Fair and Lovely
In Invisible Man chapter 13, the narrator is walking along and passes by a window, and he wants to punch it.
“I passed on to a window decorated with switches of wiry false hair, ointments guaranteed to produce the miracle of whitening black skin. ‘You too can be truly beautiful,’ a sign proclaimed. ‘Win greater happiness with whiter complexion. Be outstanding in your social set.’ I hurried on, suppressing a savage urge to push my fist through the pane.” (262)
Reading this made me feel very uncomfortable. This whole idea of people with darker skin needing to be whiter to really be pretty is disgusting. This isn’t an old idea either, and it’s still prevalent today. My family is from Pakistan and we visit there often, and the desire to have fair skin there is insane. One of the most famous brands in Pakistan is Fair & Lovely. They sell things like creams and face washes with the purpose of lightening your skin so that you are fair and lovely. Women will use face washes, creams, & lotions to lighten their skin, they get facials with bleach, and when doing their makeup, they’re sure to use a foundation that is 10 shades lighter. Whiter skin is equated to being a beautiful higher-class woman.
Where did this idea come from? Why should women of color lighten their skin to fit in and be pretty? Well, these ideas originally come from … you guessed it! White people! For countries like Pakistan and India, these ideas originated during the British Rule. The people in power were white, and lighter brown people were more likely to be chosen for positions of power, due to the white people’s internal bias that made them want people who looked more like them to be in power. Even after the British left, these ideologies remained that equated power to whiteness, which eventually translated to beauty being equal to whiteness.
So, I hate the idea that having whiter skin will make you pretty and happy, so I absolutely understand why the narrator felt so angry. Also, some real-life example from my family are:
1) My aunts and cousins use products from Fair and Lovely, or other products with skin whitening features. (like Vaseline lotion)
2) They’ve gotten facials with bleach!
3) At weddings, the bride and guests (including my mom - as both a bride and a guest) get their makeup done with white foundation and it is hilarious to see the difference between their faces and hands. (also, one of my cousins said his mom looked like a ghost after she came back from the salon with her makeup done)4) My mom and I had to buy some foundations for my aunt, and the shades she requested were in the light and fair categories.
Anyway, Invisible Man critiques a lot of ways that people act racist, and I believe this quote is another critique of ideas that white people push onto people of color.
I totally understand your frustration with the whole idea of lighter skin being prettier and more valued within society. I'm from Korea and having super pale skin is a huge thing there. They also have an abundance of skin whitening creams, bleaching treatments and foundation 3 shades lighter than actual skin tones. Even in pictures placed in magazines or of famous singers/actors, a lot of people's skin tones are whitened so they appear paler. I think it's funny how when I'm in Korea, my relatives will ask me, "Danbi, why did you get so tan?", whereas in America people assume I'm relatively pale/lighter skinned. While in my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong), Korea's obsession with paler skin stemmed from social class (back then those who worked in the fields and were lower status had darker skin, those who were richer and did not have to labor had paler skin) rather than white influence, I think the idea is relatively similar. It really makes you wonder why skin color is such a big influence on status and beauty within society. Like does being a shade of foundation lighter really make you that much prettier or superior? I really like how you pointed this quote out because I didn't really make a connection to my own life when I first read it. This whole scene just shows how even in the North, there's still an obvious tinge of racism and white superiority.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really ironic is that nowadays white people generally want tanner skin, while many people of color are still afflicted by the toxic white supremacist idea of lighter skin being better. This just goes to show how twisted the white supremacist model is. To me, whitening your skin is just another form of whitewash, and it's awful. The narrator's recognition of this ad definitely plays into his journey to accepting his heritage, skin, and who he is. He's no longer letting white supremacist ideas bombard him, he's retaliating with critical thought.
ReplyDeleteI think feeling the need to whiten your skin to feel pretty is absolutely absurd. Nobody should feel that they need to do that to feel beautiful. It makes perfect sense why the narrator would want to punch in that window. I definitely don’t think he would have felt that way before moving to New York but now he is standing up for himself and others.
ReplyDeleteI was so surprised when you told me these products actually still exist. Bleach is so bad for your skin! It's funny because in America, if you were a lighter foundation than your skin, you are ridiculed. If I recall rightly, the idea that whiter skin for women was a mark of higher status was the implication that fairer skin meant you didn't have a tan, which meant you could stay indoors all the time and would not have to work in the fields. come to think of it, during slavery times all black people worked in fields, so I'm sure that did not help things. Funny that now we equate tans with beauty. But tan's are terrible for your skin to. Interesting how people are attracted to people who harm themselves.
ReplyDeleteI like that you connected your own experiences to this passage. In Korea, where people have naturally golden complexions, the norm of beauty is to be ghost white. In the media, you will only see extremely pale men and women, made up and photoshopped to appear this way. To match this unrealistically pale standard of beauty, Koreans avoid even brief contact with sunlight, brighten and bleach their skin. Not too long ago, I saw a documentary about Filipino women going as far as risking their lives getting shady IV treatments and taking pills. That's right! Even knowing the risks, they would rather be dead than be dark! This ideology about pale skin is implemented generation after generation, and many people start their children on unhealthy whitening treatments as well. What I'm trying to say is that Ellison uses this moment to point out the colorism which still exists today. (on this idea of colorism, I've noticed that POC use skin color to bring each other down, even within the same racial group. I absolutely despise this, but I can't count how many times I've heard Black people use the possession of darker skin as an insult.) What's interesting to me is that people of color may risk their lives for lighter skin, but to white people, they're still seen as outsiders. I'm pretty sure that going a few shades lighter won't mean that racism = over. At the end of the day, the narrator in Invisible Man is only seen as a member of "your people." ("his people" I guess, but you know).
ReplyDelete