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The Globalization of Colorism
The issue of colorism has gone global especially with the rise of globalization and advancing technologies. Through globalization multinational media conglomerates export U.S. culture, products, and cultural imperialism. These cultural products export cultural images of race and color preference .The global media implications are that Eurocentric physical features which are less aligned with native ancestry are found to be more attractive. The U.S. exports images of the good life, white beauty and affluence which many people in other poorer countries yearn for. The Philippines is a good example of this due to the fact that the country is an intersection of internalized colonial values and a culture of new global viewing. Just as in other Third World countries, the Philippines contemporary culture valorizes American culture and places high value on white beauty. In Korea, women pay high sums of money for eyelid surgery and skin bleaching products to achieve Westernized white beauty,. Plastic surgery and skin bleaching are both derived from the globalization of U.S. dominant views of fair beauty and images of lighter-skinned celebrities are widely valued in the global market place. This is the reason as to why colorism is so difficult to battle, because it is so pervasive with images supporting this system of inequality reaching all over the globe. The advancement of television, film, print ads, and internet featuring lighter skin as a cultural ideal influences Third World and modernizing countries, informing them that to be of lighter skin color is not only a way to live the “good life” but is also culturally imperative.

Colorism Prevalent in Asian Countries
In Asian cultures colorism is both empowering and disempowering because it has strong influences on important life goals such as marital and job prospects, status, and income. In Asian cultures fairness is equated with feminine beauty, racial superiority, and power. As in America and other countries, Asian cultures ideologies of light-skin preference is derived from cultural construction and has universal appeal among all classes in Asia. In Asia, as in America, colorism is taught to children in the form of fairy tales. Just like the Grimm fairty tales with the fair skinned white princess or maiden, Asian mythological protagonists are fair and depict virtue, purity, and good. In India the color of skin is used as a marker for social class and India’s caste system. For Indians skin color is symbolic to marital, class position, and feminine gender identity. In Hong Kong’s metropolis city “get white” messages are inescapable. Fair Asian models are covering billboards, magazine covers, counter spaces at the department stores, and are saturated in the media. In Hong Kong as in most of Asia, skin whitening has had a long history stemming back to Ancient China and Japan,. To these cultures to be fair in an environment where the sun is harsh, meant that one was upper class and rich enough to stay indoors and leave the outdoor work to servants. This obsession with whiteness has not faded but in fact due to globalization has become even more prevalent with Asia’s newfound hypercommercialism and consumer culture. In Hong Kong two thirds of men surveyed said they prefer fairer skinned women and almost half of Asians have admitted to use skin whiteners in attempts to achieve a lighter complexion. However, these skin bleaching products have had negative consequences. There have been issues of mercury poisoning in consumers of certain bleaching products in Asia, as was seen in early 1900 Japan with the white face paint geisha’s would use. The poisoning would cause permanent skin discoloration as well as cause kidney and nerve damage in the brain.

Colorism in Asian American Communities
Colorism while prevalent in Asian countries are also commonly seen in Asian Americans as well. In 2003 researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara conducted a survey of 99 Asian Americans on the issue of colorism in their communities. The ethnicities ranged from Filipino, to Japanese, to Cambodian, Korean, and Chinese. The respondents answered a number of questions varying from skin color preference, eye shape, face shape, etc. Certain themes emerged from the survey that indicated that colorism is also a part of the Asian American communities. One theme that was consistent was that “beauty is light." The consensus was that light-skinned people were more beautiful than dark people. Another theme was to “not be romantically linked with or marry dark people.” Very similar to racism, these respondents reported that a member in their family had openly discouraged dating a dark-skinned Asian Americans. The reasons that were given ranged from dark-skinned Asians considered to be working class and poverty stricken, compared to light-skinned partners appearing pure, upper class, and successful. Similar to African American communities, Asian American women are more likely to be held to the lighter skin standard than Asian American men. This gender difference is due to the fact that the culture, family, and ideologies are strongly based in patriarchy where a woman submits to the man’s “ideal of beauty,” . The quest for lighter skin in Asian American communities date back to ancient Asian traditions brought over by immigrants, however the onslaught of media saturated images of Western ideal beauty has also influenced Asian American women’s desires to attain a lighter skin complexion. As in African American and Latino communities, various skin bleaching creams and treatments are offered in the Asian communities, advertisements of light, almost pale skin toned Asian models promote the bleaching products that one can use to obtain fairness.

The Universal Practice of Skin Bleaching
Skin bleaching has long since been one of the oldest forms of achieving fair skin and has become a multibillion dollar industry. This obsession with whiteness has not faded over time; a survey concluded that three quarters of Malaysian men thought their partners would be more attractive if they had lighter skin complexions. Women in countries such as South Korea, India, China, Saudi Arabia, and Uganda, use toxic skin bleaching creams to achieve a lighter skin complexion. Especially with the increase in globalization, many post colonial and Third World nations have seen a rise in the purchasing of skin lightening creams to achieve a Eurocentric appearance. Skin bleachers, which are marketed as ‘beauty products’ go by many names: skin lighteners, skin whiteners, skin-toning creams, skin fading gels, etc. . However, the promises are all the same: that the product will help to reduce melanin in its consumers. In countries throughout Asia, these skin bleachers can be purchased in malls, drug stores, and even on the internet. These markets thrive on the vulnerabilities, fears, and taps into the cultural beliefs of countries that believe light-skinned is more valued. In the India, the highest selling brand of skin lightening bleach cream, Fair & Lovely, promotes that the product produces dignity and that to be fair skinned is aspirational. There are many reasons for the increasing global phenomenon of skin lighteners ranging from one’s skin being too dark, to attracting romantic prospects, to be popular and fashionable, or to ensure one’s skin is brown and not black. However, these skin bleaching products usually contain three harmful ingredients: Mercury, hydroquinone, and/or corticosteroids. All of these chemicals can be extremely dangerous and fatal, with most of the products being made outside the U.S. and Europe and therefore having looser regulations to adhere to,.