the measure of beauty
April 5th, 2007
When my daughter was 3 (Yes, same one. I know. She was too mature for her age.), she slumped on the floor beside me one day while I was in front of the computer. I asked her what was the matter. Her face in her hands and sulking, she said, “I don’t want to have dark skin anymore.”
My heart sank. She looked up to me, tears in her eyes, and asked again, “Why do I have to have dark skin?”
Damn skin whitening commercials on TV, newspapers, magazines, movie houses…everywhere! Damn them!
At first I thought these skin-whitening ads were only targeted at Asian markets, Asian skins. But I was shocked to find out that it’s happening all over the world. (I saw an ad that said “best for ethnic skin.”) Women, young and old alike, are being made to feel insecure about themselves in many ways, especially about the color of their skin.
I found a TV ad in India where a father steps in and makes his own formula for a lotion for his daughter so she could have whiter skin. She was supposed to be trying out to be a model.
A Philippine TV ad:
Excuse me?!
All over Asia, women (although men are not exempt anymore) are trying so hard to look different. To shed their natural skin and natural beauty. Creams, lotions, pills, hair dyes, surgeries. How did we ever end up like this? What happened to the beauty from within. Well, now with glutathione [pills] out in the market, I guess you’re going to start to become artificially beautiful from within!
My little girl was 3 years old and yet she already felt like she’s not going to amount to anything with her natural beauty. At 3, she already felt the pressure of fitting in and looking like the models and TV personalities. The pressure to fit in for the wrong reasons. She’s not even a teenager yet. I wasn’t quite ready to deal with that for another 10 years. But I have to act fast.
I sat her down and explained to her that her skin, her face, her personality are what makes her beautiful. I told her that Caucasians will do anything to have her skin—smooth, golden brown. I told her that being who she is and having what she has is beautiful.
Only time will tell if she sees herself the beautiful girl that she is.
