User:MRayCall/Skin whitening

History-edited
Skin whitening is a practice that has made its way across the entire globe over time with different cultures across it adopting the practice under various ideologies within each culture. Commonly, skin whitening products have been marketed towards women of color on a global scale under the pretense that porcelain skin is the ideal representation beauty and status. Although the majority methods of which the skin whitening process is undertaken have been deemed unsafe due to various side effects, they are still used for a range of purposes; one of which includes the desire for improvement of one's socioeconomic status as well as the socialization in some cultures of one's perceived inferiority based on having darker or lighter skin than others. This process through which perceived inferiority can be exercised physically can be looked back on through a foundational perspective of the "Nigrescence Theory". This theory is explains the distinction of one's own socialized identity through various stages and the pigmentation of skin that someone is born with that is associated with the socialization process within a culture. More specifically, out of the four stages associated with this theory, the first one, named the "pre-encounter" stage, highlight the underlying concept one not associating themselves with their own culture or values due partly to the misinformation one has been taught to believe and therefore seeks validation and worthiness from those who have misinformed that person. The first recorded practices of skin whitening can be traced back to over 200 B.C. across a multitude of civilizations which utilized natural sources of ingredients to facilitate the production of skin whitening substances. For example, one of these methods include the use of honey and olive oil as a method of whitening the skin in different civilizations such as in Egypt as well as in Greek culture.