Beyond the Pale: The dangers of Thailand’s obsession with white skin

[snoop1130]

Beyond the Pale: The dangers of Thailand’s obsession with white skin

By Ana Salvá

 

Young women use lotions and skin peels to whiten their skin. Photo: Emmanuel/ Flickr

 

From sketchy creams that promise a lightened vagina to deodorants that cure dark armpits to intravenous skin-lightening injections, the market for skin-whitening products is extensive in Thailand.

 

For many Thais, light-skinned women are considered more beautiful and believed to be more successful. Behind this idea are cultural beliefs and a multi-million dollar industry that seems to have no end to the weird products they can create to make random body parts paler.

 

The cultural obsession with white skin means that many Thais avoid the sun in their daily lives. Thai language is also peppered with expressions that equate dark skin with unpleasant things, such as the insult dam muean ega meaning "black as a raven."

 

Full Story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2017/01/27/beyond-pale-dangers-thailands-obsession-white-skin

 

-- © Copyright Coconuts Bangkok 2017-1-27

[bitterbatter]

Can anyone recommend a link of this subject written inThai?  I need to show this to many people.

[wotsdermatter]

Block the content and paste it into Google translate.  Block, copy, and save the Thai translation as a Word file then simply print the file.  Also, print the original English so that the reader can see the original script.

[maxpower]

43 minutes ago, bitterbatter said:

Can anyone recommend a link of this subject written inThai?  I need to show this to many people.

https://justpaste.it/12v63

[Elkski]

This was in my top 3 sad things to learn on my visits to Thailand last year.   Very racist in color of skin.   Crazy advertisements even on the BTS. 

Just let them know farang love all colors of gardens.  Natural works for me.     Avoiding the sun  sure is nice in making so many look 10 years younger.  Plus smooth blemish free skin.  So nice.  

[SaintLouisBlues]

14 minutes ago, Elkski said:

This was in my top 3 sad things to learn on my visits to Thailand last year.   Very racist in color of skin.   Crazy advertisements even on the BTS. 

Just let them know farang love all colors of gardens.  Natural works for me.     Avoiding the sun  sure is nice in making so many look 10 years younger.  Plus smooth blemish free skin.  So nice.  

You're missing the point entirely. The darkness of the skin is an indicator of manual labor. Manual labor (especially on farms) is an indicator of social class

[wakeupplease]

For God sake does colour matter, we all go to the toilet the same, we all walk the same, we all breath the same but in thai it matters if you are Thai or Farang stupid small minded people with no education or just scared of people the education in Thailand does not want for the majority

man I am glad to be out of there, but a bit cold otherwise FRESH AIR

 

[DM07]

Thailand is not yet ready to join the 20th century! Let alone the 21st!


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[Sphere]

Quote

From sketchy creams that promise a lightened vagina ....

 

Never share that lip balm again.......

 

[maewang99]

this isn't just in Thailand.

also, let's give up on the ****Thailand**** this and that narrative in general as well....

it's like the old Batman show where everything is Bat this and Bat that.....

yeah, at the national level it's vying to be the World's Biggest Ethnological Exposition..... but hey, tourism is now the big Cheap Baht driver.... the economy.... and there ain't many other drivers available no matter how much they talk it up... and for a simple reason. and that reason has nada to do with skin color.

 

Edited January 28, 2017 by maewang99

[doggie1955]

First time I came to Thailand was back in 1976,. and from 1976 to 1984 I came down from Korea at less 2 to 3 times a year....But when I came back in 2014 it was like what the hell happen to all the brown Thai people?  It's funny how my wife (who is Thai) calls all the white Thai's...."Fake Thai's".

[bitterbatter]

9 hours ago, maxpower said:

https://justpaste.it/12v63

Unfortunately my wife says that the Thai here isn't good, difficult to comprehend. Can anyone suggest a better article? I fear that the  lack of any decent journalism on this subject is why Thais are still in the dark as to the dangers of chemicals in skin care products. It is so frustrating to try to convince them of the clear dangers when they are in denial of facts that are simply words of a farang or husband.

[Fookhaht]

Block the content and paste it into Google translate.  Block, copy, and save the Thai translation as a Word file then simply print the file.  Also, print the original English so that the reader can see the original script.

Don't do it.

The poster has no concept of how much Google Translate grinds up the original English, stuffs it into a washing machine so that it gets totally and irretrievably garbled, and then dumps it out as an incoherent pile of sh$t nonsense.

Other language-to-language translations, especially between Western languages, are reasonably understandable. But English / Thai conversions are still in the Dark Ages of translation software. Use at your own (and others') peril.

Most of the ridiculous English signage and documents you see here find their origin in Google Translate. It's exponentially worse going the opposite direction of English to Thai.

You've been warned.

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[AlphMichaels]

Color bias is global.  Unfortunately, here & throughout Asia, the idea that being light places you in a higher social order is wrong.  Start checking the consumer solutions sold everywhere and exposing them for their false promises is a start.  

 

Maybe the aliens will come and just make every human green or purple.  That should effectively remove color bias.   

[madmitch]

Unfortunately the cosmetics industry make an absolute fortune out of so-called whitening products and with their commercial clout and the beauty of white skin rammed into the Thai mentality during every commercial break, as well as the programmes, nothing is going to change their thinking.

 

Do commercial skin-whitening products work? I don't know but I've never noticed the difference on any regular Thai people I've known. If they don't work, why are companies like Johnson & Johnson and Unilever allowed to continue marketing such products? If they do work, why don't we see streets full of white skin?

[AlphMichaels]

5 minutes ago, madmitch said:

Unfortunately the cosmetics industry make an absolute fortune out of so-called whitening products and with their commercial clout and the beauty of white skin rammed into the Thai mentality during every commercial break, as well as the programmes, nothing is going to change their thinking.

 

Do commercial skin-whitening products work? I don't know but I've never noticed the difference on any regular Thai people I've known. If they don't work, why are companies like Johnson & Johnson and Unilever allowed to continue marketing such products? If they do work, why don't we see streets full of white skin?

Spot on and no the products don't work. Those sold over the counter are likely toxic and short lived perception of whitening effect..., as in "leave it on for 30 mins" and when washed off some bleaching effect has occurred.   

 

And just like the "purveyors of sugar" feeding the population with bliss-point foods at 7-Elevens (not to mention in front of schools), those global names who formulate and sell this stuff are still, in the end, Thai companies.  You can't count on a J & J product formulated product here sub-standard to its US counterpart, if one exists.       

[mtls2005]

I'm still trying to figure out the connection between "Snails" and "whiteness"? Is the treatment extracted from snails?

 

Along with the fascination of "Black-face"?

 

Are these two connected?

[fxe1200]

It is only about business. In Europe NIVEA sells tanning cream, in Thailand whitening cream. Companies can only create a demand of items or conditions, the future customer does not have.

[Wilsonandson]

I need to change my penis complexion. I have caramel brown shiny skin However my Penis is way too dark and there is no consistency in both the skin tones. I usually prefer and emphasize oral sex during foreplay and i got feedback from my partner that she is half-hearted performer during oral sex due to my penis complexion. i am fed up of seeing my partner turned off due to my penis complexion. It doesn't matter laser treatment or chemical one. Any expert there can help me on this please?

[SaintLouisBlues]

3 minutes ago, Wilsonandson said:

I need to change my penis complexion. I have caramel brown shiny skin However my Penis is way too dark and there is no consistency in both the skin tones. I usually prefer and emphasize oral sex during foreplay and i got feedback from my partner that she is half-hearted performer during oral sex due to my penis complexion. i am fed up of seeing my partner turned off due to my penis complexion. It doesn't matter laser treatment or chemical one. Any expert there can help me on this please?

Change your partner?

[mtls2005]

I need to change my penis complexion. I have caramel brown shiny skin

 

That can be rubbed out.

[Jimbo2014]

Sounds too much like America, white house, pure = white, bad = black, white angels, black cats, back mail, black list, black sheep... and look at the colour diversity in the present presidential pics.  This is a global obsession which needs to stop.

[Chip Allen]

6 hours ago, wakeupplease said:

For God sake does colour matter, we all go to the toilet the same, we all walk the same, we all breath the same but in thai it matters if you are Thai or Farang stupid small minded people with no education or just scared of people the education in Thailand does not want for the majority

man I am glad to be out of there, but a bit cold otherwise FRESH AIR

 

The racism and colorism has always disgusted me, but Thailand changes like the glaciers. Buddha forbid that anyone look like they've done an honest days work out in the sun. A pack of peasants all lusting to be elites.

[HHTel]

Farang want brown skin, Thais want white skin.

Farang want small nose, Thais want big nose.

Farang would like long straight hair, Thais want curly hair.

Farang think pasty white skin looks unhealthy, Thais think dark skin is unhealthy.

Farang likes to bathe in the sun, Thais will avoid the sun at all costs.

Farang spends money on spray tan, Thais spend money on skin whitening.

 

Go figure!

[Enoon]

 

It's not a "race" thing, it's a "class" thing.  As it was in 18th century Europe:

 

"Beginning in the 17th century and continuing throughout the 18th century, both men and women in England and France wore obvious cosmetics.  Gender differences were less important than class differences – cosmetics marked one as aristocratic and à la mode, and were adopted as well by those who were trying to rise in social status or become fashionable.  Makeup was not intended to look natural – in fact, it was called “paint” — but instead, “…to represent one’s aristocratic identity as declaratively as possible through cosmetic artifice” (Hyde).  Women and men showed their respectability and class through white skin, and heavy makeup was considered more respectable than naturally light skin."

 

Peasants had to slave in the fields and ditches, and browned in the sun.  "Good" respectable people lived indoors and took their leisure in the shade.

 

After WW2 a tan meant that you could afford a life or holiday in the sun.  Film and Pop stars had them, they got them in St.Tropez.  So now It's the other way, tans are "in".   So much so that the UK is full of orange women and, increasingly, men.

 

If the rich, famous or influential in Thailand were to decide they like tans it would all change.

 

 

Edited January 28, 2017 by Enoon

[Panda13]

 
It's not a "race" thing, it's a "class" thing.  As it was in 18th century Europe:
 
"Beginning in the 17th century and continuing throughout the 18th century, both men and women in England and France wore obvious cosmetics.  Gender differences were less important than class differences – cosmetics marked one as aristocratic and à la mode, and were adopted as well by those who were trying to rise in social status or become fashionable.  Makeup was not intended to look natural – in fact, it was called “paint” — but instead, “…to represent one’s aristocratic identity as declaratively as possible through cosmetic artifice” (Hyde).  Women and men showed their respectability and class through white skin, and heavy makeup was considered more respectable than naturally light skin."
 
Peasants had to slave in the fields and ditches, and browned in the sun.  "Good" respectable people lived indoors and took their leisure in the shade.
 
After WW2 a tan meant that you could afford a life or holiday in the sun.  Film and Pop stars had them, they got them in St.Tropez.  So now It's the other way, tans are "in".   So much so that the UK is full of orange women and, increasingly, men.
 
If the rich, famous or influential in Thailand were to decide they like tans it would all change.
 
 

Although this era was known as the Age of Enlightenment, most fashionable men and women poisoned themselves with red and white lead make-up and powder. (Swinfield: p97) The make-up they used caused the eyes to swell and become inflamed, attacked the enamel on the teeth and changed the texture of the skin causing it to blacken, it was also not uncommon to suffer baldness, and for a time it became fashionable to shave the front hairline. It was known that heavy use of lead could cause death. (Baker: p210)

[Panda13]

When my Thai GF asks me if she is brown, I say " No, your honey colour". She gets a real kick out of saying the words over and over to herself and laughing about it.

[DM07]

Said before, have to say it again: the farang- want- to- be-tanned-so- it's- basically-all-the-same- argument is giant BS! Back in farang land, you are not a 2nd class citizen, to be looked down upon, if you are not tanned! So it is 100% NOT the same!


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[jak2002003]

Anyone interesting in starting a spray on whitening shop.... like the tanning shops in the UK, only in reverse.   think it would make a lot of money...

 

Could also have people pay to be shut in a dark 'whitening' booth, or whitening bed for a few hours to make them whiter.  lol..

[zorro1]

Unfortunately the cosmetics industry make an absolute fortune out of so-called whitening products and with their commercial clout and the beauty of white skin rammed into the Thai mentality during every commercial break, as well as the programmes, nothing is going to change their thinking.
 
Do commercial skin-whitening products work? I don't know but I've never noticed the difference on any regular Thai people I've known. If they don't work, why are companies like Johnson & Johnson and Unilever allowed to continue marketing such products? If they do work, why don't we see streets full of white skin?

Their baby powder is cheap and surprisingly effective