Nearly everything is marketed by making you seem like a person of higher social status. If people were comfortable with who they were, we wouldn't need 90% of the goods on the market (and the remaining 10% would likely be much cheaper). It's not human nature to be content with your lot in life; if we made everyone equal, they'd find some new dimension to elevate. Bring on the Star-Bellied Sneetches!
I personally would not want to market a product that advanced an image of beauty in a culture with documented history of racism and classicism against people with dark skin. But that's just me.
So which culture are you from? You can't be an American? And of course America is a culture without a history and prejudice against people with dark skin right?
http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/1101020805/story2.html
To understand it better all you have to do is walk around in a big Japanese city and look at the print ads (or hell just watch some of the commercials)... it still perplexes me to this day
I forgot about ancient Egypt where it was looked down upon if a woman was dark (it looked as if she worked the fields during the day). It was alright for men though (since they have to command slaves/troops day or night)
Stereotypes are useful in books and movies, because they fool you into thinking you have deep knowledge of a character you're barely acquainted with. In real life this is not a good thing.
For people who actually lived in India for an extended period of time:
1. what is the driving force behind this market? is it purely aesthetics, like tanning creams, or does race play into it?
2. how large is the phenomenon? is it something common that many people think about or just a fringe market?
3. how is it viewed by the locals? are people who do this kind of thing ashamed to admit it?
2) It is very wide spread.
3) Not really. It has been around for thousands of years and has very little to do with recently developed fascination for or admiration for Europeans. Conceivably it could have it's roots in the "Aryan invasion" theory or a another time thousands of years ago when the ruling class had fair skin, but you will see references to "fair princesses" in mythological Hindu texts thousands of years ago. It is important to note though that there are references to "dark skinned beautiful women" also in some of these texts. So the bias could have been regional inside India. I don't know of anyone who has studied this extensively.
One more question, is there a movement in India to counter this trend? kind of like the civil-rights movement in the US 50 years ago?
Also, a related question, how prevalent is the caste system? are people discriminated against based on their caste? I hear it's not a significant factor anymore, but what's your experience been?
If you can be a doctor that does abortion, would you still execute? (Conversely, if you're a doctor that doesn't do abortions, would you still execute?)
If you can own a tanning salon and make some money, would you still execute?
If you can make songs about selling drugs, pimping ho's, robbing people and make money, would you still execute?
Everyone has their morality line drawn somewhere.
I am quite sure all doctors are barred from executing anyone based just on "do no harm" if not the law of the land :P
The better question to me is where do you draw the line. What's a business model that you wouldn't execute? I draw the line at companies who do not treat people in a way that they themselves would want to be treated and that causes direct bodily harm. For example, if you've got a web site selling drugs to kids over the internet, that's obviously not something you would want sold to your kid.
