I decided that every week or so I am going to pick something that I have noticed here (mainly differences about Thailand to back home in Canada) and write my observations about it; I am sure my opinion will be in there a little bit as well. This week I felt like sharing my observations about skin colour. There is something fascinating I find about the difference in skin colour here, and the perceptions of skin colour...
First off, it seems as thought the closer people live to the city in Chiang Mai, the whiter their skin is. I discussed this a little with a Thai girl at dinner last weekend, as she was admiring my skin and we compared arm colour. She was whiter. She said that she doesn't get as much sun living in the city. Which I started to think about, and it made sense. Of course people who live in the city and/or work in the city, aren't exposed to the sun as much those who work outside of the city, which more than likely means they work outside often. Therefore I have seen a great mix of fair and darker skinned Thai people in my daily life here.
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| Eucerin: White Solution w/ SF 7 |
Second, it's not only dependent on whether they live within the city or outside it, there are other factors. One thing I found interesting was that when shopping for beauty products, particularly lotions, you have to make sure you read the labels. Why? And what does that have to do with skin colour? Well more often then not the lotions here contain skin whitening in them. Even my brands I use at home (Eucerin) for dry skin, here I could not find one without skin whitening when I saw it. Here is a culture who would prefer their skin to be lighter, where I come from a culture of tanning salons and self-tanning lotion. They have the sun and want to be exposed to it less so as they can be whiter, whereas we don't get the sun much and we long for it to bronze our skin.
I guess the saying 'the grass is always greener on the other side' is pretty accurate. Or in this case, the skin is always nicer?
awesome! i will fit right in...they'll all be jealous of my see-through skin!
ReplyDeleteIsn't their desire for lighter skin rooted in status markers?
ReplyDeleteI thought I hit reply on this, apparently not so I'll copy and paste it LOL:
DeleteYes Melissa, that is in fact true. After writing this I started to get curious as to find out more answers. And one thing I found said, "Thai people desire ''white skin'' not to ''look healthier'' but to improve one's station in life. They know that foolish employers only hire fair-skinned people because they wrongly believe that lighter complexioned people are more educated than their rural, darker-skinned countrymen." And that is why one must submit a photo with their resume when applying for a job. Though it definitely is still a difference from city to more rural areas, as I said, there is more than one reason for the lighter skin, as the Thai lady I had my discussion with told me.
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