[skincoloured]

[raven]

Skin Coloured is intended to be a collaborative, visual exploration of what it is to be non-white in a white culture. Make-up, plasters and tights - even when they're marked "flesh-coloured" - are not the colour of skin that isn't white. And whilst white women may have trouble matching these items to their skin, for women who don't class themselves as white, this inconvenience is symptomatic of a wider problem.

To help illustrate this problem, therefore, Skin Coloured is looking for submissions. Send us photographs that illustrate the inadequacy of provisions for non-white people, and we'll post them on the blog, and hopefully both those submitting, and those who're here to learn, will gain something from it.

Further information can be found here, and reposting information is here.

(I'd appreciate it if this were passed along to anyone who might find it interesting; the great difficulty here is finding other women (and, people of any gender) who deal with this issue. Many thanks.)

Comments

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

This is something that a lot of people at Agnes would love, but I don't know how you feel about international participation, as that can often bring up a whole other host of issues.

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

Aaaaand I just read the about page and the paragraph on this issue.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I've absolutely no problem with your passing the link along. We did want to coordinate with International Blog Against Racism Week, so it's all very suitable. (All we want is for it not to be US-dominated.) And thank you kindly. :)

[just-the-ash.livejournal.com]

The Ortho-Evra birth control patch -- I don't know if the brand name is the same in the UK -- is supposed to be "flesh-colored." I would send you a picture of one attached to me, but as I'm Pasty McWhitenstein, the patch is actually a shade or two darker than I am. But maybe one of the birth-control comms, or vaginapagina, might turn up some patch users who are women of color?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the suggestion! I will bear it in mind when we get to further propogation.

[that_mireille]

This is an example of why I think you are utterly awesome, you know. (I'm going to drop a link to a few women I know IRL who may find it of interest.)

Best of luck with this project.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you! For the help, and for the compliment. :)

[forthwritten.livejournal.com]

Psst, html version here (http://skincoloured.wordpress.com/reposting-info/). I couldn't get the text area to work, rather annoyingly. Grr. But also yay :D

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Edited it in!

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you're doing this. It's an important project. Go you!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :) :) And thank you for the pimping!

[ressie-noldo.livejournal.com]

You are awesome.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*blushes*

*ducks*

Is a joint project. :) :)

[thedilettante.livejournal.com]

I'm passing this along to people. It's a great idea.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. :)

[sunlightdances.livejournal.com]

I yelped in anger when I saw that "normal to dark" label on a product just like that one shown in Tescos. I wrote them an email, and they never replied. Pffft.

Shall post the links and whatnot from here (http://skincoloured.wordpress.com/reposting-info/) in my journal. :)

[sunlightdances.livejournal.com]

Ah, didn't seem to work in my journal. It kept having that annoying 'irreparable error' 'owner must fix' thing.

[forthwritten.livejournal.com]

Hiya - I wrote that code late at night, so there may be issues with it. Which bit did it ask you to fix?

[sunlightdances.livejournal.com]

I just tried it again, copying and pasting the information on that page, and the text worked fine this time. Unfortunately, the banner didn't show up.

[forthwritten.livejournal.com]

Right - the issue seems to be that it's using smartquotes instead of ordinary double quotemarks. Just retype all the quotemarks and it should work... ('should' being the operative word here).

[emerald-embers.livejournal.com]

That one always used to make me throw a wobbly because I choose to avoid tanning for health reasons and I can't help thinking that "I didn't have to burn my skin to look this way, how is my skin not normal?", but it wasn't until you pointed it out to me now that I've just realised how downright hideously offensive it is for other (now really obvious) reasons, and yeah. That is pretty ridiculous.

[sunlightdances.livejournal.com]

Strange they have products for people who (fake-)tan themselves orange, and yet not for people who naturally have darker skin. I solved this problem by never wearing make-up, but I think others might find that a bit of a drastic solution.

[biascut.livejournal.com]

Excellent project! I'll link.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! :)

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Linked! (Clearly this is the time to break out this icon)

also, I have a package with a familiar postmark :) should it be kept for a few days? and is it suitable to open in front of parents? :P

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Icon love. :)

(Heee! Er, it is not quite safe to open in front of parents - I mean, it is a perfectly respectable Thing, but that you should maybe not show your sister for a few years yet. But, it is double-wrapped for just this purpose. :P)

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Duly noted. Does it have lesbians?

OMG wanna open it nowwwwwwwwwww *kicks heels* I fail at delayed gratification.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

...yes. :) :)

[snowballjane.livejournal.com]

This is a really good idea.

I don't have any photos to illustrate it, but thought it might be worth flagging up the naming of "flesh-coloured" tights by dancewear company Capezio: nude, light suntan, suntan (http://www.planetdance.com/prod6.asp?prod_id=1901&id=140&sub_cat=466&grpid=1901&msg=&offset=12).

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Wow. Wow, that is offensive. Thank you!

[balthaser.livejournal.com]

I'm too lazy to look it up myself, but is there a feed so it can be viewed on the lj friendspage?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

skincoloured!

[sunlightdances.livejournal.com]

W00t! *subscribes*

[lizzip.livejournal.com]

You are, as they say, awesome.

I want to say thank you but don't know how to without sounding awful, so, um, yes, thank you. Now I shut up and listen.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. :)

[very-improbable.livejournal.com]

What an excellent project. I'll put up a link--I'm sure there will be people on my flist interested in this.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!

[thekit.livejournal.com]

here via http://deathbyshinies.livejournal.com/329288.html

hi!

I'm non-white (se-asian chinese), but can white people participate by showing how the products actually do match?

I've always found it difficult to visualise what a person who was band-aid coloured all over would look like.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Hello sweetheart! My colleague and I would rather this were kept to people who identify as not white - because the problem, when we try running this debate, is that people (usually white people) start overruning us with tales of how make-up/tights/etc don't match their skin either - whilst not realising the point, i.e., that they are in a privileged position, and that for them this is a minor inconvenience rather than symptomatic of our invisibility in the mainstream.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Yay, this is an awesome project.

[sunlightdances.livejournal.com]

The post's gone up at curvygirls. :) I can't link it because it's friends-only, but it's there.