The Beyonce ad and skin bleaching

The controversy over the recent L'Oreal Paris ad for Feria hair color featuring an allegedly whitewashed Beyonce (right) should spur talk about the perils of skin bleaching. (For the record, L'Oreal has firmly denied that they lightened the skin of the fair complected singer/spokesmodel.)

To clarify: I am not implying in this post that Beyonce bleaches her skin at all. But I think this whole debate prompts a discussion of skin lightening, which is so prevalent in Asia and Africa and how harmful it is for women -- on so many levels.

In Jamaica, some dark-skinned women are so anxious to lighten their complexions that they will concoct homemade mixtures of household bleach and chemicals used to straighten hair. A  BBC report quoted dermatologist Neil Persadsingh as saying: "If you go to the ghettos, you will see people with their faces white from the application of these bleaching preparations. You see this every day in Jamaica." The situation has gotten so bad that the Jamaican government launched a campaign called "Don't Kill the Skin" last year, aimed at young girls. Even skin lighteners that are sold in Jamaica are not safe and can cause thinned skin, acne and scarring.

Over here, the skin lightening market is a major industry and the main ingredient of most creams and serums -- hydroquinone -- is some scary stuff. The FDA proposed a ban on it in 2006 because it was deemed a cancer causing chemical after being tested on rodents. Right now, you can buy over-the-counter products with 2% hydroquinone and prescription treatments that contain 4% of the chemical.
Clearly, the beauty ideal in this country and elsewhere begs for correction. I found a soap online marketed to women called "Fair & White" -- at what price, physically and psychologically?

UPDATE: The Young, Black & Fabulous has published a picture of the Beyonce ad, as it ran in Essence (left), alongside the Elle ad.  The Elle ad looks a lot blander than the Essence ad. The pigmentation is just off. The whole Elle ad looks like it got left out in the sun and faded.

Do you think L'Oreal Paris has some explaining to do?

Photos: Getty Images; L'Oreal Paris; TheBYF.com

Comments

[sandra m]

One frequently sees celebrities besides Beyonce- Oprah, Halle Berry, Queen Latifah, etc.- who look lighter in some shots and darker in others. It's about lighting and makeup. The celebrities in question have approved those photos. But, I'm more concerned when public figures have their images darkened without their consent. There's the infamous Time magazine cover of O.J. and photos of Jose Padilla. And, unbelievably, Dr. Charles Drew, blood plasma pioneer. Dr. Drew looked like a white man. But, I guess some people wanted him to stereotypically 'black" and darkened him up.

[Forxa Barxa]

Beyonce is fair skinned than most African American ladies. in fact, her mother is as well. However, the picture of Beyonce on the right looks her lightened skin tone is the result of klieg lights not whitening cream. But what if L'Oreal argued that Asian ladies would take better to a person who is light skinned as opposed to dark skinned. What is L'Oreal's target market? Most Asians, including the Indians and Pakisthanis, are obsessed with light skin.

I live in near the Westminister-Garden Grove area. In these parts, one can see Asian women driving around in the heat swaddled in sweaters with long arms, wearing white gloves that reach up to the armpits, and wearing a welder's like face protection mask-all efforts to not become dark skinned. Would these ladies take kindly to a Beyonce who is 'dark skinned' or 'lighter skinned'?

[Sean K]

Anyone who thought people like beyonce or halle berry had any integrity to begin with are fools. It's clear these people would undergo any procedure available to turn themselves into white folks. This is an absolutely shameful image to push on the rest of society. It's basically accepting all of the negative beauty images about black people that the racist white establishment has pushed for generations. White people should stop giving themselves cancer turning themselves dayglow orange and black people should stop bleaching themselves. Unless you have a dermatology issue, Be happy with the skin god gave you.

[Sean K]

Anyone who thought people like beyonce or halle berry had any integrity to begin with are fools. It's clear these people would undergo any procedure available to turn themselves into white folks. This is an absolutely shameful image to push on the rest of society. It's basically accepting all of the negative beauty images about black people that the racist white establishment has pushed for generations. White people should stop giving themselves cancer turning themselves dayglow orange and black people should stop bleaching themselves. Unless you have a dermatology issue, Be happy with the skin god gave you.

[boyleheightsboy]

Here in the Philippines the natural skin tone is most often a lovely cocoa color, and yet tens of millions of dollars are spent on lightening lotions and dermatologists. In the U.S. billions of dollars are spent on tanning salons, tanning lotions and even more on treatments for skin cancer. Forget global warming, I think the species is more likely to extinguish itself in vain attempts to look like media "models", who sell their images to the highest bidder without a care of the harm they might cause. This is, at the end of the day, a form of dictatorship, that deserves severe punishment!

[boyleheightsboy]

Here in the Philippines the natural skin tone is most often a lovely cocoa color, and yet tens of millions of dollars are spent on lightening lotions and dermatologists. In the U.S. billions of dollars are spent on tanning salons, tanning lotions and even more on treatments for skin cancer. Forget global warming, I think the species is more likely to extinguish itself in vain attempts to look like media "models", who sell their images to the highest bidder without a care of the harm they might cause. This is, at the end of the day, a form of dictatorship, that deserves severe punishment!

[don kichote]

Perhaps the problems we are actually talking about here are psychological rather than physical.
I suggest a skin exchange program, light skinned people who want to be tanned can exchange their skin with those who are naturally dark skinned and want to be lighter.
why are "dark" things associated with negativity in the english language? why is light considred"fair". food for though.

[DoorSlam]

Sean K pot calling kettle black?

No black calling high yellow sell out. Is Obama too white to?

FYI- Proper names are capitalized and Beyonce and Halle Berry are NOT BLACK but mixed.

The sound you hear is the door slaming on shameful ideas.

[Marlon]

Why would she have bleached her skin? That makes no sense. Her skin is clearly lighter than normal but they would have just done that by altering the photo during processing (i.e., Photoshoppng it).

[Rachel]

speaking as a light skin black woman, in some photos I appear very light as if I am pale white person. some time my photo looks as if I have a shadow, which makes me appear shade or so darker than my true skin type. Also when I have my hair color light like a dark blond my skin is lighter. So its just the picture, shes not using skin lightening

[Thomas]

Sorry but Beyonce is not bi-racial both of her parents are African-American.

*FYI- Proper names are capitalized and Beyonce and Halle Berry are NOT BLACK but mixed.*

[Zahra]

It probably is the lighting that they used on the photo shoot. However, the issue this add brings up is not new. Everyone in this country is based on a Western aesthetic standard(i.e., light skin, straight hair ,etc). According to this standard the Black women are only attractive and marketable if they appear "mixed."

[Production Artist]

Part of the problem is that Elle's printing is evidently awful. Advertisers don't get print samples before the run. They just make matchprints of the submitted PDFx/1a files and hope for the best.

[ray]

Why do people think it was the lights? This a proffessionally done photo, it looks that way because that's exactly the image that Elle wanted. To be honest, if I didn't know that picture in Elle was Beyonce it would be hard to recognize her. And I'm one of her fans.

[BA of Chicago]

Regarding the two photos shown here, The second photo has been lightened all over. This is a simple thing to do with any number of photo processing programs. It also could be an error by the publisher. All said, WHY would anyone want to damage their skin with chamicals merely to change the color?

[BeForReal]

To Door Slam:

Sorry, but Beyonce is African American. Her mother and father are both BLACK. Her dad is brown, her mother is fairer. Haller is biracial and looks like a light-medium skinned black woman. Beyounce depending on the lighting and if she just came back from a wonderful trip with Jay-Z, will appear lighter or darker.

Who cares the race? L'Oreal needs to be ashamed of themselves. Big Ups to Young Black and Fabulous for their investigation. Its a damn shame.

Sean K pot calling kettle black?

No black calling high yellow sell out. Is Obama too white to?

FYI- Proper names are capitalized and Beyonce and Halle Berry are NOT BLACK but mixed.

The sound you hear is the door slaming on shameful ideas.

Posted by: DoorSlam | August 12, 2008 at 05:55 PM

[Melissa]

She looks different all over - her nose is thinner and pointier - her face is slimmer - truthfully, she looks like a white woman.

[Melissa]

She looks different all over - her nose is thinner and pointier - her face is slimmer - truthfully, she looks like a white woman.

[BS!]

I agree with Rachel. It's just lighting and sometimes when shadows are casts on the skin it makes you look darker. Her nose looks thinner because of the angle of the picture. It's not like Beyonce had a very broad nose to begin with.

I can't believe people are still going on about this ad. If you want to have a discussion about racism in advertising there are far better examples than this non issue.

[Stacia]

The photo was very purposely changed like that. In essence, a magazine geared towards black people, you can see that her lip is thicker as well.