Cambodia’s Whitening Problem

by Safiya Charles

PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – Middle school students sit in a huddle. There is nervous laughter and eye contact as they hesitate over words.

One girl looks down embarrassingly. “They call me buffalo,” she says as her classmates snicker, “because the buffalo has black skin.” Another girl says her friend has used lotions to make her skin whiter.

On the wall of their classroom are school-selfies. Although a few fair faces dot the class of 26, only one girl has colored her skin brown.

More and more, Cambodians are turning to whitening creams to alter their appearance. From cheap homemade concoctions to pricey high-end injections, there’s something to fit every budget—and business is booming.

The whitening industry is valued at $13 billion in the Asia-Pacific region alone. Walk through your local supermarket’s health and beauty aisle and you’ll be hard-pressed to find an item that doesn’t contain whiteners. But things aren’t as simple as just applying a fast-acting lotion.

What is lurking beneath the surface of this whitening craze is more than superficial. In a country where its native people are overwhelmingly brown and black, the effects of promoting the idea that white is beautiful and black is ugly are damaging, both physically and mentally.

Read more: http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/13198/cambodia---s-whitening-problem/

So sad

If it wasn't this vanity it would be another. People are always chasing some shallow aesthetic.

teach those girls self esteem, no need to change a black skin full of pimples to a white one full of acne

If it wasn't this vanity it would be another. People are always chasing some shallow aesthetic.

Right.... Tattoos, Hello Kitty Stickers, shaved heads, nipple rings, dreadlocks, hair gel, suntans, coloured contact lenses .....

So sad

Yeah.

Cambodians has darker skin than Thais so they would need a lot of fake whitening products.

Whats next, Africans want to look whiter ?

it is a shame that young children may not even want to play outside in the daytime because they may get sunlight on their skin.

to me the brown, golden skin of asians looks very beautiful.

Skin whiteners are oxidants -- ASEAN will be the hub of skin cancer in ten years.

Cambodians has darker skin than Thais so they would need a lot of fake whitening products.

Whats next, Africans want to look whiter ?

I first saw a skin whitener advertised in a cinema in Zambia (I think) in 1973.

I was gobsmacked.

It is sad, but a few centuries of white racism haven't helped.

Isn't "whiteness" lauded in Thailand too - just check all the actors and presenters on Thai TV. Also the number of whitening cream adverts on TV. Also the desire to look European with silicone nose implants. The Bangkok elite also call the upcountry Thais buffaloes, although not necessarily just because of their brown skin.

Need to get some more of our black and beautiful singers over here..to change their attitudes....

like Beyonce and Rhianna.

Problem is...the rice Asian elite..(mostly chinese men) are pushing for white skinned girls.

Give me that milk chocolatey flavor...and almond eyes (Filipina)..any day....over a translucent, blue veined, waxy vampire look.

Skin whiteners and cremes are an affordable expense for a booming middle class. Men buy motorbikes. Women buy cosmetics. White people sun bathe to look darker, or worse buy spray tans or tanning beds, dark people want look lighter. Its OK inoderstion but some go to far.

Thank the good Lord that this problem is only in Cambodia. Much of the world would seriously need to consider re-vamping its healthy attitudes towards skin color if this whiter-is-better silliness in Cambodia were more widespread.

It's just the opposite of the western suntanners who want darker skin.

Skin whiteners are oxidants -- ASEAN will be the hub of skin cancer in ten years.

I read recently that one country in the region, is planning on banning whitening substances.

So many of these skin whiteners contain a form of bleach, which converts skin fat to soap. It's not at all healthy, and will lead to all sorts of skin hardening and cancers.

Personally, I think that a brown skin looks great, but obviously Thais don't agree with that.

Children are not born with any kind of built-in prejudices, adults train them.

Thank the good Lord that this problem is only in Cambodia. Much of the world would seriously need to consider re-vamping its healthy attitudes towards skin color if this whiter-is-better silliness in Cambodia were more widespread.

It is very wide-spread, particularly in S.E Asia. Go look in the pharmacies, supermarkets & 7-11's in Thailand. And on TB, skin whiteners & pale 1/2 Falang soap opera stars. It is a HUGE Business here. I am tempted to consider that you do not live here if you believe that.

i think its an indicator at just how INSECURE Asians really are, which also explains why FACE has such importance, Face is basically insecurity too. Asians have always suffered from this and are now even more secure than before

Thank the good Lord that this problem is only in Cambodia. Much of the world would seriously need to consider re-vamping its healthy attitudes towards skin color if this whiter-is-better silliness in Cambodia were more widespread.

It is not just Cambodia, it is a belief in many Asian cultures (and southern European ones too) that dark skin is a sign of having worked in the fields and is looked down on as lower class.

The flip side of this is the desire of Caucasians to have a tan to look browner, as it is a sign of having leisure time and the money to go some place that has sun. Ironically, in the UK there is a huge industry for spray on tans, with products and clinics competing for space with the skin whitening products and clinics targeting the Asian population.

It is very wide-spread, particularly in S.E Asia. Go look in the pharmacies, supermarkets & 7-11's in Thailand. And on TB, skin whiteners & pale 1/2 Falang soap opera stars. It is a HUGE Business here. I am tempted to consider that you do not live here if you believe that.

It is not just Cambodia, it is a belief in many Asian cultures (and southern European ones too) that dark skin is a sign of having worked in the fields and is looked down on as lower class.

Yes, guys, that was my point, I was being sarcastic.

Being a retired manufacturing pharmacist I have tried, with little effect, to explain to my Thai family and friends just how dangerous these preparations are. Some cause blotchiness to the skin, and some are just plain carcinogenic. Some are harmless and thus don't work. Watch Thai TV, how many advertisements are about skin whitening. How many magazines have the adverts ? Walk thru Central Department Store in Pattaya (can't remember what floor), look at the number of "clinics" are there that have in their arsenal skin-whitening products ? Scary, and totally uncontrolled (this includes laser use). What regulator do these places fall under.

Although underarm whitening is quite common now, I was amazed a year or two ago when I saw advertisements in a magazine for girls to make their brown nipples pink, and (wait for it), make their a*us pink, by using these creams. I love my wife as the colour she is, and have told her and her sisters that true attractiveness has nothing to do with colour.

Do not really see the point of this article as it would appear that the pot is calling the kettle black, Thailand hosts the most arrogant and narcissistic

gathering with tones of racialism on so many fronts regarding skin tone.

Sort out the shit on your own doorstep before you go looking for moral high ground. Stores and supermarkets carry a vast array of products all professing whitening power. It is near impossible to get an after shave balm without whitening power from strong to mega blitz.

yet another country to add to the list of those expected to have a populace suffering vitamin D deficiency in time

only a couple of generations ago, an Albino amongst a crowd would be ridiculed as an outcast, or worse still - killed for bad luck in the village,

and now they want to revere the look!!!

What's new? They've been doing it in Thailand for as long as westerners have been tryng to go darker. Neither is overwhelmingly sensible.

Thank god Thais don't share this need for white skin.