PJV3
Member
We certainly don't have sort of class system in Nigeria where this product was advertised.
Fair enough, it's not as widespread as I thought then. I kind of expect these kind of subtle displays of status to be everywhere.
We certainly don't have sort of class system in Nigeria where this product was advertised.
It is sort of inevitable with this kind of product though.It's the wording. The ad is straight up telling you your dark skin isn't up to standards.
Is this really racist? They're catering to an existing (and booming) market.
Ethnocentrism or not FGM is horrific.This thread is kind of reminding me of an article I read about female genital mutilation (female circumcision) across Africa, where US activists went there to try and stop the practice with the assumption women would want to liberate themselves from patriarchal tradition, only to arrive and realize it was the female elders who kept the tradition in place, and that the extent of the procedure and reason for doing so varied pretty greatly from place to place. The activists had essentially come to these African villages with a very westernized sense of male/female relations only to find that their sensibilities don't necessarily line up neatly when applied to completely different cultures. Nivea is fulfilling a demand here, not creating one. I personally think people should appreciate their natural skin tone, but I suppose this isn't much different to folks in Nigeria than the desire to be tan is for white people in the US- it likely isn't viewed from a perspective of racial superiority, just like white people don't think of tanning in those terms.
I personally think people should appreciate their natural skin tone, but I suppose this isn't much different to folks in Nigeria than the desire to be tan is for white people in the US- it likely isn't viewed from a perspective of racial superiority, just like white people don't think of tanning in those terms.
Yeah i've heard about his too. I don't understand it that much though.I may be mistaken, but I thought skin lightening products actually are popular in some parts of Africa, which is where this billboard is? I still find the whole concept bizarre regardless, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I could've sworn I've read about skin bleaching and such being prevalent in certain areas.
It's the wording. The ad is straight up telling you your dark skin isn't up to standards.
It's the wording. The ad is straight up telling you your dark skin isn't up to standards.
Who's pretending?Lets stop pretending that colorism is not also informed by centuries of White supremacy and colonialsm being exchanged throughout the globe.
It certainly is possible that a feature of a culture at it's core is defective, though. But yes, understanding the reasons why something exists from their perspective is important and would allow any possible solutions to be better applied than from western understanding.This thread is kind of reminding me of an article I read about female genital mutilation (female circumcision) across Africa, where US activists went there to try and stop the practice with the assumption women would want to liberate themselves from patriarchal tradition, only to arrive and realize it was the female elders who kept the tradition in place, and that the extent of the procedure and reason for doing so varied pretty greatly from place to place. The activists had essentially come to these African villages with a very westernized sense of male/female relations only to find that their sensibilities don't necessarily line up neatly when applied to completely different cultures. Nivea is fulfilling a demand here, not creating one. I personally think people should appreciate their natural skin tone, but I suppose this isn't much different to folks in Nigeria than the desire to be tan is for white people in the US- it likely isn't viewed from a perspective of racial superiority, just like white people don't think of tanning in those terms. White people in the US think being tan is better than not being tan, but not in terms that can be applied to race or ethnicity.
Ethnocentrism or not FGM is horrific.
It absolutely is. It's just not exclusive to being descended from those things. (an example being the Caste system in India.)Lets stop pretending that colorism is not also informed by centuries of White supremacy and colonialsm being exchanged throughout the globe.
Interesting point. I would love to hear from someone in the region to provide some insight into the matter. Is it an aesthetic thing or is it a "white is right" thing?
Who runs their marketing team and approves all this?
Isn't it more of a class thing in Africa and India, the peasants are out in the sun getting dark and wrinkled.
I sometimes buy lightening products because my skin is light, but sun makes it darker /in some places only/ so if I want uniform looking skin I need to lighten the dark spots a bit.I wish people would stop buying these creams. These ads and products will not go away until that happens. People say they don't want this but it seems that someone out there does.
I know a ton of people who use this and have been buying it for years:TIL whitening soap is a thing
It's plant placenta extract that the name "Placenta" is referring to but the name still grossed me out the first time A relative grabbed some off a shelf at a store, partly because I imagine that if human placenta was found to lighten skin, there would still be a big market for it.
I can't speak for other asian countries, but in China it is not. Dark skin = tanned = peasant working in the fields = low class. Pale = stayed inside = rich. If you see an Chinese woman with a large umbrella, large floppy hat and covered in long sleeves on a sunny day, now you know why. It's classism, not racism.Let's stop pretending that colorism is not also informed by centuries of White supremacy and colonialsm being exchanged throughout the globe.
That's fair.it's racist, but it's about as racist as the product it's promoting.
Yeah racist is the wrong termIt's wrong but I wouldn't call this one racist.
The whitewashing in this thread if gross. I can't speak for Asia but this bleaching crap in Black countries is directly due to white supremacy, slavery, and colonialism. It's pretty much a symptom of collective trauma heaped upon a people for centuries.
Black Africans were bleaching before Euro contact? Due to what, Arab influence?Shitting on darker skinned people predates white supremacy and European colonialism by a factor of centuries if not a few millennia.