Why? Other people in other parts of the world get their skin darkened to appear more attractive. To each their own.
This was for Balmain where many models were either lightened or darkened for the theme.
Mostly because self-tanners are generally safe while skin lightening products are NOT. A lot of them are actually burning your skin with mercury and many people are starting to wonder if they cause cancer. And a lot of people think tanning beds/sun tanning is now an insane way to reach an ideal skin color too.
Plus skin lightening is deeply rooted in racist ideals, whereas tanning is generally rooted in "healthy and glowing." Unless you're race-baiting/blackfishing, but that's a whole other can of worms that I really don't want to open.
my mistake! I was confused because I’ve seen her post stories where she’s gone for whitening facials before.
Skin lightening is deeply rooted in colonialism. It also allows for discrimination based on SES because only the wealthy can a) afford to stay inside and b) afford the hydroquinone and alpha arbutin-rich treatments that actually work. It may seem like nothing to someone who hasn’t faced it, but I’ve lived in a number of countries where I’ve seen people, particularly women, passed over for opportunities and jobs simply because their skin isn’t light enough. Also as @Kit said, many of the ingredients used are harmful while tanning is a far more natural process.
I agree that it's problematic (health reasons/socioeconomic discrimination) but in Korea at least it's not rooted in racism. It's more along the lines of what @smallthing said about it being discrimination based on socioeconomic status (although I think smallthing seems to be saying that that's what it's become currently?)--basically originating from the fact that those who had to do physical labor in fields would be tanned whereas the aristocracy could laze around indoors in the shade and be pale.* The valuing of white skin was very much an internal thing and not to do with the big bad colonial West at all.
@Kit I'm not saying you're doing this and your post seems very well intentioned (and perhaps there is a colonial history in other countries) but my two cents about the whole debate: the insistence that skin whitening is colonial and racist itself always seemed oddly more racist/Eurocentric to me?
Like an odd insistence that the beauty standards of all nations always have reference to 'the West' and seems to carry undertones that there must be presuppositions that cast darker skintones as always marginal since:
-- must be the case that people are colonially pressured to lighten their skin and it's problematic (because white is privileged[better]!)
-- vs. people choose to tan their skin (since starting from a place of privilege, duh)
*Also isn't similar reasoning a part of why tanning began to be seen as 'desirable' in the West--a mark that one could voyage out to winter somewhere tropical?
Yup, and before that paleness was considered an indicator of wealth here too. As someone whose complexion matches Carrara marble, I'm clearly born into the wrong signalling environment.
I agree that it's problematic (health reasons/socioeconomic discrimination) but in Korea at least it's not rooted in racism. It's more along the lines of what @smallthing said about it being discrimination based on socioeconomic status (although I think smallthing seems to be saying that that's what it's become currently?)--basically originating from the fact that those who had to do physical labor in fields would be tanned whereas the aristocracy could laze around indoors in the shade and be pale.* The valuing of white skin was very much an internal thing and not to do with the big bad colonial West at all.
@Kit I'm not saying you're doing this and your post seems very well intentioned (and perhaps there is a colonial history in other countries) but my two cents about the whole debate: the insistence that skin whitening is colonial and racist itself always seemed oddly more racist/Eurocentric to me?
Like an odd insistence that the beauty standards of all nations always have reference to 'the West' and seems to carry undertones that there must be presuppositions that cast darker skintones as always marginal since:
-- must be the case that people are colonially pressured to lighten their skin and it's problematic (because white is privileged[better]!)
-- vs. people choose to tan their skin (since starting from a place of privilege, duh)
*Also isn't similar reasoning a part of why tanning began to be seen as 'desirable' in the West--a mark that one could voyage out to winter somewhere tropical?
I am always happy to hear why I'm wrong. Social issues aren't my forte, but I'm trying to be better and more educated everyday so thank you and @smallthing for taking the time to type all that out!
Think about how I feel. I have red hair, pale skin and a sizeable forehead—bullied for all three in the past but if I’d been born during the Elizabethan era I’d be a fucking god. Mind you, they did also glamourise fatness in them days
I think I’ll pass...
they did also glamourise fatness in them days
Is that so much worse than glamourising the Kardashians? IMO the current beauty standard is worse in some ways, especially since because of the abundance of plastic surgery we see, the idea of jolie laide does not exist as much anymore.
Anyway, Ming is joining Biotherm!
If she is, and her arms look like that, I don’t wanna see any models gaining obscene amounts of weight just cause they’re pregnant anymore
I know some of these are old, but I've always loved her off-duty fashion and she's maintained herself so well throughout the years!
This is her after Ermanno Scervino Fall 2013, I think in Milan:
and her at the s/s13 show for Jason Wu in 2012:
Cannes in May 2018:
and I think this is 2018, but I'm not sure where it's from...
This is her after Ermanno Scervino Fall 2013, I think in Milan:
and her at the s/s13 show for Jason Wu in 2012:
Cannes in May 2018:
and I think this is 2018, but I'm not sure where it's from...
Sorry for the double post, but I found some recent ones from Cannes, France from just the other day at the screening of "A Hidden Life (Une Vie Cachée)"
