Skin whitening is a common cosmetic practice among people worldwide and is particularly popular in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. The desire for lighter skin is based on multiple factors that can include societal expectations and perceptions of appearance of those deemed to fall within the socioeconomic upper classes. The global skin whitening industry is valued at $10 billion and is expected to grow to $16 billion by 2030.
On a personal level the pressure within society to be ‘fairer’ or ‘lighter’ can affect people’s perceptions of self-worth, causing people to apply whitening creams, masks and serums despite risks to their health. We spoke to Sania, a resident of Karachi in Pakistan in September 2022. She first started using whitening creams at the age of 13 and has continued into adulthood.
Hi Sania. At what stage in your childhood did you start having this feeling that your skin tone was important and something you wanted to change?
Sania: I was first exposed to this idea that fair skin is more beautiful than my original colour when I was 5 or 6 years old. You won’t believe it. I had an aunt and she straight off told my mother, “This one is going to be hard to marry off for you”, implying it would be difficult because of my dark skin. And that was the first time I was exposed to the idea but as I kept on growing up, with the number of years passing, I noticed on screen that there were only fair skinned actors everywhere. If there were Pakistani actors who had a dull complexion before, when they entered the industry suddenly they got fair skin and their skin was glowing. It wasn’t representative of what we were and what my skin colour was. So I thought that me being different in that sense was wrong. I thought that I didn’t fit in society and I had this idea in my mind since I was 5 years old. That idea kept growing. The seed was there, and society and everyone around me just kept watering it and watering it until I reached the age of 13. By then I’d had enough, so I looked for creams, steroids and things like that.
That’s a very young age to have had these feelings.
Sania: Yeah. I felt like I was bullied because everywhere I went, I had an elder sister who had fair skin, a rosy complexion, and everyone loved her since childhood. Everyone used to say that this piece of clothing or that frock would look good on her because she’s fair skinned, she’s light skinned. For me, however, I was brought down to choose from a few colours only. I don’t know if you’d believe it but even from childhood, I had only a few colours to pick from. “These colours will go well with your skin”, people would say. It made me sad and when I was 6 years old I didn’t like my pictures being clicked. I have no pictures from 6 to 10 years old. I had the idea that I didn’t look good in pictures because I didn’t have fair skin and I had uneven skin tone.
Was there any counteraction to these feelings, for example, maybe friends who could tell you, “Your skin colour doesn’t determine your worth” or anything like that?
Sania: Not a single person. Not even my mother. It’s sad to say but she never defended me in front of people who would bully me regarding my skin tone. And everyone used to tell me, if you use this, you’ll get fair. You’ll look more pretty. Use this cream, use that cream.
I see. So why do you think that people place such a strong emphasis on it? In your opinion, where do you think it comes from?
Sania: In my opinion it goes way, way back to the establishment of the East India Company. Perhaps people in our society still attribute fair skin colour with superiority, right? They were made slaves. They couldn’t get jobs. They only saw certain white people get good jobs, good housing, good lifestyles. So they attributed fair colour to all these good things. I think it comes from an inferiority complex.
But if we are to take this logic, independence happened in the 1940s. Why do you think this attitude persists?
Sania: I think we’re still stuck there and it’s passed down from generation to generation. It’s been a long time since 1947 but I’ve seen that our mothers are passing it down to our children. They’re not breaking the chain. They’re not breaking the cycle. Even now, I have a child. He’s a boy, but everyone is asking me to put creams on him and commenting that he’s pretty because he’s fair skinned. And I thought, I’m going to put an end to this. I’m going to break this chain.
That’s good to hear that you’re breaking the chain. So in some countries such as Brazil and South Korea, plastic surgery is sometimes referred to as the ‘great equaliser’, indicating that getting a cosmetic procedure opens up opportunities. Do you think skin tone affects opportunities in your society?
Sania: Yes. It’s an unfortunate truth of my society but it’s the truth. Sometimes it feels as if society makes things easier for those with fair skin. I had a class fellow, we were both studying in the same grade. When we graduated I had a GCPA of 3.89 and she had a CGPA of 2. She failed most of her subjects but when we applied for the same position in a particular company, she got it after her interview. When I was asking for feedback, the company told me that they needed a certain type of face to represent our organisation. And when I asked what are your requirements for that face, they told me the candidate has to be skinny, fair skinned and beautiful.
This job was customer facing?
Sania: It was a front desk job. Like when you enter the the company, you see the beautiful ladies working there. That’s what their mentality was.
And this culture persists today?
Sania: It’s being applied under the books, off the record. Unfortunately the HR here is practising these things. The modelling industry is clear. They won’t take you if you don’t have fair skin.
What about back office jobs where it’s not customer facing? Do you think even then there’d be an impact?
Sania: Yeah. I guess that the men here like to be surrounded by ‘beautiful women’, and in their minds, a beautiful woman is someone who’s fair.
It sounds as if this is a somewhat patriarchal issue too, in that things are being done to please men.
Sania: I think we’re brought up that way. I was 5 when I was told that no man would like me because I am not fair. So that is the thinking that we’re putting inside our little girls’ minds. We’re telling them that your only goal in life is to please a man. So these are two problems side by side. You’re telling them that your skin tone is not good enough and you’re also telling them that you need to please a man in your life to be successful. It’s wrong.
What immediately comes to mind when you talk about these issues is that there’s likely a large segment of the population whose mental health will be affected. How open are people to talking about these issues?
Sania: It’s a very big taboo. If you feel like you need to see a therapist, some people start terming you ‘mental’. There is no space for venting your emotions. There’s no safe space here. So all these emotions keep building up inside.
But how about friends? Do they use these products? Did you perhaps hear about it at school, for example, friends recommending products?
Sania: No. Recommending products wasn’t a part of anyone’s conversation because we wanted to show everyone that, no, we’re not using anything to enhance our complexion. Our complexion is fair by birth. And that is another point. Nobody talks about using these products, but everyone uses them.
In a society that judges you so much on appearance and on something you can’t control – one’s skin tone is what it is – do you think some people want to escape society because of how much pressure it puts on you?
Sania: I think people born in the 1990s, maybe 1995 onwards, they have this thinking. They want to escape society or they want to change society. The elders, which is the real issue here, they are still reluctant and they don’t see anything wrong in their ways. They don’t see anything harmful in their ways. They don’t see how they are disrupting the peace of society. They don’t see it.
It’s widely recognised that many whitening creams have health risks associated with their use. What are some of the risks you’re taking with the creams you use?
Sania: I know that whitening creams have very high levels of mercury inside them, they have steroids. They can cause skin cancer and kidney cancer. They can cause your upper layer of skin to thin, which leads you to be more exposed to the sun. I know all this but even now I cannot stop myself from using the whitening creams.
And you still think it’s worth the risk? You said you have a son.
Sania: It’s like a habit now. I feel like if I don’t use the creams, if I don’t have fair skin, society won’t accept me.
Have you ever tried to stop using them for a while?
Sania: Yes, I did. When I joined my university I did stop using them for a while. But then my skin had such a bad reaction because by then my skin was so used to them. I had the worst breakout. I would feel itchy. I started getting rashes. And then I had to go to a proper doctor to get treatment. And the skin specialist advised me not to ever use any whitening cream but I still have a whitening cream on my desk right now. If I stop taking them, I think I won’t be able to be successful in society. I think I will fail as a mother. I’ll fail as a person. And then I won’t have anywhere to fit in. If I go out like this I feel people will judge me. Anyone whoever just looks at me casually I start thinking that he or she is judging me for not having fair skin. And it goes way back to when I was 5 years old and my aunt me I wasn’t beautiful because I didn’t have fair skin. So it’s very difficult to change your mentality. The mentality you had growing up in those years when you were so open and everything could affect you. It’s very difficult to change this thinking. I am trying to change this but every once in a while I get someone telling me I’m not fair. Someone I don’t even know. I’ll meet someone in a gathering and they’ll say, have you tried this cream, have you tried that cream? Or they’ll say I don’t look after myself. So that is the kind of pressure we’re facing here.
I think this will be revealing for a lot of people who might not realise how much pressure there is around this issue. But if we can look at another side of this, things are changing. Not just about skin colour, but also about acceptance as a whole. And we see people of different appearances achieving success in roles that traditionally may have been for light-skinned people, for example modelling, actors and so on. The world is changing and there’s a growing movement about loving yourself no matter how you’re perceived. I know this is an issue that’s affected you since childhood but do you think at some point you’ll be able to stop using whitening creams?
Sania: I think it is going to happen one day. I’m working towards that. I’m trying to change my mentality. I’m trying to tell myself it does not matter if society accepts me or not. I want to get to a point where I feel I don’t need to change for other people. I think I will get there but it will take a lot of time.
And having a son, and instilling within him the importance of loving himself is important.
Sania: He’s just 2 right now but I’m actively parenting him towards this. I’m always telling him you’re doing good, you’re doing great. You do not need to change. Some people think kids cannot learn at this age but I this is the age they learn the most. We didn’t have active parents. That was a major issue. They were not active about how we were thinking and how we were feeling. For them, it was about their feelings. And they wanted to project their feelings on us. This is something I’m not going to do. This is something I’m going to break. I’m planning to not inculcate any type of thing in my child. So at least the next generation can live a life without insecurities. That’s what I want. And I don’t blame anyone from that generation. They didn’t have the awareness. Today we have the internet and we can get answers with the click of a button.
Good to hear. Thanks very much for speaking with us.
Sania: Thank you. Actually this is the first time talking about my experiences. I’ve had many experiences like this and it’s been good to get it off my chest.
