The way consumerism and social pressures encourage colourism to mould modern Asian beauty standards.
By: Benika 10.3
Colourism has been present for decades and has been a prevalent issue. It stemmed from racism in the 1800s in Africa when slavery was on the rise and has been a relevant issue since then. Europeans used skin colour for racial profiling, and it eventually became a social construct. Not only did it created a divide between black and white people, but it also created a divide between dark skinned black people and light skinned black people.In layman’s terms, those who stayed inside and avoided hard labour had lighter skin and were perceived as wealthy and desirable. Axiomatically, skin colour became a symbol of social status and race; it didn’t matter if one was already beautiful if one’s skin wasn’t pale and pink. An example of skin colour playing a prominent role in beauty standards is the Philippines where several say that in Filipino culture you can only be deemed beautiful if you have fair skin. This concept is common in the majority of Asian countries including India, Korea, Japan, and Thailand.
Due to social pressures, Asian people unfortunately do conform to these standards via skin whitening products and plastic surgery. Yes, plastic surgery should not be frowned upon and the individual who has undergone it should not be frowned upon either. However, people should not be pressured into doing it for the purpose of fitting into unattainable beauty standards and should instead choose to do it out of free will. One major and thriving industry- especially in Asia- is skin whitening. The World Health Organisation found that almost 40% of women in countries China, Malaysia, South Korea, and the Philippines use skin whitening products on their skin regularly. That isn’t to say that colourism in east Asia does not impact men as well. Many skin whitening products and treatments in clinics are advertised to men, further pressuring them to have fair skin because it is the only way one can be conventionally attractive. Furthermore, the media praises those with Eurocentric features and fair skin, contributing to the social pressure to purchase skin whitening products because they have grown to dislike their natural skin colour.
Asia’s toxic beauty standards need to be replaced with more inclusive ones that appreciate everyone’s individuality. We cannot allow colourism to rule our perception of beauty. We cannot pass down a beauty standard influenced by colourism to the younger and future generation. This is not a fight for the narrative that “dark skin is more beautiful than light skin,” but a fight for equal representation and appreciation of all skin colours. Currently, there are movements and campaigns that aim to combat the dangerous beauty standards that plague east Asia. For instance, the “Dark is Beautiful” campaign is promoting positivity towards our current colourist beauty standards and is battling discrimination against those with dark skin. Even with the widespread awareness, the stigmatism around colorism that has had decades to develop still resonates in our society today. The solution? To start the conversation on replacing the modern beauty standard with a more diverse beauty standard. We need to start spreading awareness and positivity, not only for us but for the coming generations who should not be burdened by generational colorism.
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