As a person from the Western World, we spend money on making our skin darker. Paying for services such as tanning salons and self-tanning products. We look at bronzed skin as something almost as a luxury.
Thinking, “Oh they probably just got back from a relaxing tropical vacation.”
It must be nice.
Or if they look really orange, the tanning salon.
I personally don’t go for the nice evenly bronzed look. If I happen to get a little darker from going outside I just take that as a plus. You will definitely not find me laying out on the beach for hours at a time.
On the other side of the world, in Asia, bronzed skin is not sought after. It’s actually completely the opposite. Asian people want their skin to be as white as possible. Just like there are bronzers and lotions that claim to make your skin darker, there are lotions and creams that claim to make your skin whiter. They market these products as ‘snail white skin.’ This means you have to pay attention to what kind of lotion you’re buying because that whitening serum is in just about EVERYTHING.
Why Is This?
Since living in Thailand, I later found out that this sought after whiter skin, goes back to a hierarchy system. The whiter your skin was, meant that you belonged to a high class. Darker skin belonged to a lower class, such as farmers that spent the day outside. This obviously makes sense, but in today’s world, there are so many people that have mixed backgrounds that it is impossible for their skin to be lighter. These people naturally have darker skin and they still want to make their skin lighter.
Living in Northern Thailand, I’ve seen people with mixed backgrounds from China, Burma, and India which creates a darker skin tone. Yet, they still put on white face powder and use all the products to make their skin whiter. Baby powder is HUGE here as well. Thai people like to put the powder on their face to absorb sweat. You will not see me even touch the baby powder, because it has talc in it. I cringe every time I see someone use huge amounts of it.
I would have never known about this if I didn’t travel to Thailand. Traveling definitely opens your eyes to what other cultures find beautiful. It can be quite a culture shock to see things that you would never do in your home country, but are completely normal in another.
