In last Saturday's Daily Mail there was an article by Jasmine Allibhai-Brown regarding the growing number of Asian and Black women in the UK having cosmetic surgery and using products to lighten the tone of their skin. Though not an entirely new phenomena, Black and Asian women have been using various skin products in the hope of lightening their skin and have been straightening their hair to obtain more "western" hairstyles for decades, it seems according to the article that cosmetic surgery as a an option has grown dramatically and especially among Asian women.
The point of the article, as far as I could make out, was the growing number of women from ethnic backgrounds feeling inadequate with their own appearence especially when they are constantly bombarded with images of what constitutes beauty in a western society. Normally those images are of white women or if of any ethnic background then of fair skin. Light or tanned skin, hair that is easily styled, eyes that are luminous or transparent are seen as the ideals which there rest of women must live upto. Let me state here that not only do women of ethnic backgrounds find those ideals almost impossible to live up to but so do most women in general.
As I stated earlier, Asian and Black women have for years been using products to make themselves appear more western. I remember as a child going shopping with my mother in the predominately Indian area of Wembley and finding all sorts of products in supermarkets which were meant to help lighten skin or reduce blemishing. There were products to help straighten hair, oils to make hair more pliable and manageable and many more products which I had never seen at my hairdressers or supermarket. These products were targeted solely at women of darker skin. Most of them also seemed to come from Africa or the Indian sub-continent.
I Take the point that the power of the media has had to play with how we view ourselves not only physically but also mentally. With the explosion of cable and satellite television in the developing world, the mass marketing of beauty magazine, the onslought is relentless. Instead of developing their own unique set of images, the developing world has borrowed and heavily relied on those of the west. I was shocked when after years of not seeing an Indian movie I saw one recently. Songs and dance are integral part of an Indian movie. I always explained to my non-Indian friends that I believed the songs depicted sex and kissing that would normally occur in an a western film. Since kissing and sex is banned in Indian movies songs allow the director to show the amorous intentions of the characters. However the songs have become as raunchy as a Brittany Spears video. Where once the women would be dressed in Saris they are now scantily clad with more and more naked flesh on view. Times have changed but I believe that is to blamed on the influx of western media on the continent. So it is only normal that young women would want to become and look like their heroes.
But the media is an easy escape goat, an easy target. We should take a look at ourselves as well. Going to a traditional boarding school back in the eighties I was only one of a few Asians there. There were no black pupils at all. At the school I was made to feel both directly and indirectly that the colour of my skin was something to be ashamed of. My very brownness made me different from the rest of my peers both physically but worse still culturally. Up until I went to boarding school at the age of eight I had never seen myself as different nor felt myself to be different. But suddeenly overnight my colour, my darkness, became an issue. I stood out and became an easy target because of my physical appearance. I started to resent who and what I was. I spent hours soaping myself down in the shower, scratching my skin with pumice stone and covering myself with talcum powder in the hope that I could whiten my skin. It may sound silly but it´s not a far leap from there to having cosmetic surgery or using products that are no better than bleach on yourself. I did so because I did not want to be singled out and abused. I wanted to be like the masses and the masses were white.
For me the desire to look western is directly linked to the violent racial abuse I recieved as a child. Yes in part it comes from the images, mostly black and white movies, I saw as a child. But if I am to be perfectly honest it also comes from a desire to distance myself from a race and culture that made me a victim, one that I came to resent and despise. So I bleached my hair blonde, grew my Erol Flynn moustache and took and interest in fashion. Perhaps later in life the desire was not through a desire to distance myself from my heritage as I came to appreciate my dual culturism. However I can understand the feelings that many people of ethnic minorities feel when it comes to their appearance and especially for women for unfortunatley their appearance is scrutinized far more than we men.
There is also the racism and prejudice that we hold within our communities, one that we would not readily admit to but would notice on closer inspection. I use my mother as an example not because she is racist but to make the point of how sublte our prejudices can be. Whenever my mother refers to an Asian girl she will inadvertedly mention the tone of her skin. She says innocently, "A little on the dark" when relating to me the physical appearance of the girl. In of itself , it is a harmless comment. However it hides the fact that even within the Asian community, the tone of and colour of a woman´s skin is important. In her article Allibhai-Brown wrote about a friend of hers who was having difficulty getting married while her younger and fairer sister had had no troubles. It is seen as a huge advantage to a girl for her prospects of marriage if she has fairier skin, light eye colour or straighter hair. And this desire for parents of boys to marry girls of fairer skin has been centuries old. Perhaps it comes from our colonial past as a hang up but I think it is fair to say the the lighter skinned women of the himalayas, of Afghanistan were always seen as more beautiful when compared to woman of the south of India.
It is therefore completely understandable that more and more Asians and blacks are resorting to cosmetic surgery just as their parents turned to oils, milks and lotions. The media is partly to blame but we ourselves are more to blame for allowing centuries old stereotypes dictate the future happiness of our children.
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