‘White skin – dark masks’: converting &inverting sexuality & power

There is much that can be said about the idea of skin lightening among ethnic minorities in Western European societies, but what of the opposite in relation to how tanning is utilised among people of white western European origin?

Is skin whitening among ethnic minorities related to ‘skin darkening’ among whites? Are the experiences two sides of the same coin?

The focus around the whitening of skins among some Asian and Black people is based on the need to buy into the belief that white is somehow purer and even superior to something that is perhaps tainted and inferior. Much of this goes back to the Victorian period of scientific racism which supported the ideas of imperialism and colonialism, not just with an economic, cultural and religious mission, but also one purporting to science.

In following Darwin's original ideas in relation to natural laws governing the existence of all living species, later European scientists began to classify human begins as either inferior or superior with those at top being purely white and classically European and those at the bottom dark-skinned and almost ape-like. Orientals (read ‘Mongoloid’) were in the middle somewhere.

This was a powerful force in determining in the mind’s eye of the colonialists that their objectives were legitimate in order to weed out the backward races that possessed outmoded genetic characteristics, thereby further legitimising the appropriation of their natural and physical resources and capital.

To reinforce a sense of these power relations, during the colonial era people of darker skin origin began to believe that there was something true about colour and so-called purity. Certain indigenous Asian and Black groups began to internalise a sense of inferiority, in the process ‘aping’ the characteristics of the dominant white who ruled them. This reinforced even legitimised a certain symbiotic relationship between the oppressor and oppressed.

Fast forward in time and in looking the situation today, it is apparent that the ‘logic of racism’ is still incredibly powerful in relation to how those of South Asian and African-Caribbean background buy into the notion that white is superior and black is its opposite.

It is especially the case as some of these groups seek to attain a kind of mobility associated with social class and a desire to ‘fit in’ with those who effectively remain powerful in society, namely the white-English, middle-England and middle-aged (and often middle-brow) men who act as the purveyors of what can be regarded as acceptable. It is the ideas of class and race that are inextricably intertwined in this regard. The desires of wanting to fit in remain important for those who wish to place distance between themselves and their communities of origin, and these also include certain visible ethnic minority groups.

What is also interesting is that there are cases in India. As mean incomes continue to rise there, where living standards are improving and the expectations and aspirations that come with these perspectives on the social world, the sales of whitening creams among Indian men to rocket in recent years. Exposure to a world through the forces of global communication technologies as well as the importance of Bollywood in becoming an international film industry has enhanced this reality.

The idea of whiteness, in relation to how it is projected in Western Europe, historically and contemporarily, is found in far flung places as India and supports the logic of European racism. But there the issue of caste within India itself is also important, where colour of skin and social status are also closely tied together in relation to the presupposed superiority of whiter skin. It is no irony that the people who are at the top of the Hindu caste hierarchy are lighter skinned and those at the bottom, the unscheduled castes, as it were, are darker skinned.

What is also interesting about skin lightening is its opposite. It is possible to see white European women who wish to curl their hair in an attempt to appear more exotic than they might otherwise be. This is an appeal to the Orientalism of the Victorian era which regarded Asian and Eastern women in general as possessing a certain kind of mystique and sensuality that might have perhaps evaded the Christen ‘memsahibs’ who were somewhat more prim and proper for the English men posted out in the Indian colonies for example.

Back in Western Europe, the idea of exoticism and adventure is also related to sun tanning, which also adds to a sense of leisure and a more luxurious life-style that is afforded to some women of certain social standing compared to the paler English or Western European woman who is sometimes painted as sickly or forever in despair.

All of these experiences are enhanced when we look at questions of power, authority and social dominance. In spite of all the attempts made to remove racism in society, to improve gender equality and develop a sense of co-existence, the dominant class structure has not abated.

In the recent Hollywood film, Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), the pre-unreconstructed Alpha male character whose role it is to instruct to the protagonist in the film, the character played by Steve Carroll, on how to become the ultimate Casanova, states, and I paraphrase, ‘we’ve won. Even pole-dancing is now a sport’