Beauty costs: A spotlight on skin lightening
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2022
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Products that claim to lighten skin are often physically harmful, often containing toxic chemicals and dangerous ingredients. We look at why skin lightening products still exist, speak to people affected by their messaging, and find out why stopping sales is not as simple as it might seem.
We hear from Professor Mire, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Carleton in Ottawa, Canada. She suggests that terms like "glow" and "brightening," which are increasingly used by cosmetics firms as substitutes, are as steeped in colonial and racial narratives as the words they are replacing. She believes the branding of these products continues to exploit historic and racialised associations between skin tone and status.
Chandana from Mumbai tells us what it was like to live in a society where she was pressured to have lighter skin, and Professor Adbi from the Singapore Business Schools explains why he believes that companies are promoting beauty ideals linked to lighter skin, and fuelling demand that could indirectly put people’s health at risk.
Producer and presenter: Izzy Greenfield (Image: Skin lightening products. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily. |
| 0:02.3 | This week we're looking at the business of the beauty world in our beauty cost series. |
| 0:07.1 | Today we're going skin deep and putting a spotlight on skin lightning. |
| 0:11.0 | I was in a stage in my life where I was like really, really, really ruled by insecurity. |
| 0:15.7 | I was quite young. I was about 16 and it was just because my mum uses those creams so I just went down the hall |
| 0:22.4 | and I put them on. I just wanted to fit in like all the other kids and I wanted to be desirable. |
| 0:30.9 | For millions of women across the world, having lighter skin is aspirational and often associated |
| 0:36.1 | with better prospects in terms of things like |
| 0:38.5 | employment, marriage and social standing. This idea is ultimately rooted in colourism, a form of |
| 0:44.6 | discrimination that favours light skin members of the same ethnic group. Many have fought hard to |
| 0:50.4 | eradicate this kind of messaging and these kinds of products. They've been banned in several |
| 0:55.4 | countries like Ghana, South Africa and Sudan, but a market for them still exists. In India, skin |
| 1:01.9 | lightning is big business and not only are products physically harmful, but mentally too. |
| 1:07.1 | There was just one message that said that if your darker skin, then you deserve a lesser life somehow. |
| 1:13.9 | My relatives would be worried for my parents that, oh, she's dark skin, so you'll probably have to pay a lot of dowry to get her married. |
| 1:21.2 | In today's episode of Business Daily, we'll look at why skin lightning still sells. |
| 1:25.9 | We'll speak to people affected by its messaging. |
| 1:28.7 | And we'll find out why stopping sales is not as simple as it might seem. |
| 1:33.2 | That's Business Daily on the BBC. |
| 1:37.6 | Skin whitening or skin lightning is the use of cosmetic products |
| 1:41.7 | to reduce the amount of melanin or pigment in the skin |
| 1:44.8 | to make it appear lighter. |
... |
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