The Whitening Aisle(s)

For those of you who have traveled to Taiwan, Korea, or other parts of Asia and Southeast Asia you may or may not have seen commercials for beauty products that “lighten” and “whiten” one’s face. Well, Pond’s, Nivea, Neutrogena, you name the company that makes toner, facial wash, lotion, and any other type of cleansing or softening facial product and you can bet they make a version that has a “whitening agent” as part of their formula. I first encountered this marketing at a spa in Taiwan and I thought, hum, this is curious, looks like this lotion might be meant to make the user’s face whiter. But to what extent? What does this mean? White like “white” in terms of the whiteness that I know so well as a student of race, identity, and racial politics in the context of the U.S.? Or, rather, some other kind of white, and if so, what kind? Based on what type of white ideal? I mean whiteness itself is a constructed category (like so many others) and can and does vary from time to time and place to place. But, true enough, the “whiteness” that is being invoked by the discourse these products use appears to be in line with the normative American whiteness that has concretized itself in not only the forms of what might seem beautiful in terms of skin color, but also what is attainable in terms of the social and economic class statuses that accompany and are often defined by a certain racialized identity. So, these products are selling a hue, a normative status, a middle class position and perhaps even an attitude (of superiority? Perhaps). And, here in the Philippines, as I see time and again on television commercials and can attest to by describing (which I’ll spare you) at length in the TWO aisles at the grocery store that are devoted to whitening products of all sorts for women and men alike, lotions and potions that aim to reveal the “inner skin” or the “inner you” or that “pink hue beneath” I can’t help but ask myself: And what is this this? What is the real inner me beneath and can Pond’s skin cream really help me to find it? Well according to advertising it is the true layer of whiteness with a pink undertone that is locked, hiding, beneath the outer-layer of all of our skin. And, the key to its release is simply to use this tonic or that cleanser. So then what happens?