miscellany

[raven]

I do wish Feministing wouldn't talk the way it does about, well, stuff. Skin-whitening products are Bad and Wrong, I quite agree, yes indeed. But... you know. There's a reason for them. Colourism, I've seen it called, but it's a kind of internalised racism or just plain old self-hatred that makes people like me think our skin ought to be whiter, and, you know what? It's my business, mine and my people's business, what we do about that, and I can't help but think it's terribly presumptuous for someone who's never been a part of a culture where this is an endemic feature to jump in and start spouting about the Bad and Wrong.

(And, just for the record? If there was some magic cream that would let me pass for white? I'd take it in an instant, and I'd pay more than $70 for it, too.)

In other news, lgbtfest is open for prompt-claiming, and I am having to resist very hard and not claiming... well, lots. I especially love the Harry Potter ones, becuse they twist off two identifiable nexuses (not a word I have used in the plural before): the thought that the magical world is much more socially conservative than ours, and the equally convincing thought that, well, they have magic. Rather than come out as trans, you might go to a back street for a potion as soon as you were sure it's what you wanted. I want someone to write that, actually. I'd also love someone to write about Voldemort's persecution of queer people and how that intersected with issues of birth, and oh, queer issues in the Potterverse generally.

In other other news, a brief vid rec (unlike me, I know): How Much Is That Geisha In The Window, a really gorgeous, savage indictment of the invisible Asians in Firefly. I don't entirely agree with the thesis, but the vid is stunning and very smart.

In other other other news, Small Cat just woke up and looked at me in a disapproving fashion. Back to equity and trusts. One day I will understand the law. Today is not that day.

Comments

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Meh. I've use skin whiting cream because I'm a redhead and freckles are deeply unattractive on women. (No, seriously: check out all the natural redheaded actresses. See any freckles?)

In fact, I seriously need to start using it again, amongst other things like a diet and regular exercise.

ETA: By which I mean, black and Asian people are not the only people who use this product, nor are they the sole victims of the 'skin must be whiter' meme.

ETA2: Oh fuck it. I can't get this right. Basically, IAWTC and it's not anyone's business and certainly shouldn't be tagged to one race, class or gender.

[potatofiend.livejournal.com]

IAWTC. When I was younger I spent hours sitting in the garden with lemon juice on my face. It didn't make the freckles go away, but it probably wasn't all that good for my skin.

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

And, just for the record? If there was some magic cream that would let me pass for white? I'd take it in an instant, and I'd pay more than $70 for it, too.

Oh babe.

I love you, like a lot.

[steerpikelet.livejournal.com]

I get what you're saying. But the advert in itself is about more than just skin-whitening. And I'd have been more shocked if the site had called attention to its sexist copy and NOT its dubious racist undertones.

I also think it's highly indicative of a certain white patriarchal mindset. It plays into the myth that swallowing semen is good for the skin. But also, the idea that swallowing white culture is just like swallowing come? Interesting on so many levels...

There is a specific type of sexism which deliberately targets BME women in particular, and this is an example. But it hurts all women, and I believe that all women have a right to comment, and if they're saying the right thing - truly the right thing - then it shouldn't matter what the colour of their skin is, especially on the internet. I also believe that if it's white women making the comment, they should expect to be both questioned and challenged, and rightly so - but not silenced.

Have you read Fawcett's 'Seeing Double' reports? I'm mates with Zohra, who's behind it, and she completely changed the way I think about all this.

[biascut.livejournal.com]

but not silenced.

I think that's a really problematic use of "silenced". Women of colour have no institutional power that can censor or stop white women talking about issues which disproportionately affect them, so the only possible way for them to be "silenced" is by critique and questioning. If you make a plea for white women not to be silenced, you are de facto asking BME women to moderate their criticism and play nicely, and that's really problematic.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that they shouldn't talk about sexist things. Sure, the advert is sexist, and sure, that deserves comment and critique for the reasons you note. But I think that their easy, one-line condemnation of what is a colourist issue - and as such, is informed by issues and cultural underpinnings that belong to non-white cultures - is problematic. I doubt they understand the reasons why a woman might buy one of these creams, or the societal pressures that would lead her to think it was a good idea - because if they did, they wouldn't throw out their criticism as if it were a settled and easy issue worthy of a one-liner, you know? I'm not silencing white women. (Being brown, I doubt if I could if I tried.) I'm trying to say, I wish they would think about race and cultural intersectionality before they spoke.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

If there was some magic cream that would let me pass for white? I'd take it in an instant, and I'd pay more than $70 for it, too
*cling*

(can't remember if I've read fic about how the magical community, tiny and insular, would almost certainly have really pro-natalist anti-queerideology, or jsut had conversations about how that would be the case...)

[biascut.livejournal.com]

I remember having strips torn off me when I was about 20 or 21 and parroted something I'd read about skin-whitening creams on the old Hissyfit boards, by one of the handful of black women on the board. Her point was that she used skin-lightening creams to even out her complexion, and that this was no more an internalisation of racist norms than a white woman using foundation. Aaaand it taught me a lot about making wildly generalising statements about things that I have zero person knowledge or experience of.

And I don't know what to say about your statement that you'd take the cream if you could but I don't want to ignore it, so insert something here about hating that you have a reason for that.

[sangga.livejournal.com]

when i lived in indonesia, in a rural village area, all the women in my household would hassle me to buy them skin-whitening creme in singapore (where i went on visa runs). i was kind of taken aback by it, but these weren't women who were particularly influenced by media or advertising...i mean, they had no tv, and hardly left the village, and no magazines. they associated whiter-looking skin with not working in the sawah (rice paddies) - that was pretty much it, that if your skin wasn't sunburned you looked more like someone who didn't have to do manual labour. so it was more an issue of class in their view.

thing was, none of the skin cremes worked a damn anyway, so it was all a bit of a moot issue.

[subservient-son.livejournal.com]

If you want that type of fic, why not write it yourself? I'm sure you'd do it well.

Also, nexes? Or am I just over-latinising?