Lucid Dreams

Your daily meeting with capitalism, post-colonialism, and harmful beauty ideals.

As a result of this week’s grocery adventure to Casablanca Carrefour (to which we btw will be not returning according to Per, as they do not sell bacon...), I would like to talk about an unsettling Indonesian (Asian) consumer trend (yes, let’s generalize!!). Skin whitening products.

Although encountering this phenomenon back on my first week in Jakarta while attempting to find a non-whitening face wash, I’ve actually been avoiding to write about this subject. Up until yesterday, when it apparently became impossible for me to find my favorite (and only) brand of deodorant without the stupid whitening effect. 

But yes, seriously. A white armpit. How is that a thing?! I mean, I’ve encountered many weird/annoying/irrational beauty pressure points – the good old thigh gap, the classic anal bleaching, the greatness of vagina make up... – but I guess I just never saw the white armpit trend coming... And here I thought the whole point of current groundbreaking deodorant research was to avoid “white” at any cost. 

Anyway. This whole whitening deal is really not funny. And probably even a bit too sensitive for me to funk around with. Men jaja.. At this point I guess it is just important to remember the other side of the coin (swenglish hej!). How much money don’t we (we as in Westerners – which by the way is probably not  a totally PC and post-colonially sensitive expression, but I just don’t know what to write!! It’s so stressful being politically correct, I think I’ll just go back to swearing lots) spend on tanning creams, make up, solarium hours and expensive holidays in the sun just to look tanned?! In our fantastic Western culture a nice tan represents wealth, health, well-being...

... In Asia on the other hand, it is white skin that represents all the “good” stuff. This is obviously the result of many interconnected factors (as always...) such as colonialism, Asian culture and ideology, good old western-centrism, consumerism, mass-medial obsession, and of course utopic, harmful, and unattainable beauty ideals... 

While some of us struggle to attain the perfectly tanned, hairless, thin but still big-chested and round-assed body ideal, others wish for the same thin body and totally reasonable curves, white skin, outstanding cheekbones and pointy noses. Many times, the means to achieve these ideals are not only psychically harmful, but also physically, as is the case with many of the chemical substances used in whitening products. But you know, in the end, aren’t all those hours of mirror time, calorie counting, substance smearing, self loathing, shopping, magazine flicking and surgery totally worth it?! Long live beauty ideals. Everywhere.

And now that lunch is over, I’m off to send our very nice and finally done cigar launching invitations (thanks Tats, your designing is truly awesome), which sadly feature a woman basically giving a blowjob to a cigar. Because apparently that’s what sells. My principles are just unrealistic, and most of all redundant. Apparently.  

If you feel like reading more on white skin and beauty, I happened to find this research article earlier today.

Parece ser que me he emocionado escribiendo en ingles hoy, asique os dejo con una breve sinopsis, que si no no me da tiempo... Ayer fui con Per al Carrefour (al que segun el no volveremos mas ya que no venden bacon de cerdo) y al intentar comprar mi desodorante Dove de toda la vida, me resulto imposible encontrar uno sin el efecto blanqueador. Si. Lo que ois. Axilas blancas son lo mas (...).

Ya llevo tiempo pensando en el fenomeno de los productos de belleza blanqueantes, los cuales son mas que populares por estos lares... No he querido escribir sobre ello antes, porque realmente pienso que es un tema bastante sensible con el que meterme. Al fin y al cabo nosotros en Europa nos gastamos un pastoncio y medio en cremas bronceadoreas, maquillaje, horas de solarium y vacaciones en la playa para conseguir ese moreno tan deseado. 

Pero me siento obligada a decir algo sobre este tema (aunque no se muy bien que) debido a su fuerte conexion con factores tan interrelacionados como son el colonialismo, el euro-centrismo, diversas idiologias Asiaticas, el consumismo, la obsesion mediatica, y por supuesto los ideales de belleza tan utopicos, insostenibles y perjudiciales que caracterizan nuestras sociedades.

Porque al final, vivamos donde vivamos, y aunque ciertas cosas varien, todos estamos sometidos a estos ideales absurdos sobre los que realmente no tenemos ningun poder. Y a los que debemos todas esas horas delante del espejo, de recuento de calorias, de odio hacia diversas partes de nuestro cuerpo, de compras, de mejunges peligrosos para la salud (como son algunas de las substancias blanqueantes), y de revistas.

Y ahora, despues de daros la brasa con esto, me voy a mandar las invitaciones para nuestro evento de puros. Las cuales - aun siendo muy bonitas y estando muy bien hechas (gracias Tatum) - muestran a una mujer basicamente haciendo una felacion a un puro. Porque resulta que "eso" es lo que vende. Mis principios en cambio resultan ridiculos, y sobre todo superfluos... Yuhu.

(Lucid Dreams – Mat Zo)