Colorism

Some cultures have contributed to "colorist" beliefs that light hair and blue eyes are the standard for beauty. People who fall victim to this altered view have gone as far as skin bleaching and extreme poisonous routes which have contributed to the deaths of women trying to stay in trend. Countries such as India victimize females with favor placed on lighter skin. Africa is a predominantly dark skinned continent that has taken up the "fair skin death trap"; a country that should be praising rich cocoa skin, or darker skin that is native to India begun praising European like skin. The colorist view projected by society and the media leads to exploitation and the death of some who have subscribed to colorist ideals.

Colorism can be found across the world. The term is generally used for the phenomenon of people discriminating within their own ethnic groups. The phrase colorism refers to when lighter skin tones are preferred and darker skin is considered less desirable among an ethnic group or vice versa, darker skin is more desirable than white skin. The issue of colorism is rampant. The focus of this paper is the case that causes young dark girls to feel inferior to girls of lighter skin because society and the media deems lighter girls are more beautiful. Problems surrounding this issue include men and women undertaking dangerous procedures to attain to lighter “more beautiful” skin.

The world’s perception of beauty is predominantly geared toward people of lighter complexion. History shows that whites have proclaimed their beauty to the world through colonialism and slavery. County’s natives were made to acknowledge European’s self-proclaimed “beauty”. In South Africa the system of apartheid, kept “apart” the races, and the syst...

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...nd consciously and sub-consciously. Women are sometimes pressured into whitening their skin. Indian skin whitening corporations convey the message that if a woman isn’t fair she isn’t lovely or that she will not get married nor will she have success at her job unless her skin is extremely light or fair. Polls taken show that when looking for a wife Indian men prize lighter skin over how far the woman went in school, “…in India, where marital success can depend on light-toned skin… reveals the reality that if a woman seeks to be wedded she is, in most cases expected to brighten her skin if she’s dark. Generally the phrase colorism refers to the preference for lighter skin in an ethnicity or vice versa, darker skin among ethnicities, though this isn’t as common. The effects have claimed the lives of women whose insecurities have been exploited by the beauty industry.