Most Asian cultures view pale skin as beautiful, pure, and feminine. If you look at Japanese and Korean skin care products, there's many out there that help promote a brighter, paler complexion. "Skin whitening" has transformed into a huge industry in countries like China, Korea, Japan, and India. My dad told me that in the past, pale skin signified higher status because those who were more wealthy remained indoors while others had to work under the sun. I remember talking to a Japanese sales associate at a Shiseido counter in Macys, and she told me that many women in Japan are obssessed with whitening their skin. One image that they promote is that if you can be whiter, you can be as beautiful as a cherry blossom. I honestly think that women who strive for this ideal actually experience more anxiety than happiness. And this applies to body image in general. However, I admit that there are days when I miss my natural pale skin I had when I was younger.
I think since I started taking swimming lessons at age eight, I started getting tan every summer. Although I didn't look like some burnt piece of charcoal, my tan was still pretty bad. But it's difficult to maintain whiter skin, especially in Southern California where it's bright and sunny most of the time. I don't want to be like those older Vietnamese women walking around the park in broad daylight with some bizarre umbrella haha. Today I'm not as dark as I used to be, but compared to my family and friends, I'm still pretty tan here and there. My mom usually likes to tease me and say that she has a Mexican daughter lol. So if I want to be "Asian pretty", does that mean I have to have skin white as snow? The closest I'll ever get to that is this:
LOL. I apologize if this picture will give you nightmares. =P And please excuse my panda eyes (I think I have the worst dark circles in the world). But anyways, that's my main topic for the day. What are your opinions? Is anyone else obssessed with maintaining their pale skin? I know different cultural aspects affect a person's perception of beauty, so we would all have different unique views. It's just interesting learning about everyone's individual ideals =)
Before I go to bed, I wanted to show you what I bought today while hanging out with Jackie at Mitsuwa:
It's a phone holder!
Keke I think it's so cute! ^^
Alright, good night everyone!
<3,
Juju
1 comments:
Hi Julie, it's me Christina Huh.
Being Korean, I've definitely experienced first-hand the expectations to be pale. At the same time, we live in So. Cali, where tan/gold is beautiful.
When I was younger, I too used to swim a lot. I made the team, and at the YMCA, I was the best in my class. My mom didn't have time to take me to practice every morning, but I still swam in our community pool (This is turning into a life story comment minus the billions of swimming anecdotes I'm saving you from...), so I was REALLY tan. Plus, I've was born a little darker than my family members. This is a picture of me when I was 5: http://www.facebook.com/christinahuh#!/photo.php?pid=30650833&id=201003358
Anyway, my family didn't really comment on my dark skin, but I did get comments from other Koreans. Up until senior year, I wanted to be/stay tan, which is "in" here, but it got more difficult since I stopped swimming when I moved to Irvine. In college, which is when I got into Kpop, I started to like the idea of being pale. I put on sunscreen religiously, stayed out of the sun like a vampire, bought Likas soap, whitening face masks, Isa Knox creams, etc. but nothing really helps. This isn't an inspiration story on how I discovered skin color and beauty doesn't matter. I'm still hoping I'll find a good whitener. Maybe I'll have to bleach myself like MJ?
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