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

Yousuf ysaeed7 at yahoo.com
Tue Jul 15 19:20:00 IST 2008


...stop buying these creams?  That will collapse the empire of satellite TV channels, glossy magazines and the rest. Who will allow that to happen. They are putting cameras in people's drawing rooms to survey when the family watches TV most, so that more expensive airtime could be sold for that time. In Indian family soap operas when a woman wakes up in her bed, she already has lipstick, cream and full make-up on her face.



--- 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: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com
> Cc: "Noora Zul" <noorazul at gmail.com>, "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 7:02 PM
> Indeed, surely this must be a time to end all this nonsense
> and simply 
> stop buying these things that make other people rich and
> prey on the 
> insecurities that we all have at one point or another, Rob
> 
> Yousuf schreef:
> > 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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