Comments on: What is Beautiful?

By: PaulineHuang

PaulineHuang — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:50:53 +0000

I know right! Popular culture from America these days are telling us that we should look like them (white), even though we are not. What would the world be like if everybody is the same, “perfect”? Totally tasteless…

By: chris

chris — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:39:00 +0000

an excellent article covering an important subject.

By: Maricris

Maricris — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:48:31 +0000

You hit the nail right on the head! I wondered about why most of us try so hard to be WHO we ARE NOT. Like we're not comfortable in our skin or look. I actually talked about this in one of my blogs dedicated to me being Asian and the Asian society around me here: http://brownisthenewcolor.blogspot.com/.

@MaricrisG
http://zenforyou.dalefg.net

By: Maricris

Maricris — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:48:31 +0000

By: Efren Bose

Efren Bose — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:28:57 +0000

I actually think it's a combination of both. Obviously, pre-colonialism, those who were of high social class weren't expected to do hard physical labor, and so those with fairer skin were immediately seen as having more wealth. Colonization in Asian countries, whether it be from Europe or the US, or from other Asian countries, just emphasized that and difference by adding people of different ethnicities into the mix. I think it's too simplistic to pin down to just colonialism when those societal tendencies were already there to begin with.

It's weird to see how countries where the dominant color is brown make these extremely fine distinctions between shades of brown, when honestly, when one comes to a society that's, for lack of a better term, differently oriented, brown is brown, regardless of the shade. I've read arranged marriage ads in India and there's an emphasis on “wheat colored” skin; and all the various “skin lightening” ads in the Philippines and other countries were lighter shades of brown and yellow are emphasized, and yet trying to be “white/European” is looked down upon as well. It's almost this completely unobtainable raceless and colorless ideal that people are striving for and has completely no basis in actual social reality.

By: jeffat8asians

jeffat8asians — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:30:55 +0000

@Xander: I'm sure you are right that fair skin was coveted in places in Asia before western influence (Efren mentions the "difference" factor, but with colonialism did add a powerful influence. Colorism is quite powerful in former colonized countries like India, Philippines, Mexico, and Brazil.

By: Xander

Xander — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:16:13 +0000

“because it soon became popular among straight Asian men, which is an immediate sign that it’s passe.”

i LOL'd. in all seriousness though, if you look at history, fairer skin and such were coveted long before western influence became proliferated across asia, and to now go and attribute that to white cultural imperialism, i find, to be a bit insulting. sure, i dont agree with it, but im also not going to go say that it is rooted in race, with white = good, and black = bad.