Is it possible to lighten skin color

People were attempting to gain some level of power and privilege that's associated with whiteness, and they started bleaching their skin in the '50s.

This can be problematic for me as someone who's been researching this for many years since it was the topic of my dissertation. My discomfort with so-called 'diverse' or predominately white publications is that folks tend to criminalize and castigate people who bleach their skin.

There tends to be an overwhelming focus on Black women particularly. The framing of the story is always interesting because people act surprised about this, and I don't understand why given the history of white supremacy in this country and across the world.

Of course you're going to be surprised if you're unaware, because then it looks like suddenly out of nowhere here are these people of African descent who arbitrarily want white skin.

You should absolutely believe that they would do that, particularly in the way that whiteness is projected, prioritized, and put on a pedestal all over the world. Of course people want access to that. And if you make a product and give them the option, some people are going to take it. This shouldn't be surprising. In a lot of ways, we use Black people—and Black women specifically—to feed our need to be shocked and to feel sorry for somebody.

The question is, what are we reporting for? Do we really want to affect change? If we want to affect change, why aren't we talking to government officials? So what's the point? You want credit for doing something you're not really invested in changing. For me, the question in the reporting is what is the intention?

If the intention is really about affecting change, we have to stop focusing on individuals and focus on institutions. And why are there entire corporations many of which are based in New York that feed off of making these products? Hydroquinone, for example, is banned from use, so they literally are making these products to dump them in the 'third world.

We question why people are doing it, but the question should be why are people making these products? There are no options for white people to darken their skin besides tanning. Your interest shouldn't be in women and why they're doing it; your interest should be in why it's an option. We can talk about the practice, but I also want to be clear that the issue isn't with the women or the people who practice—the issue is with the institution that supports and even encourages the practice—that's where our shock should be.

Everyone wants to talk about skin bleaching, but who has the nerve to walk into a government space and call out this problem? This is an epidemic because you allow it.

What are you going to do to change it? In the United States, we hide under political correctness, so people aren't going to be as open about it. We don't have billboards here because the FDA has some level of enforcement of what can be advertised. On paper, it says skin-bleaching products are banned and we shouldn't be advertising these products.

But if you walk right outside the Food and Drugs Board, you can find the products and you can see a billboard advertising skin bleaching. In the news a few years ago, people were applauding Ghana for banning skin bleaching, but that's such bullshit. Primarily because in the last 20 years, they've had these bans "on the books," but no one has enforced them.

The fact that the shelves remain stocked lets us know that the product is as active as it is there. The difference is that people aren't as forthcoming in talking about it here because we have all this judgment. We have all these articles that portray a level of shock factor in regard to skin bleaching, so why would anyone here admit to doing it? What's important to me and my position is to make sure that we're not participating in the history of projecting all of this negativity and barbarism to these spaces out in the "third world" as if America is so much more developed.

We get more coverage and there's more visibility in the Americas because people are trying to play it off differently, but you have loads of communities, particularly in New York City, and immigrant communities, who bring the practice with them.

And the products are here for them to have access to. And the ways that we continue to assign pivotal power to whiteness so people still want access to it. Let's work together to keep the conversation civil. A weekly guide to the biggest developments in health, medicine and wellbeing delivered to your inbox. Thank you for subscribing! Your subscription is confirmed for news related to biggest developments in health, medicine and wellbeing. Now playing. Reminder Successfully Set! Next Story: How to condition your hair.

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World Kindness Day: 5 acts of kindness to adopt when dating online. Lifelong vows a couple should make. Why do people resist blood sugar medication in favour of alternative therapies? We are conditioned to believe that life would have been easier had we been born fairer. In early , an Ayurvedic practitioner in Kolkata led a session for expectant couples, promising that even dark-skinned, short parents could have tall and fair children. Arguably, nowhere is the fair skin preference as ingrained as in classified ads placed in newspapers seeking a marriage partner.

The mindset is so normalised that people accept treatments as a part of wedding preparations — men as well as women. Then they put this fruity and flowery white paste all over my forehead, cheeks, nose and chin. They promised it would even out my skin. Panchapakesan says his eyes started burning after about five minutes and he got an irritation around his nose because the sweet smell turned to acrid fumes. He suspected it was based on ammonia. What have you done to yourselves? To cool the burning sensation and moisturise his dry skin, he applied coconut oil as a healing balm for three days.

He has sworn off beauty parlours ever since. Bleaching is a common treatment that lightens not the skin itself but the fine hairs on the face. Everyone has about the same number of cells to make melanin but how much you actually produce is down to your genes.

Darker-skinned people produce more. When exposed to the sun, the body produces more melanin to absorb harmful UV rays and protect skin cells. And having more natural melanin also means that darker-skinned people tend to develop fewer wrinkles and are less at risk of skin cancer. Skin-lightening creams often aim to interrupt the production of melanin or just improve the general health of the skin. Vitamin B3 is another common ingredient, but another previously found in lightening creams and soaps is mercury, the World Health Organization has warned.

Mercury suppresses the production of melanin but it can also damage the kidneys and brain if it is absorbed by the skin and accumulates in the body. Other lightening methods include a chemical peel, which removes the top layer of your skin. This leaves fresher skin exposed to harmful solar radiation and environmental pollutants. Dr Mukta Sachdev, a clinical and aesthetic dermatologist in Bengaluru, recalls two cases of Indian men who came to her after undergoing laser treatments while working in South Korea.

They were each in their late 20s and getting ready for marriages. She was able to treat the redness, but the white patches remained despite her efforts to stimulate the pigment to return. Many prospective patients come to her seeking skin lightening, but before offering them any treatment she counsels them to think less about light and dark and more about evenly toned, healthy skin. The perfect life from perfect skin Originally from the Philippines, but now working in Bengaluru, Mendiola says she has been taking the pills for the last five years, not just for lighter skin but for their antioxidant properties.

Mendiola describes herself as morena — not too fair and not too dark — and says that her skin returns to its natural colour faster when she uses the pills. Why not?