Several years back, Emma Watson got a lucrative beauty contract with Lancome. She became one of their “faces,” and she appeared in print ads for many different Lancome products. Her contract is done at this point, and I have no idea if Lancome simply didn’t renew it or if Emma just didn’t want to be in their advertising anymore. But this week, people started discussing a print ad from 2013. The print ad (seen above) features Emma as the “face” of a skin-whitening Lancome product being sold in Asia. As you can imagine, the reaction was really, really bad. People have been itching to write off Emma as just another non-intersectional white feminist, and this gave them a perfect opportunity.
Beauty companies have long sold “skin lightening” products in countries with large (or nearly exclusive) populations of non-white women. Lancome is not the first nor will they be the last. Colorism, racism and the white-dominated hierarchy of beauty standards all come into play when we talk about skin lightening. We’ve talked about it before too, with Freida Pinto talking openly about her disgust for Indian society’s obsession with getting lighter skin. Anyway, the conversation centered around Emma and how she’s basically Peak White Feminism because she has profited from selling this bulls—t. So Emma’s publicist came out and this was literally the only statement made.
“I cannot comment on my client’s previous contractual arrangements with Lancôme. However, my client no longer participates in advertising beauty products, which do not always reflect the diverse beauty of all women.”
If it sounds like Emma’s people are sort of throwing Lancome under the bus, that’s because I think they are. I also think there’s a very real possibility that Emma’s images were used by Lancome for skin-whitening products without her explicit or implicit endorsement. Oh, and a Lancome representative told People:
“Blanc Expert was created by Lancôme 20 years ago. It helps brighten, even skin tone, and provides a healthy looking complexion. This kind of product, proposed by every brand, is an essential part of Asian women’s beauty routines.”
Skin-lightening products are not now and never have been an “essential” part of Asian women’s beauty routines and f—k you very much for saying so, Lancome.
As for Emma and this controversy… I think she perhaps owes her fans a better explanation for the ads, but I think there’s a more-than-decent chance she didn’t even know her image was going to be used to sell skin-whitening products in Asia. I feel strongly that Lancome and other beauty companies selling whitening/lightening products to women of color abroad are the real villains here, make no mistake.
Photos courtesy of Lancome, WENN.
Well that’s just gross. And why would they use a white woman for the ad anyway? Makes no sense. I’m pretty sure they sell that stuff here, too, but they advertise it more as getting rid of dark spots on your face and evening out your complexion, not lightening it all over.
Because her paleness is supposed to be aspirational, dontcha know?
Isn’t she covered in freckles anyways? They airbrushed her into oblivion.
For the same reason they use skinny young bikini girls to sell cellulite creams and bust firming gels. I doubt their looks are the result of those products…
Emma is known for having freckles and those are usually targeted by skin lightening products. I don’t want to defend Lancôme (bc they sound like jerks with that statement), but lots of beauty brands use white women with freckles for those types of products.
Because every woman of color could become as beautiful as white woman like Emma is their skin gets lighter…thats whats they are saying
That’s really not what the products are for- as countless others have said downthread. It’s called a “whitening” product but it’s aim is to lighten hyperpigmentation due to sun damage and hormones.
Marny, Marny, Marny….so innocent….I’m going to go ahead and assume that you’re not a WOC. That might be how it’s marketed to you; but make no mistake, words have meaning.
@Marny,
Aren’t products used to lighten hyperpigmentation usually chemical exfoliants, meant to turn over skin faster? Those products are usually described as “fading” dark spots not “whitening” or “lightening” the skin.
I think the issue with this product is that it appears to be some sort of skin lightener more akin to bleaching, marketed at WOC for the purpose of lightening their overall skin color. I mean the name has the word “Blanc” in it…
I currently live in Asia and the women here are obsessed with not exposing their faces or bodies to the sun. The logic is not really “white is more beautiful” for whiteness sake, it’s far more a “I have an education and an office job and am not working in the fields like a peasant” thing. It’s about giving the appearance of being in a certain social class, even when they aren’t. An example: most of the caddies on the golf courses here are women. It’s 35 C out and they are covered from head to toe, wearing gloves, a hat and a mask over their faces.
It’s the complete opposite of, for example, living in Canada and going on vacation in February to somewhere warm, tanning like crazy so when you get back, it’s very clear to everyone that you can afford a tropical vacation.
The thing is, we need Vitamin D, something we only get from the sun, to process calcium. These women are likely going to have huge problems later on with oesteoporosis. I have one Korean friend who at 19, ran into exactly that. Her bones are like swiss cheese. But her skin, which has probably never had a tan ever, was pearlescent. She’ll probably be in a wheelchair by 35.
I don’t get it either, since I think the skin can only lighten so far — if you’re not white to begin with, I don’t think you’ll get to Emma’s skin tone. That product can’t turn you literally white — maybe lighter, but not white. So I’m baffled too, in the sense that I’m sure anyone who isn’t Emma’s skin tone to begin with knows they won’t get that skin tone after using it.
Maybe Emma is known for her freckles and this is implying the product got rid of them (which I doubt she’d agree to!)
It’s being sold to an Asian audience where being pale as possible is the reigning beauty standard, every bit as much as being tan and blonde is the reigning standard in the US. I live in Beijing and I can tell you that 75% of the ads in the fashion mags here aren’t actually for clothing but for skin whitening creams. Soaps at the store contain promises of skin whitening. Face masks claim to whiten. It’s big business here. With that said, people here commonly appear more tan in the summer, just like everywhere else on earth. And by the way, this is an Asian thing that has a long history in Asian cultures. You know how people say everything isn’t always about white people? Everything isn’t always about white people.
Because there is a difference between lightening creams and bleaching creams.
Lightening creams help fade dark spots. Bleaching cream changes the color of your skin. Michael Jackson used bleaching cream. The product that bleaches your skin from dark to white cannot be purchased from a cosmetic company. This is a bunch of whoopla about nothing. I am African American and my dermatologist gave me something to help lighten the skin on my elbows and knees which is is extremely dark and doesn’t match the rest of my body. I am in no way trying to look white.
@perplexed I guess you never paid attention to Michael Jackson, even though he had viltigo, doctors were saying you can get it by taking whitening creams which is what mj did. Also this isn’t the first time companies have done this, it’s all about money and they will tell you anything to open up your wallets. I honestly feel bad for those who believe in cosmetics because it’s all just a lie, honestly you’re beautiful the way you are, even if someone tells you, you’re ugly you’re not because attractiveness is based on preference and so someone might not find you attractive but there is someone in the world who does, appearance is subjective.
On another note, about feeling bad for those who believe in cosmetics like anti aging creams. Seriously who do you think you’re fooling? You can’t prevent aging no matter what they tell you, or what disgusting toxic things they put in you’re makeup, you will still get older and look older and that’s okay, so accept it. You can’t prevent what’s natural and honestly why would you? It makes no sense be happy about your age find someone who appreciates your natural beauty, makeup just cause a fictitious perception of what women should look like. Plus it’s also expensive as hell. Add up how much you’ve spent over the years on makeup, I bet it’s an insane amount. Stop buying cosmetics the companies don’t care about you, and use your insecurities (not that your insecure) to make money off of you.
The Asian market is obsessed with whitening stuff–like heavily obsessed. Bleach is in almost every facial product over there in small amounts. In fact, the FDA in the US bans makeup imports from Asia because it deems the bleach stuff toxic to people (and rightly so!)
When I lived in Taiwan, I saw this stuff EVERYWHERE each time I went to the pharmacy or makeup stores. I hate looking pale because it makes me look washed out, but I ended up having to buy makeup from American companies and paying the hefty shipping fee since I didn’t want to ruin my skin.
Every time I saw someone use those skin whitening products, a Chinese expression comes to mind: you want beauty, but you don’t want your life.
“And by the way, this is an Asian thing that has a long history in Asian cultures. ”
Bingo! Not about trying to be white at all for many countries.
I’ve read that Japanese women aspired to very light skin long before they ever came in contact with Caucasians in the Middle Ages. Geishas have traditionally worn heavy white makeup.
I can understand trying to look like a society’s “ideal” – most of my friends growing up were Chickasaw or African American and I spent years trying to tan so I’d be as beautiful as they were. I finally realized that I simply don’t have enough melanin in my body to be brown. I had to choose to just look like I look and be satisfied with that.
“You know how people say everything isn’t always about white people? Everything isn’t always about white people.”
Which is why I think it would have made more sense to use an Asian model and then show the lightening effects the cream can have, if that’s the purpose of the ad. Using Emma Watson in the ad makes no sense since the target demographic doesn’t look like her at all.
“I guess you never paid attention to Michael Jackson, even though he had viltigo, doctors were saying you can get it by taking whitening creams which is what mj did.”
But even he didn’t manage to look as white as Emma Watson does in that ad. Bleaching could only make himself look a certain degree of white (or yellow, if you will). Or even if he did manage to look white, he still looked pretty weird (not an ideal anybody of any colour wants to aspire to). That’s why this ad makes no sense to me. The people being targeted in the ad, for what the ad is claiming to do, is misleading and I’m sure the people watching it know it (even if they are still willing to buy the cream). I guess what I’m saying might appear as though I don’t understand why the ad exists (I do, in fact), but using an Asian model in the ad who winds up achieving translucent skin would have made more sense to me. Using Emma Watson as the model just makes me disbelieve the possibility of what the cream can do. Mind you, I have no idea what the actual cream can achieve, but at least using an Asian model would have made me believe in the ad more.
@perplexed Emma’s a celebrity though and like you said she’s pale which is why they probably went with her because it makes their job easier. You know some cosmetics don’t work. I think I should enlighten any one who doesn’t know, but cosmetics can be a quick fix actually. For those in this case who would like lightened skin, the thing is they put it in small doses to make money in the long term, that’s how they keep people as customers offer a product someone wants but don’t give them the full amount. They also do it this way because they put a lot of toxic sh-t in their products and if you over dose on it, it can cause a problem. As far as mj he was really white, not pale of course but he was white which is a shame because he was actually very attractive when he looked like himself (had dark skin). He used the cream to become white, his maids said once he had crates of bleaching cream.
What I don’t get is why people buy cosmetics, why do you guys wear makeup? Is it because you don’t believe you are beautiful, do you actually think stuff like anti aging cream works? Because you can’t stop age it’s a natural and amazing process. Why are you wasting money on expensive harmful toxic products that use insecurities and openly lie about what their selling you? Again anti aging, you can’t stop age.
@perplexed, Vitiligo is a skin disease that can appear on anyone, it has nothing to do with creams. MJ had it and probably started using some type of treatment to become completely white, because of the illness itself. Oh, and people who suffer from VItiligo loose their melanine, they become albine where they have the white spots…
One of my best friends has it, in the summer, parts of her hands and legs are white, whereas the rest tan normally. When exposed to UV lights, her affected skin becomes bright as what happens to everyone’s teeth. It like having very large white spots on your skin…
But nothing to do with using creams..
Yea, gnat, that is what it does and it works on Caucasians, Asians, anyone who has freckles from the sun (not sure it would work on a freckle face , the red-head type.) I , a white person, used the Asian version ” white Lucent” by shiseido and it did get rid of these very faint freckles I had, which did make my skin look nicer.its not a bleach or anything
This makes me feel better that I loathe all things “high end” that are typically marketed to all things caucasian and $$. My entire adult life I’ve purchased the organic products which are about cultivating an healthy type of beauty and better for the planet. As a mixed POC i’d never dream of taking away my pigment or trying to look rich/white.
Because white women use these products to get rid of spots and freckles, not for some nefarious, racist reason. What’s wrong with that? If you absolutely need something to get offended over how about the fact that this product is most often used by women over 40 yet she’s 25 and shilling it.
Skin-lightening products are for bleaching out sun damage and what my determatilogist calls “the mask of pregnancy”.
Or so I believed until I read this piece.
But skin-lightning products are for that purpose, bleaching out sun damage…
No, that’s really what it does. I’ve used it to lighten a very large freckle on the end of my nose. It doesn’t magically turn your entire skin tone lighter though.
Yes. In fact I need to get some – my melasma is getting out of hand.
Aren’t there natural ways of doing that though? Like licorice extract? Lemon juice? Honey?
Some natural products could be more damaging. Lemon juice for me is much worse, it’s too acidic…
I uses an Estee Lauder serum that is great but expensive. I had to fall back on hidroquinone. I have large spots that are lighter now. They won’t go away ever.
I live net to the beach in at topical country, and I used to train basketball and run and walk under the hot sun, add to that that the beach is 30
Minutes away so… All that sun damage. I understand that in China, per example, having a lighter skin is mostly desirable. Not always due to western influence,
But due to culture. living I a country where sun affects my skin so much makes me more aware of people desiring to keep their skin even. Where Inlive there is not an obsession per se with being very light, but one sees in make up that they many times go for lighter foundations.
Ok Crumpet so I have had the same problem since I was prego with my almost 2 yo. A huge patch of melasma on my forehead. I’ve used several different skin lightening creams, Peter Thomas Roth peel pads, and a host of other things. Nothing was fixing it. A few weeks ago I finally ordered some products from a company called Make up artists choice( MUAC). They sell pharmaceutical grade acid (beta, glycolic, lactic etc) peels and other things(serums, creams). You can order sample sizes of most of their products to try before you commit to the full size which is great. So I ordered several different kinds. Ive used the 25% mandelic acid peel and the radiance peel so far. And they’ve helped so much! But what has really helped is their vitamin C+E serum. My skin is looking so radiant in just two weeks. And the melasma on my forehead is so much better. I wish I had ordered this stuff two years ago. Would have saved me a ton of frustration. It has also helped with my fine lines and smoothed out the texture of my skin.
Oh and they have a coupon code listed right on their website. It was “twenty” all lowercase. It might change every month but that was it last month and I got 20% my order. And the shipping was super fast. I recommend it highly. But! Be sure to follow the directions carefully so you don’t peel afterwards.
I had melasma for years after my daughter was born and tried tons of stuff. Some moms at my daughter’s school started selling Rodan and Fields skin care and I resisted because I didn’t want to get involved in one of those, they send you stuff every month BUT I finally tried it and it is awesome and my melasma is gone.
@ beckysuz – it can’t be pharmaceutical grade or you’d need a prescription for it.
Also, I understand the red Stridex pads are beta hydroxy and very popular.
That’s how it’s marketed in North America, and probably parts of Europe, but not the rest of the world. ☹️
Skin lightening is a huge thing in many parts of the world, and women go to great lengths to try and get lighter skin – to the point of using toxic and sometimes damaging concoctions. And of course the beauty industry jumps right in there, making millions off “miracle in a jar” products. Bastards.
Same! From the Daily Mail, they made it sound like a way to correct age spots and stuff and I thought the backlash against Watson was silly (I mean, I use a “lightening cream” for spots and I’m Scandinavian!). That should have been the path of best PR for Emma. Now that I’m reading here it was mostly marketed in Asia, it’s a lot more problematic and her statement makes her sound disinterested and clueless.
Yep. I use those types of products for melasma. I love skin brightening and recovery products – awesome for evening out skintone.
Ah, pregnancy mask. I have melasma on my forehead, upper lip, cheeks and under my eyes. What a joyous and fun thing.
I use the Lancome lightening cream in the winter and look like a Goth in the summer with the hats and parasols. If I do get worse in the summer, out comes the hydroquinone. I am not a WoC, I am Metis, so my skin is an odd shade of coffee with heavy cream. I have to be careful with what over the counter creams I use as some bleach the normal colour right out of my skin, some don’t. After over 20 years of dealing with it, I found that the Lancome works best for me.
I understand that these products are marketed in such ways in other parts of the world. While I don’t agree with it, I put it up there with Goop and her crap, the mommy brigade and all the rest of that crap that is sold to us “white chicks” as the perfect lifestyle. All companies do it, I don’t look down on Emma for being in the ads, because even if she knew she was in the ads, she probably thought the same thing about the cream that the rest of us white girls do.
I think it’s quite unfair to blame Emma in this. She had a contract with this company, I highly doubt she had much input in regards to her ads, and she no longer works with them. What more can she do? You may find Emma unworthy of being a feminist icon in today’s world, which is fine, but it’s weird to compare her to Lena. They are no where near similar. Lena does crap for attention, not for feminism, and at least Emma is trying to learn and improve.
It’s quite likely her contract didn’t specify which products her image could be used on – they may have paid her a fee for unlimited use of the images they took in which case she’d have had little control over this.
If she is as smart and outspoken as she seems why didn’t she ask what products she would be advertising before signing this contract
terry, I’m quite sure nobody asks that question when signing a cosmetics modelling contract. It’s pretty well known that most of the claims made by these companies are ridiculous. A spokesperson can’t pick & choose which products they’re featured next to in an ad campaign.
You mean when she was 20?
Lancome most likely took shots from a previous product’s shoot and used them for this.
I don’t believe Emma got to approve every single ad she did with Lancome. She probably came in did a photoshoot, sometimes with the product or not. In this case, the product is not there & just photoshopped next to her. Her team should’ve been more cautious sure, but I think if they want to blame someone it should be Lancome. They make the product not Emma, & blame other beauty companies that have a similar product.
Edit: Reading more about the product apparently it doesn’t make your skin lighter but it helps with skin problems i.e ezcema scars, acne, hyperpigmentation.
if you dont know what your image is going to be used for then DONT SELL IT!
if she was a starving model i would see this a bit differently but Emma is a millionaire because she was born good looking and with this she even made more millions.
the beauty industry has a very negative effect on women and if you want to take their money you will have to take the criticism too.
claiminig ignorance is not making it better.
The ad looks more like Lana del Rey. Thats all I’ll say.
I thought it was Christina Ricci.
I thought she was Juliet Binoche
Ok, this is all just dumb. In Asia ALL of the beauty products are “whitening”, not because women want to be white as in caucasian, but having light skin is the standard of beauty in Asia and India, and it has been since the beginning of time. They are not trying to change their race, just have light skin. This is why geishas have always painted their faces white, and this is why parasols were invented. Ever seen a group of Asian tourists while abroad somewhere sunny like Greece? All the women wear gloves and big hats or umbrellas because they don’t want their skin tanned by the sun. You can be outraged about it all you want, but that’s just the way it is.
True, this.
But why is that considered the “standard of beauty”? It’s because what Kaiser stated in the post “Colorism, racism and the white-dominated hierarchy of beauty standards” has influenced those societies.
To be fair, paleness was also the standard of beauty for centuries in white societies (go read some Middle Ages and later poetry from Europe and see how often it extols white women with super fair, porcelain skin, etc.). It had nothing to do with finding the whiter skin more attractive. Rather, it was a class thing. Paleness signified that you did not have to go outside to work. You were wealthy enough to stay inside all day (the term “blue bloods” originated because aristocrats had such pale skin that it was considered good if their veins were visible under their skin). And it was for that reason that they fetishized the white skin. It symbolized wealth, status and a comfortable life. I wonder how much of it has to do with that today.
Exactly. It became the “standard of beauty” for a reason.
Well, were Geishas influenced by caucasians? Were caucasians the reason the parasol was invented? Those things have been around since before caucasians ever even visited China or Japan.
I think it was more to do with the fact that nobility had fair skin because they didn’t have to work outside. My country is completely white and fair skin was coveted a 100 years ago. Now the beauty standard is the tanner the better, so I don’t know if you can buy lightening products here.
No, it’s not. It’s because dark spots and uneven complexion are considered imperfections. And this for Japan and China happens since the beginning of their civilization. And in Greece and ancient Rome, it was the same.
It’s in their culture, no need for external influences.
And to be honest, I use these products for my dark spots, too.
But according to ladysussex above (and I honestly don’t know much, except bits gleaned from history books), if the standard of beauty in Asia centuries ago was “the paler/whiter, the better”, I would say it has nothing to do with racism.
In fact (and anyone more educated in terms of Asian history please correct me if I am wrong) countries like China, Japan etc. were long closed off to white foreigners, who were dislikes, mistrusted, called “white devils” and so on. Not exactly inspiration for a beauty ideal, so… while the standard of beauty may be white skin, perhaps it has nothing to do with racial issues. And if that’s the case, if it has been a historical constant, then why would cosmetic companies selling these products be blamed?
Don’t get me wrong, I think racism and intersectional racism is a huge issue, and in general I strongly dislike all mainstream cosmetic companies for the crap they use in their products, the Photoshopped, impossible to achieve images they sell in their ads, etc. But I think perhaps in this particular case maybe the outrage is not warranted? Just curious what you guys think.
Asian cultures precede the domination of the beauty industry by Caucasians by thousands of years. So if indeed the standard of beauty in these cultures is for fairer skin, it’s not necessarily due to white oppression . Oh, and I’m sure Emma’s contract did not give her any control over how the products were marketed. It sounds to me like she’s mortified to have been a part of this. And that photo is awful. It’s just totally blown out and exposed incorrectly. It doesn’t even look like skin!
i can’t say for all people in Asia, but my great grandmother always said that long time ago, people with fairer, softer and clearer (not necessarily white, but lighter) was seen as a sign that they’re young misses from a well-to-do family. who could afford not to work in the fields, who could afford scrubs and skin ointments to treat insect bites, or have acess to clean bec linen, who could afford not to work and develop callusses.
then it extended to the shape of eyes, the rounder or larger meant (wrongly) that you were not exposed to the sunlight that made you squint… and then it extended to feet. fishwives and lady farmers have large feet, but the young mistress of the mansion have dainty feet.
so i guess it’s not so much racism as classism. the lighter you are, the more “well off” or “suitable material for a rich man’s wife” etc.
at least at the start.
obviously the white colonizers soon came and they’re whiter than even the most pampered princesses so then they became the unattainable standard of light coloredness maybe.
actually even until today, my grandaunt still admonishes me from not taking care when i’m doing one of my outdoors/field studies. “look at you, so dark and dirty like a common builder”.
It is a standard of beauty because of this: Women with skin untouched by the sun did not have to labor for a living. It was and still is a sign of ‘class’. So blaming classicism would be more correct than racism.
Whitening products are for correcting hyperpigmentation due to the sun and hormonal imbalances. They don’t make you white.
Geishas have been painting their faces white for hundreds of years.
Except that that was the standard in many asian countries before they ever had real exposure to europeans. Luminous fair skin is considered the standard there because it used to prove you were upper class and didn’t work in the fields in the sun all day. It has nothing to do with europeans or white standards of beauty.
Sam’s thread above is what I’ve been told too about why the white-colored cosmetics were used in the past.
I’ve been told that for people In the olden days, since it was the lower class folk who had darker skin because they’ve had to work and go out in the sun, those who didn’t have to work had lighter skin. So it denoted class and wealth and that they were rich enough to have servants who did the work that would expose them to the sun more so than the rich, upper class folks.
It had nothing to do with thinking whites/Europeans were more attractive and trying to emulate their looks.
yup–agree with all of this. I was raised in Hawaii and I kid you not–the majority of Asian (primarily Japanese) tourists visiting the islands AND many many Asian locals take great pride in the paleness of their skin–gloves, umbrellas, big hats! Nothing to do with caucasian envy. They’ve been keeping it pale a lot longer then we’ve been around and their skin is extraordinary. Not everything is about racism. Geez.
Yep. Even shower gels and deodorants.
This product isn’t really skin-lightening. It will help slightly with hyperpigmentation and general unevenness, but it’s not going to make anyone’s natural skin-tone lighter. So, yes technically it will make certain areas slightly lighter if you happen to have uneven skin, but if you don’t have those issues you could bathe in it and not go down one skin tone shade.
These kind of products are hugely popular all over the world. If I got any lighter I’d be see-through, but I use these types of products to deal with acne scarring. 15 years I’ve been using much stronger versions than this Lancôme product, and I’ve not gotten the teensiest bit paler except for my scars.
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I thought this product was for. While I know that skin-lightening products exist on the Asian market, I figured Lancome and other high-end beauty brands would not be tone-deaf enough to advertise it as a product designed to alter your natural skin tone. Especially considering that that’s not their actual purpose, as several commenters upthread noted.
This.. I’ve used one from Avéne (Dépiderm) because I had scarring in my forehead due to an eczema.. I could only apply it in the darkened area to make it more even, and it got better…
It’s not used to change race (wonder where that idea came from???)
This was my understanding as well. I have a whitening product that came in an acne set from Korea and was hesitant to use it. I didn’t want my face becoming lighter than my neck. I googled it and this was the explanation I got. I have used it for a while now and the only thing it’s done is lighten my acne spots.
same. i think there is a history in the u.s. at least of skin whitening used in a racist way, so i totally get the thesis of this argument. and Emma’s image selling the product in another country verifies what the problem with global imperialism is—intended message or not, you have a white chick selling a skin lightening product in a non-white country. it IS gross and it’s something that these actors who sign HUGE endorsement contracts SHOULD think about…i do hold Emma accountable in that she made a sick amount of money to sell us all a specific idea of beauty in a jar.
at the same time, i use lotions and potions to even out my acne scars–i think the whitening idea is a terrible, racist pitch. there are a lot of us with darker pigments who just want even skin tone after a traumatic skin eruption. i don’t want to look lighter at all, i just don’t want to look like I still have acne 🙂
But the whitening part is what I don’t get… My cream is called depiderm (depigmentation) – anti-brown spots, intensive depigmentating skin care… There’s no whitening nowhere on the name of the product. Why would they use the word whitening for depigmentation? It’s stupid, a stupid name for any brand…
(I actually went to my bedroom to get the cream and see what was written on it…)
I read that it was a translation issue. I’m not sure how true that it. I’ve seen products advertised here as dark spot corrector but I guess it’s just referred to as whitening.
Probably going to get attacked for this but i really dont care. As both an aesthetician and an asian woman, i can tell you our skintype is very prone to hyperpigmentation. Not all of these products are inplicitly for ‘bleaching’ skin. Yes, there is a huge problem with this in asia but its not fair or realistic to assume that all brightening products are being marketed with a racist intent.
/soapbox
Thanks for your perspective! As a white female, I find it interesting that it’s such a big deal that certain people want lighter skin, but it’s not a big deal that a lot of Caucasians want darker skin. We sell creams and whatnot to darken our skin, why is that okay? Genuinely curious here – not trying to offend anyone.
Good point.
I have been reading and reading waiting for someone to mention how many people buy creams/lotions, lie in the sun, go to tan salons, etc., to darken their skins. So thanks!
I think the commonly accepted answer to any question like this (“why is xyz OK when it’s the other way around?”) in terms of racism issues is: White people have never been oppressed, so it’s not the same thing. So the answer in this case would be: White people wanting to be browner is different because it’s an aesthetic choice, not a result of racism/oppression.
Yes I have a friend who is Filipino and she uses this kind of product not out of any desire to be lighter, but to regain an even skin tone on her face after years of playing tennis in the sun. Her skin didn’t tan all over but became somewhat mottled.
She has no desire to be anything but the beautiful Filipino women she is, but she wants an even skin tone. Nothing to do with race, and she’s glad these products exist.
I’m Irish and basically see through, and would like to have darker skin because I look ill half the time due to the paleness. Also nothing to do with race, just a cosmetic desire. I use self tanner sometimes. Is that cause for outrage?! lol.
Exactly, patricia. Im a darker skinner korean and i have no desire to be anything but that, i use these products because i genuinely do have sun damage and dark spots from breakouts, not vecause i want my skintone itself to be lighter.
I’m Irish too and ghost-pale–*and* I live in Southern CA, where the ideal is to be as tan as possible! I used to use self tanner all the time (after I got taunted for my pallor in middle school) but over the past years, I use it less…I guess one of the good things that comes w getting older is the incalculable, immeasurable wisdom of being fully comfortable, literally, in one’s own skin.
It’s targeted for people with melasma and blotchy uneven skintone. “”Whitening”is a marketing term. Lightening is just a weak term. Asians and blacks who want to lighten their skintone will not buy high end products like Lancome. Lots of more effective, safer Korean, Japanese and Filipino brands with drugstore brand prices are available in the market. Racist ads abound Asian media but this Lancome ad will hardly cause a stir.
This, thank you. They’re acting like this stuff comes in a box labeled “I Wanna Be A White Woman,” when there’s a bit more to it than that.
Me, being white and even quite pale for a white woman, would have loved a product like that years ago when I sported a more gothic image. But white women here only get skin-darkening products. I wonder what the beauty standard is even supposed to be. For Asian and Black women it is to lighten their skin, for us it is to darken it – everything not natural, just so that beauty companies sell more products.
Good point. I spent a good part of my teens and twenties trying to achieve the perfect tan, I was never dark enough in my eyes.
I pay a lot of money to get a spray tan once a week!
Yeah me too, Esmom. Paying for it now 🙁
Yup, Kitten, me too. Luckily no skin cancer yet, although my file at the derm’s office has an orange fluorescent “history alert” sticker on it because I have every risk factor for it.
It’s funny, I have no desire to spend time in the sun now and seek shade whenever I am outside for extended periods but on the occasion when I’ve been out hiking or running and get a little extra color I’m reminded why I was so obsessed — I do look better, healthier, younger. Or at least I think I do.
My theory is that skin tone signified wealth and status. Brahmins and upper caste Hindus had fair skin because they didn’t work in fields or situations of hard labour. Mughal rulers and later Britishers were white. White equaled power and sense of superiority the perception of which hasn’t faded and never will among Indians.
Now in Europe especially Britain -being tanned also signifies affordability of going to exotic places and therefore wealth display.
You’re probably right. I know that in the past, having darker skin here represented somebody who worked in the fields (so, probably 95% of population), and that then pale was a more desirable status. However the tables turned – I imagine – when most people started working in factories and offices, which made pale a default again and dark exotic.
Yes, exactly true. In the US and Western Europe, once society became industrialized and being poor meant working indoors in a factory all day rather than being out in the fields, tans became a status symbol denoting money for leisure time and vacations to sunny locals. Although there was a bit of a time lag. I can’t recall where I read it, but remember hearing that it was Coco Chanel that popularized tans for the upper classes.
WORD! they’re always talking about black and other dark skinned women trying to look lighter and I’ve been always considered too pale, too light skinned, not attractive, not sexy. so, nothing is beautiful. if you’re dark, you should be lighter. if you’re light, you should be darker.
Lancome is certainly not the only brand who does this. I’ve seen ads for Guerlain (or was it Dior) who used a young, white model to promote their whitening (“brightning”) line solely for the Asian market and my guess is they’re not the only ones. Such a strange and offensive choice. I use creams/serums to try to deal with pigmentation. I feel there’s a difference between that purpose and the “whitening” goal. The first is a cosmetic issue, like acne or wrinkles, the second is the colour of your skin – not something that you’re supposed to change. It’s a terrible message for any brand to take part of.
All companies that sell in Asia have lightening/whitening products. ALL of them, including American and European companies. They just don’t market them in the West. You can’t sell a beauty product in Asia unless it’s marketed as whitening. Even Olay body washes, and most brands of deoderant.
But can you blame these companies for providing these products when there’s a market for them? They only care about profit, which is understandable. It’s not a beauty company’s job to change beauty standards.
I agree completely.
Personally – as someone who WANTS products to help me get rid of pigmentation – I prefer companies who sells with respect for their costumers, instead of talking down to them along with creating a need. Using young models, of a different race is offensive to me. Just like it’s ridiculous to use a 19 year old model to sell anti-wrinkle creams, it’s just as ridiculous to use one for selling anti-pigmentation creams, and if/when you add the “whitening” element it gets way worse when it’s a product aimed at people of another race. Is it racism? I honestly don’t know but I do know it’s dumb.
It’s pretty absurd to see the ads, aimed at the Asian market.
http://chicprofile.com/estee-lauder-new-crescent-white-full-cycle-brightening-for-spring-2015#more-95085
http://chicprofile.com/diorsnow-skincare-collection-2014#more-87764
http://chicprofile.com/givenchy-spring-2013-doctor-white-skincare-collection-info-photos#more-22469
http://chicprofile.com/dior-diorsnow-spring-2016-collection#more-104115
http://chicprofile.com/dior-snow-spring-2015-collection#more-94831
http://chicprofile.com/chanel-le-blanc-skincare-2016-collection#more-104818
White perfection, white reweal, Dr. White, perfect as a pearl.. the intention may not be racist but the language is absurd, as are the models picked to represent the perfect skin.
I don’t understand the ott ‘hate’ Emma gets. And well, if Lancome produces the product and decides how to market it then yeah, it’s pretty much on them and not on Emma.
Emma gets a pass on this issue.
Her contract could have stated her image could be used for a multitude of Lancome products.
As a (“light-skinned”) black woman I can say colourism is strong in black community and Asian community.
@LADYSUSSEX has a great example above about Asian tourists which I also observed while in Turkey.
I am even more fair than Emma Watson (GINGE) and I use Asian “skin whitening” products because the hydroquinine helps with melasma. The exact same kinds of products are also labeled as “skin brighteners” in the US and UK.
I agree that Lancome’s response is ludicrous. But I don’t think Emma owes us an explanation, especially if her image was used for that product without her consent.
I do wonder if she really parted ways with them because of their lack of “diverse beauty” or if she ended the relationship for another reason.
I’d guess it’s because having a beauty contract is a pretty big clash with her current image and direction. She’s got plenty of $$$ at this point, after all.
If it was done without her consent, then she should point that out. She’s supposed to be so aware and intelligent…
sorry, but why are people making a stink 3 years later?
why didn’t anybody give a sh*t in 2013?
I don’t understand that either. Why the uproar now?
I think it’s just more “in Vogue” to be outraged, especially with new terms like “Peak White Feminism” which I’ve never heard before today.
Yep. They want to take her down a peg for daring to speak out in favor of feminism.
I agree. This attacking of feminists by other feminists is counter-productive, in my opinion. Even if she isn’t perfect, she’s trying to do some good in the world. Let’s save our self-righteous ire for one of the many celebrities/politicians who don’t care about doing good.
+10000000 Gracie
You’re right, and it’s beyond absurd to me that being outraged has become a trend, more or less. Genuinely caring about real issues that face women or people of color is one thing (a good thing, obviously). But today it’s gone beyond that into this territory where people are just looking for something to be outraged about and nitpicking about things that are comparatively trivial in the big picture.
To me, all my whites friends are killing themselves trying to get dark in tanning beds. They spray tan, then jump in a tanning bed nonstop. I think people just want what they don’t have? From my view of people, the darker the better. Everyone wants to be brown toned.
It’s a bit more complicated than that. Tanning products and skin-lightening products are sold differently. Tanned skin is marketed as a ‘lifestyle’ preference or attaining a ‘look’. Skin lightening creams are marketed as being ‘essential’ in markets like India. For eg, until very recently, fairness creams ads would depict dark skinned women as being unsuccessful at getting jobs, depressed and missing out on opportunities. Then presto, they’d apply the cream and become happy and successful. Being dark skinned is portrayed as being lacking. It’s not the same for tanning products. Having a tan is symbolic of a certain lifestyle, but not having a tan isn’t shown to be a serious shortcoming.
Wel I’m not saying it’s not complicated. Lol. But in my circle of life, this is what I see. Everyone is jealous of the multiple race girls and their beautiful skin. When you are pale, you get made fun of here. ‘Hey Casper’ blah blah blah. Also, they all love freckles and they think they are cute. Different culture, sure. But that doesn’t make it dismissible. These white girls are giving themselves cancer and wrinkles to be ‘prettier’ according to American societies standards of beauty.
Well is anything market like that in North America ? Sounds over the top melodramatic! It would only be in an ad that was going for satire
Wow. I live in the U.S., so I’ve never seen skin lightening creams being advertised in that way. But the fact that advertisements for it were like that in other countries- that’s definitely an example of capitalizing on racism that already exists to sell a product.
I’ve understood that white skin is the ultimate beauty in some Asian countries.. for example geishas “have” extremely white skin. For example Japanese have “bihaku” which means “beautifully white”. In Japan the preference for skin that is white and free of blemishes has been around for centuries.
Is it smart? Prolly not. Is it about equaty? Nope. Is it racism? Not really. White stuff seems to be similar as tanning stuff are. People just go nuts about anything. We should try to achieve true acceptance between ethnicities but that doesn’t mean someone wouldn’t want really pale skin. Or really dark skin.
I know it’s not the point but I am also mad at the ridiculous photoshopping that makes her look like a factory produced android.
As an asian who grew up in Asia, I don’t find this a big deal whatsoever. We use whitening creams to brighten our skin and reduce freckles. We’re very big on skincare and we religiously avoid the sun. Not because we want to be white, by traditionally having pale luminous skin is seen as desirable and sun exposure ages you. Pale skin was seen as beautiful in the west historically, until the whole tanning trend came along. Also Emma is a pretty random celebrity to use, they usually get asian celebrities to endorse the products im guessing they didn’t want to pay for another endorsement.
My derm gave me something similar for a sun spot,acne and burns on my leg from a bad vascular procedure. These lighting products have there place but I don’t condone it for propaganda to lighten darker skin as an ideal.
I work w an American born educated Indian women still advertising her fair wheatish skin color to potential Indian matches via vetting by her family. This issue is still very real and focused on as sadly important!
Isn’t this product like Dr. Weil’s line for Origins, which is called something like Mega Bright? If it is, then it is definitely not a skin bleaching product but rather, like folks upthread have stated, it’s a skin brightener which helps all skin tones even out their complexion. I’m light Caucasian and I use it to tone down the dark spots that I have now acquired on my cheekbones.
Of course, there are products in the Asian marketplace which supposedly make your skin whiter – and some are even dangerous, I believe.
I have to think if Lancome said “we want to put your face on skin whitening cream and market it to Asia” she would have said no. Most likely they used her image for many products, and it sounds like this is product to even skin tone, not make non-white people look white.
There are just as many North American women of Caucasian background who use this type of product as Asian and east Indian women. I use a Neutrogena product to get rid of some “old age spots” on my forehead. Although I try to stay out of the sun as much as possible my accumulated years mean that I’m now getting the dreaded “liver spots” on areas with high exposure. This is no biggie….Emma gets a pass.
If the target market was Asians with hyperpigmentation, why couldn’t they use an Asian woman? The problem with these ads is that they commonly use the palest whites or Asians possible. This is the same within the black beauty industry: The lighter, the better.
Even though, as some have pointed out, it doesn’t always have anything to do with race, it’s still colourism, and harming to people’s self esteem. My mother has told my sister off for getting tanned playing on the school volleyball team, expressed sadness over my gradually darkening skin colour after I moved back to Taiwan from the Netherlands. I used to use lightening products that would burn my skin and stay out of the sun worrying that I’d become darker. She actually thought I’d not find love because of skin that is slightly darker. It took me years to learn to stand up against this terrible obsession. It is just as harming as tan obsessions in the West. There is even a saying in Chinese, “Light skin hides three flaws.”
I have friends who won’t go to the beach because they worry about tanning. Friends that wear jackets, trousers or even face covers under the sun at 40 degrees Celsius to prevent tanning. Some of them end up getting heat strokes, but they still think it’s worth it. Some go to dermatologists to get whitening drips. I have friends who believe they are ugly because they are tanned. They call darker skin dirty and I have to constantly remind them that they look beautiful whatever colour.
Also, while we might not lighten our skin to look Caucasian, it does affect how we look at other races with darker skin. I have heard so many people say that they can’t find black people attractive because they have dark skin, or that Beyonce is an acceptable black person since she isn’t as black. It makes me roll my eyes so far back that they stay there for half a day. I believe that it eventually goes back to racial issues and affects people’s judgements. Everyone has their preferences, of course, but the truth is that in Asia there is an obsession over lighter skin that isn’t healthy.
But because it’s not rooted in racism, is it comparable with the West’s obsession with tan skin? My mum is ginger and pale and was teased for it as a kid. I get told I should get a spray tan constantly. However, that isn’t rooted in class so there might be a difference
@Locke, I suppose you’re right that in the class sense it is different, but as far as I know it’s no longer a class issue in my country, although I know it might be in others. It’s very much about just having fairer skin cos it looks “better”.
On the other hand, men are allowed to look tanner because that makes them appear more manly. (But still, not too tanned cos then it’s dirty.(¯―¯٥)) I just think we need to stop telling people that there is only one facet to beauty because it results in hurt individuals.There is a difference between, “I prefer pale skin cos I think I look good.” and “I prefer pale skin cos the society thinks I am ugly otherwise.”
Also, some might think it’s not a big deal since this idea has been around for a long time and that it’s just the way it is in some countries, but I still think it’s a problem. Just because it is the norm doesn’t make it right.
I’m only speaking from experience and from what I know about my own country by the way. I cannot comment on how this issue affects other countries.
I am very fair skinned and always got teased for it growing up. When I was a kid there were no reliable sunscreens unless you got some hideous chalky cream by prescription so I’d get teased again when I’d have to go to the beach covered in glop. Either that or risk getting a terrible burn, which I’ve suffered several times and isn’t something I’d EVER want to go through again. In the end, having pale skin saved me because I was always sun-shy and have avoided excessive wrinkling, spotting and, most important, skin cancer. By comparison, my sun-worshiping friends have all suffered varying degrees of skin degradation right up to melanoma.
If a cosmetic company markets these products to women of colour as a means to lighten your skin, then shame on them because it will emphatically not lighten your skin, what they do is fade spots and reduce fine lines from sun exposure, so that should be the way they market their products all over the planet, regardless of the colour of someone’s skin.
Ginny – what you wrote is awful 🙁 I hope your friends don’t do anything dangerous in their need to be “lighter”. Your comment puts this ad into perspective for me, thank you.
It’s amazing how the definition of beauty differs – I’m extremely pale (you can see my veins, which I find creepy) and was bullied as a kid, I’m constantly told to “get some colour” and I have to stand up for myself when someone tells me I look ill or I camouflage with a white wall/floor. Where I’m from being my shade of white is not beautiful nor acceptable.
We need to stop telling women to change who they are naturally. Whether it’s skin whitening, self tanner or contouring, we don’t need to completely change ourselves to abide by some ridiculous singular idea of beauty.
Yep. She (and Lancome) needs a better explanation. Ignorance isn’t a defence.
The only reason i wouldnt buy the lancome is because i worked for them and it doesnt work. If i didnt know that i might try it, you dont really know what people will or wont buy.
Also as somebody said up there, asians preference for light skin predates caucasians influence. If you were tan it meant you worked in the fields and were low class. Pale skin was valued because it meant you had the means to stay inside and not work. What influences it today is neither here nor there because the skincare companies have simply capitalized on an attitude that was already present.
This is kind of ridiculous. It sounds like someone wanted to make a mountain out of a molehill out of antipathy towards Emma. Apparently no one does feminism the right way.
@Luxe That is my thinking also. There are people who really go out of their way to find something to be offended by.
So clueless… Whitening and staying away from sun was always the part of asian beauty ritual. But it has nothing to do with caucasian “beauty standarts”, it happened so because untanned skin was a sign of royalty and privilege not to work while “peasants” had tan because they had to work in the fields. Japan was a culturally closed country to the rest of the world until this century. And they could care less about “white” beauty standarts.
As an Asian, I don’t see the fuss here. Asian women use this stuff all the time to even out skin tone and get rid of sun spot, since Asian skin is thinner and prone to sun damage. The preference for bright skin has been around before Western colonization, because if you have bright, even skin, it means you come from noble class, you don’t have to work outside. Besides, some Asian countries don’t have strict regulations about marketing term, so products to even skin tone and product that do “bleach” your skin (they’re really dangerous) are all called whitening product.
Isn’t that product just a spot corrector?
Yes… It’s just that…
Do you know if they work on under eye bags? I’d like to lighten mine, but I’m leery putting chemicals so close to my eyes.
My dermathologist told me not to use them near the eyes.. It actually says “avoid contact with the eyes” on it, so, better not…
Thanks for the answer, Ms. Nightshades. 🙂
(I really like your name)
Lady D, I have heard some really amazing things about the new batch of color correctors for under eye darkness. It uses principles of the color wheel to counter act discoloration. For example, if you have redness in your skin, you use a green product under foundation and it makes the red disappear. If you have dark blue circles, use a red/orange based color corrector under your concealer. It sounds crazy, but it really works!
Here’s a link to the section at Sephora.
http://www.sephora.com/color-correcting
@Tiffany, because I have rosacea, my creams from Avénè are shaded green… 🙂
@Tiffany – those colour-correct are very good. However I just laugh every time I put the orange under my eyes and the green on the red areas surrounding my nose. I look like a clown.
It’s a poorly worded marketing ploy that many Asain beauty products use. I’ve been using Korean skincare for about a year now and a lot of products say they have a “whitening” benefit when they really mean brightening, because there are no actual bleaching ingredients in the product. I’ve always wondered why they don’t just say ‘brightening’, since that is technically what they do.
Garnier has ads all over India for a product that lightens skin. They even made one specifically for men. It’s ridiculous for many reasons. The ads are very misleading and false advertising because they use photoshop to lighten the celebs skin. I doubt any of those celebs even use the skin lighteners. Secondly, they brainwash people in to believing you’re only good looking if you’re light skinned so hurry up and buy this stupid cream and you too can be accepted. So f*cking dumb. Lastly, Emma is already very fair naturally, so that ad makes ZERO sense to begin with.
Even if Emma didn’t know about the whitening product, surely she was aware that many of the products she placed her tacit endorsement on were making unfounded claims re: efficacy and were grossly overpriced given what they actually could do (hello!-multibillion dollar beauty product industry!) . The other question I would have is whether Lancome in its multiyear history has ever tested on animals.
When you sell your soul to the devil, be prepared for the consequences.
Skin whitening products have been used and marketed in Asian countries for a long time. It really has nothing to do with trying to look Caucasion at all and to be frank it’s a little narrow-minded and narcissistic to think that Caucasian light skin is the ‘ideal’ that people are looking for in regards to the lightening products.
There is a problem though, with what these lightening products are an indicator of. The long history (pre-dating Caucasion influence) of classism and ageism that is still running very strong today in many Asian countries.
Exactly.
Growing up, one of my best friends was Vietnamese. I was a pasty white girl who looked half-dead, so I always admired my friend’s gorgeous golden complexion. It broke my heart when she told me her mom kept telling her she wasn’t beautiful because her skin wasn’t light enough 🙁
These products are absolutely targeting women who want to look like pale-skinned Asians. Blotchy, uneven skincare is the “cover”. There is a pervasive colorist attitude in Asia that’s been around way longer than white people’s influence. If Emma didn’t want to be associated with this product, maybe she should’ve done her research into what company she was shilling for. And it is gross seeing people trying to explain this away.
And how stupid do people think Asians are? It is a calculated move to use the term “whitening” instead of “brightening”, not some language barrier.
These products have always been available for sun damage and spots on pale skin. What they call the product is hideous, and that they would refer to it as an “essential part of Asian…” what?! People of all kinds of ethnic backgrounds with pale skin use products like this. “Asian” is a very broad term encompassing a rainbow of skin shades. Lancome really bit it on this one. Horrible.
That said, the products are dead useful for pale skinned people, like me, for whom every spot or imperfection just screams “LOOK AT THIS SPOT ON MY FACE!! IT’S A TOTALLY DIFFERENT COLOR THAN THE REST OF MY FACE!!”
Skin lightening cream? Are they serious?
I’ve always gotten something called “sun spot lightener,” or “sun spot remover.” Why on earth they would call a product that is by no means something you’re meant to slather over your entire body (it comes in teeny tiny tubes) a general skin lightener…that’s just terrible in about 5 different ways.
This is an unbelievable fail, and I believe completely that the images of Emma, which belong to them, were used to promote this product without her foreknowledge. She shows up and has her photos taken. The company uses her photos as they see fit. She had nothing to do with it. Bet you a thousand dollars.
She was right to have her people publish a statement.
Ah – skin whitening, skin brightening! I don’t know if it’s an essential part of the Asian routine as Asian is particularly broad. I know that it’s a pretty popular type of product in China, HK, Korean .. Japan areas though. As a darker skinned Chinese girl, I used received so many comments as a kid and it used to make me feel insecure and angry about it. However, I’m glad I grew up in America as enough people also complimented me on having a “natural tan” year round.
As for the product itself, one time a sales associate at Saks tried to introduce me to shiseido’s skin brightening line and I laughed saying, “Then my face will be lighter than my body!” She said it wasn’t really about lightening the skin but evening it out and making it more radiant. So… not sure how effective these are at actually lightening?
Whitening products are very very common in Asia. I’m black hispanic and I’ve bought some of shiseido’s whitening products while in Japna to lighten my dark spots. They didn’t work in the least. That aside white skin is immensely more popular on that side of the world and caucasian models are seen as prettier than the local women for some reason so I’m not surprised in the least that Lancôme used Emma’s pictures.
I’m a fair-skinned European and few years ago I spent 2 months travelling around Asia. It was during my phase of using Clarins self-tanners. At one point I ran out of supplies during the visit and I remember spending several hours visiting different shopping centres in Beijing hoping to buy more. I vividly recall the appalled reactions of the Asian sales assistants who looked at me blankly, many followed with near disgust, when I tried to explain what I was looking for. This was at all the major beauty counters – Clarins, Lancome, etc. All of them solely had skin-whitening products and it was made absolutely clear to me by the local staff manning them that anything other than that, and certainly anything aiding tanning, was not something they would offer. I was made to feel extremely uncomfortable and my genuine quest felt like I was insulting them. So please save the self-righteous rhetoric about how skin-whitening in Asia is somehow a Western xenophobic stereotype. The experience has never left me and serves as a constant reminder that there are always two sides of the story.
Standards of beauty differ in each culture. I’m extremely pale and have been made to feel “less beautiful” and told I look ill, like a vampire, or Casper, all because in my country people should have a tan.
Freida Pinto said it best.
I think the larger conversation here is that globally, many moons ago, a campaign began that moved forward the notion if your whiter the righter your life will be –through definitions of “classic beauty” being white beauty, that have been peddled for generations…and it has snowballed into propaganda that’s pushed peoples beliefs and value systems. It’s all wrong I say, it’s all wrong! Those whom it does not affect are oblivious to it.
Sounds like there is high demand for whitening products in Asia. Let’s not pretend for one minute the Lancôme is the culprit here. Pale skin has been ideal in Asia long before ads like this existed. Ethnocentrism strikes again!
I don’t see any issue at all here? These are common products. As someone with sun damage, a very welcome type too.
As stated very eloquently by many posters above, this is a mountain out of a molehill. Products like this are wanted for many reasons; not everything is down to racism or western superiority.
What actually aggravates me more is how terribly shopped this photo is. It doesn’t even look remotely like real skin tone to even the most naive of eyes. I don’t know who to judge more; the creative team that okayed that or the people who actually think your skin will look that from using ANY sought of beauty product.
I absolutely agree. Why trivial things are over-analysed and made bigger than what they are, when there are other real issues worth serious debate, escapes me. I see nothing racist here.
If people didnt just apply an American view to things they would know historically a lot of Asians equate tanned skin to being poor/working outside in the fields v being rich enough to be indoors/a higher class. It’s a class thing, not white v Asian.
To put blame on Watson and call her out on being a poster girl for racism is very ignorant and disengenious. She doesn’t owe anyone an apology for a skin care ad.
wrong place, please ignore.
Hm. Well my skin is so white you can see veins through it clearly. Very Irish/British skin, white as milk. And guess what? I use whitening creams. Why? I live on the Equator, and the sun has lead to lots of dark spots and melasma. This makes me look younger and improves my complexion. A lot of people living in sunny countries use whitening cream for this very reason, to brighten and even out the complexion. It’s not ALWAYS racist.
I think the point is that this ad was used in Asia, where the market for lighting beauty products is very big. As in “you’re only beautiful if you’re white”. However I don’t see how this is Emma’s fault.
It’s not always about your perspective. I’m also very white but I’ve never had the need for this product and this ad doesn’t offend ME, yet it’s important to acknowledge why it would be offensive to others.
Well.. She’s white.
I also wanted to add, I’ve considered lightening/whitening (nonbleaching) products for myself. I’m not white, and I inherited freckles from my Mexican Indian grandmother. The freckles used to look cute on me but as I’ve grown older and with the aide of pregnancy, those freckles have darkened and grown larger. They look like age spots and sun damage even though I stay out of the sun.
I have no desire to look Caucasion, I like my face shape and features (flat-ish face), dark hair, eyes, etc. Actually I like everything else about myself except for the barrel shaped torso and short legs that tend to be common among Mexicans (not all of course, it’s just part of the many body types)
So, I do have a viewpoint that it seems that many Caucasions don’t understand. Lightening my skin spots has nothing to do with wanting to look like white people. I don’t aspire to it nor do I find it preferable to my own ethnicity.
That being said, I still have issue with the classism, xenophobia, and ageism that is connected with not only skin whitening but the beauty industry in Asian countries. It’s a big problem, but outside of eye-fold surgery and nose bridge surgery, Asians do not look towards Westerners as their main source of beauty inspiration.
“outside of eye-fold surgery and nose bridge surgery”
This is interesting because lots of people assume that’s Asians trying to look white, when northern Asians – Japanese and Northern Chinese – have narrower faces and tall nose bridges, and of course probably the majority of Asians have double lids. I think larger eyes are probably a Western-related beauty standard but the tall nose bridge thing is internal.
I would happily boycott any and all companies that sell this type of product. I confess that I didn’t read every post here, but if someone were to research and post, that would rock.
Eff you, Lancome.
I’m from an Asian background. Skin lightening isn’t necessarily an aspiring-to-be-white thing. Before industrialisation, poorer families had to work outdoors, in the fields. Hence being pale was associated with wealth – daughters of rich families could sit on their butts all day indoors and so they were paler.
In Taiwan, where I’m from, some women in the public eye now love being very tanned – it’s associated with good health in their minds and some of them say it makes them look thinner. Of course there are many women who still use whitening products but don’t be too quick to associate it with wanting to be white for all Asian countries. It’s totally a carryover from pre-industrialisation beauty standards for some if not many countries, so more of a derivative of the old class thing than a race thing.
There have been other poc who have said that they used skin lightening products for racial reasons, and someone upthread mentioned how commercials basically used to use the whiteness= success card to market these products in India. (It wouldn’t be surprising if other countries have done that too). Racism and Eurocentric beauty standards are probably one of the reasons why a product like this sells and is marketed throughout the word but at the same time, it’s good that people mentioned the fact that those aren’t the only reasons why people would use a skin lightening cream, and that just because racism exists doesn’t automatically mean that every poc who uses a skin-lightening cream does it because they ‘want to look more like a white person.’ I don’t think Emma knew every single product Lancôme was going to use her picture for either. But by using a white, American woman to market the product in Asia and calling it Blanc Expert, it’s easy to see how that could send the wrong message. Those two things don’t really say ‘it’s about an even skin tone.’
“As stated very eloquently by many posters above, this is a mountain out of a molehill. Products like this are wanted for many reasons; NOT EVERYTHING IS DOWN TO RACISM OR WESTERN SUPERIORITY.”
YES. Yes. And yes.
Really, I am sick and tired of people bringing racism into almost everything. Recently, on instagram, some people even managed to turn a discussion about a lipstick colour looking different on pale and darker skin into a discussion about racism. Really? People, you only attain the opposite of what you wanted to attain – instead of raising awareness for the matter of REAL racism, you bore people to the point they shrug and turn away at the mere sight of the word “racism”.
Nowadays, people are offended because they WANT to be offended.
Amen.
are you white yourself?
I’m an East Asian women, and I use multiple whitening products in my skincare regimen. I have never used these products to make me paler/whiter. I use it to prevent dark spots, even out my skin tone, and to diminish acne scars. That’s about as powerful as these products get, so I don’t get why people are throwing a fit about these products being included in a skincare regimen. And despite what was said about whitening products not being an essential part of skincare–this may be true for South Asians and Southeast Asians, but I can definitely vouch that MOST of my East Asian friends have whitening products as an essential part of their skincare regimen. And no shame in that.
I dont know why this is such a big deal considering it was from years ago. She doesnt even rep for them anymore.
And who knows if she actually knew what she was promoting at the time. And even if she did and was against, she signed a contract. A legally binding contract.