[Reader-list] two strange stories about women in india

Tue Jul 15 18:42:56 IST 2008

This may not be the last cynical play of the western capitalism - skin whitening may have existed since times immemorial. You may see an interesting collage of beauty ads from 1940s/50s in the following presentation:

http://tasveerghar.net/2007/javed/

--- On Tue, 7/15/08, Rob van Kranenburg <kranenbu at xs4all.nl> wrote:

> From: Rob van Kranenburg <kranenbu at xs4all.nl>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] two strange stories about women in india
> To: "Noora Zul" <noorazul at gmail.com>
> Cc: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com
> Date: Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 4:16 PM
> Dear Yousuf and dear Noora,
> 
> Yes tanning is very much in here! And I'm not quite
> addicted myself, but 
> getting there. I need my vitamin D.
> 
> But somehow I think that there is a difference between
> sunbathing and 
> using cream to avoid sunburn and assuming that a whitening
> cream that is 
> quite chemical would be so important to who you are that it
> is the very 
> colonial basis of exclusion or inclusion that you reproduce
> in a day and 
> age where the BRIC ( Brazil, India , China, Russia,
> Indonesia) countries 
> are growing in all directions and the whole world is
> witnessing the 
> economic and moral collapse of the West. It is almost as if
> this is a 
> kind of last cynical play of western capitalism played out
> on the most 
> vulnerable at this moment, woman and on her skin, the most
> visible part, 
> saying i don't need to brand you, you will do that
> yourself.
> 
> It seems to break gender boundraries too:
> guys too:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWls3U7ZZ1E&feature=related
> 
> although the majority is targeted at women.
> 
> I'm in Singapore from july 22 to 26, as artistic
> advisor to this meeting
> 
> http://www.asef.org/index.php?option=com_project&task=view&id=21
> 
> and we have a Pecha Kucha style evening with about 30
> presenters ( ISEA 
> artists, theorists, researchers) on the 24th, you are very
> welcome!
> 
> Greetings, Rob
> 
> 
> ps. I've taking of the reader list cc as i don't
> see your messages 
> appearing on the list
> 
> 
> Noora Zul schreef:
> > Dear Yousuf & Rob
> >
> > I couldn't resist adding this. I'm actually
> from Singapore, and Malay 
> > in terms of ethnicity (in terms of skin colour, we
> tend towards being 
> > brown). The skin-whitening ad 'phenomenon'
> also exists here, and 
> > similarly in Malaysia and Indonesia (which is more
> preponderantly 
> > Malay peoples). And it does seem to break racial
> boundaries, because 
> > there are ads too targeting at the Chinese women. It
> is quite an 
> > obsession, with products ranging from specific
> whitening creams to 
> > things like compacts boasting additional whitening
> properties. There 
> > is (strangely) the ambition to be fair in an extremely
> sunny tropical 
> > region, where getting a tan is more easily achieved.
> This was kinda 
> > sharpened for me when I noticed that when I was living
> in London, it 
> > seemed that tanning products were more of 'the
> rage'.
> >
> > Noora
> >
> > On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 11:48 PM, Yousuf
> <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com 
> > <mailto:ysaeed7 at yahoo.com>> wrote:
> >
> >     Dear Rob
> >     I posted your last link about the skin-whitening
> adverts to some
> >     friends on facebook, and it seems to be leading to
> an interesting
> >     debate there, especially the fact that the
> skin-whitening is not
> >     only an Indian phenomena - strange tendencies are
> still emerging
> >     about the colour of the skin even outside India...
> >
> >    
> http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1004356748350
> >
> >     I guess you'll need to log in to facebook with
> an ID to see this.
> >
> >     Yousuf
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >     --- On Sun, 7/13/08, Rob van Kranenburg
> <kranenbu at xs4all.nl
> >     <mailto:kranenbu at xs4all.nl>> wrote:
> >
> >     > From: Rob van Kranenburg
> <kranenbu at xs4all.nl
> >     <mailto:kranenbu at xs4all.nl>>
> >     > Subject: [Reader-list] two strange stories
> about women in india
> >     > To:
> >     > Cc: "sarai list"
> <reader-list at sarai.net
> >     <mailto:reader-list at sarai.net>>
> >     > Date: Sunday, July 13, 2008, 9:00 PM
> >     > hi,
> >     >
> >     > i can not make sense of it, but maybe someone
> can:
> >     >
> >     > two strange stories about women in india:
> >     >
> >     > one on the ratio male - female
> >     >
> >     >
> http://www.actionaid.org.uk/doc_lib/disappearing_daughters_0608.pdf
> >     >
> http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/10896/93/
> >     > http://actionaidindia.org/camp_violence.htm
> >     >
> >     > and one very scary ad:
> >     >
> >     > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKEF-8XkWMU
> >     >
> >     >
> >    
> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/skinwhitening-adverts-ignite-race-row-in-india-863936.html
> >     >
> >     > greetings, rob
> >     > _________________________________________
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