While shopping for various products one finds useful in daily life in Guinea (plastic buckets, plastic teapots, plastic screens, plastic insert object here), I wandered into a store that hads lots of skin creams. I could pretend I wanted to keep my skin moist and healthy in this hot, dry climate, but the truth is I was shopping with a couple young ladies who wanted carrot cream or something.
I've read articles about the horrors of skin-lightening (depigmentation) beauty products for sale in various parts of Africa. Since most Africa-related news centers on the more developed nations or else nations with big animals, I had never imagined most Guinean skin products would also contain skin-lightening chemicals. It certainly makes sense, though.
I could harp on how silly it is to use these products, which can have ghastly, long-term or permanent side effects, except that would require I completely ignore my audience. With the tanning and beach tourism industries as strong as they are in Western culture, there are different questions that come to mind:
1. Why are so few people content with who they are or what they look like?
2. If we're going to idolize the tanner-than-white, but lighter-than-black, cafe-au-lait skin, why aren't interracial couples more acceptable in cultures around the globe?
Note: I am not, nor will I be, tan. Not only do I consistently apply sunscreen, but Mefloquine, my malaria prophylaxis, inhibits tanning. I'd rather not have malaria than encourage long-term skin damage just to be a slightly darker shade of chalk white.
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