Here's an interesting article I came across today about Asian's (especially Asian women's) obsession with light skin. (Side note - yay, I finally figured out how to put in those nifty little links!) I hadn't really realized the extent of this obsession until I came to Singapore. Although it's most often overcast here, a lot of the women always use umbrellas when they walk outside, so as to avoid the sun. Also, whenever I go lap swimming at the pool on campus, I'm the only woman in the pool, which I think is because all the others are staying inside away from sun. I recently needed to buy some face lotion, and it took me quite some time to find one that didn't include claims of skin whitening.
A lot of the obsession is historical - if you had white skin, then you were rich enough to not work outside in the fields all day long. But did Westerners ever have this same obsession? I haven't heard of it in any recent history, at least. Now we have the reverse: people striving for the "perfect tan", which will prove that they have the time/money to laze around all day long tanning. Anyways, I'll stick to my sort-of-tan that I've gotten in spite of going through several tubes of sunscreen in the three months that I've been here.
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I also think the obsession with being as white as possible is crazy. I remember purchasing a few things at a drug store in Taiwan and the sales clerk gave me free samples of whitening lotion. I also kept trying to get my friend Jasmine to spend a day at the pool with me in the sun, but she said she had to avoid it in order to stay as pale as possible. It's quite the opposite of Asians in America who are envied by plenty for their ability to tan so quickly.
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