arbitrary race would be. So yeah, lets throw outdated language and concepts out, and tell the grumpy 95 year old racist to fuck off :)

So wanting to look paler is fine unless your trying to escape the oppression your own colouration recieves, then it's very sad :(

There's only one race We all have the same ancestors and I'm dark ash blonde, I think that tells everyone what they need to know about my colouration.

End of rant :) ha ha

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alisha-x

Member

Re: Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

I did use the term race once in my posts you are right - although I can clarify that I actually mean anyone born in a specific culture with that as their primary culture - nothing to do with their skin colour or genetics. Thanks for picking up on that - I meant 'country' or 'culture' which is what I said every other time

I think the paleness trend for darker skin is worrying because so many of the products and treatments used are highly dangerous such as skin bleaching with illegal products smuggled into the UK for the market here. I grew up near a large Indian comunity so have seen these things first hand such as young girls with peroxide burns on their faces. It's the same issue as the uber-thinness size zero trend causing girls to starve themselves...

I think wanting to be any colour is fine personally as long as it is not due to social pressures. I think blue skin will be the in thing by 2099.... and as long as the products are safe I will be all for it...

Wonder what I would look like blue?

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kisses,
Alisha X
New folio! Me naked with a bass guitar http://ishotmyself.com/public/view_gall … ts&offset=

blissed

Member

Re: Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

If I had photoshop I'd show you :) I wasn't actually thinking specifically of anythingyou said when I was talking about race, it was just my own bit of self opinionated soap boxing :) ha ha.

That skin bleaching sounds awful.

In 2099 all the skin stuff will have been done in the 2080s. (Blue skin, diamond scales) and as everyone will have transhumanised into machines, I think in 2099 darting around the universe at the speed of light as a digitital signal in a lazer beam and effecting a quantum entanglement at your destination so that others can get there instantly will be very popular :)

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veronicaf

Member

Re: Skin Whitening in Elle Magazine

Oh that sounds amazing blissed.  Can't wait.