Thursday, July 22, 2010

Quest For Beauty - Why the Fair-Skinned Tan and the Darker-Skinned Whiten

The trick about fitting in a high school society is all about blending with the crowd. Those who are different - the singers, the artists, the brainiacs, the minorities - are often labeled as outcasts. However, when one reaches adulthood, the concept of what is acceptable - the concept of what is beautiful - changes.

Man inherently has the desire to get things that he doesn't have, and the field of aesthetics is not exempt from that. In a society where the population's ethnicity is very homogenous, everyone yearns to have the chance to stand out and be special. Furthermore, the easiest thing to tell a person apart from another is the color of his or skin.

For western societies which are mostly composed of fair-skinned Caucasians, the trick is to darken it, hence the proliferation of tanning salons, bronzing products, sun block, and the like.

For eastern societies which is mostly made up of dark-skinned Asians, the trick is to lighten it, hence the popularity of whitening lotions, glutathione soaps, pills, body wash, etc. The range of products to allow changes in skin color is so wide, that the only limit is human imagination.

Moreover, western people who live in eastern countries are typically considered good-looking even if the people back home think otherwise. For example, it is rare for an American who lives in Southeast Asia to be involuntarily single.

While it is true that there may be some cases of opportunism that ensues, interracial marriages between two individuals with comparable economic standings are extremely common.

It is even ironic to discover that most of the people whom these expatriates get attracted to are the ones who are quite unattractive with respect to the local population's taste. Furthermore, the opposite of the situation is also true - easterners who migrate to the west can more easily find their matches there compare to their place of origin.

This is not meant to be an article that will foment racial profiling. Instead, this just shows that no matter what kind of gifts one receives at birth, there is always something or someone out there who is bound to be able to appreciate them.

By : Joseph_Stutzman

No comments: