This is sick! People shouldn't have to lighten...

From Newsoxy.com:Â
Facebook tools and apps offer just about everything. But now, the online social networking site has a new skin whitening app for India. Indians can now whiten their skin on Facebook. Vaseline, skin care company, has recently introduced a skin-lightening application for Facebook users in India.
...Skin whitening programs are new, and will enable Indian users to make their skin whiter in their profile pictures. The download is designed to promote Vaseline's range of skin-lightening creams for men. The creams are a huge and fast-growing market driven by fashion and a cultural preference for fairer skin.
In a campaign fronted by Bollywood actor Shahid Kapur, the widget promises to "transform your face on Facebook with Vaseline Men." Kapur's face is divided into dark and fair halves. Pankaj Parihar from the global advertising firm Omnicom, which designed the campaign stated, "We started campaign advertising (for the application) from the second week of June and the response has been pretty phenomenal."
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Is this Madison Avenue's idea of marketing beauty?
The faces of Black South Africans permanently damaged by long-term use of Over-the-Counter (OTC) 2 per cent hydroquinone based skin-whitening cream.

Comments: 10

Larry M. Jul 14, 2010, 9:06am UTC

I have the opposite problem. I can't even tan a little bit. I am sunburned all the time, even at Christmas.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Those who cannot see beauty in a dark skin are the ones with a problem.

Holly~Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History~ C. Jul 14, 2010, 9:35am UTC

My dad's family is Portuguese and African in descent so stuff like this makes me sick. I know it's nothing new though. Some of my dad's family could "pass" for white back in the day and the ones who couldn't would try to lighten their skin.

Larry M. Jul 14, 2010, 9:48am UTC

Race is a bogus concept invented in the last couple hundred years. It has no biological validity. To choose a few (20 or so?) genes out of the many thousands that comprise the human genome and treat them as the only meaningful way to categorize humanity is insane.

Holly~Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History~ C. Jul 14, 2010, 9:53am UTC

Excellent point.

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Emdadur Rahman Jul 14, 2010, 9:07am UTC

It is horrible that people believe they need to be whiter to be attractive. However, it still exists very much in South Asian cultures. I am from Bangladesh which is right next to India and the culture there holds the belief that the whiter you are, the more attractive you are.

Holly~Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History~ C. Jul 14, 2010, 9:36am UTC

That's a shame because I've met people from that area of the world who are as beautiful as can be and their skin is by no means light.

tame mainstay Jul 24, 2010, 4:23pm UTC

Skin bleaching is also big in the Orient. tame

PS I had a black friend who, throughout childhood, was made to soak, nightly, in a clorox bleach bath.

People are conditioned to be ashamed of who and what they are.

It's sickening. tame

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Elizabeth (This place IS my Soap Opera) Larlham Oala Jul 14, 2010, 1:46pm UTC

I read about Indians wanting to lighten there skin awhile ago. The article profiled a young actress, who's name I can not remember, that REFUSED to do this. She was trying to promote the idea that skin tone is beautiful, regardless of the depth of pigmentation.

Holly~Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History~ C. Jul 14, 2010, 1:49pm UTC

Good for her! Beauty comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors and if everybody looked the same we'd get tired of looking at each other.

Elizabeth (This place IS my Soap Opera) Larlham Oala Jul 14, 2010, 8:46pm UTC

I wish I could remember her name! But, it was a couple of years ago, and I think I read it in a Dr. waiting room.

I think I'm tired of looking at some people allready, and it's got nothing to do with "color". (G)

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This is sick! People shouldn't have to lighten their skin to be considered beautiful.

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