Week 1 Blog: Skin Lightening

          Along with many others who read the skin lightening article titled "Yearning for Lightness" by Evelyn Glenn, existing in chapter 6 of E&Z's Globalization, I, too, was taken aback by the growing use of cosmetic products to alter one's skin tone.  Having lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life and being of Irish/English ancestry my skin tone is naturally a pale white.  I guess my skin tone is the goal for many women around the world who are purchasing these lightening products.  I now feel guilty for the many hours spent on the beach with tanning oil on, trying to get the perfect golden look.
          In American pop culture there's an attractiveness that comes with being tan.  When my friends go on vacation for 2 weeks and finally return home, the first thing I say to them is, "Wow! You're so tan," and it's a big compliment.  I found it extremely interesting when one of my seminar group mates said that as Americans we are strongly business and capital oriented, thus, if you have worked hard enough to be able to afford a vacation and go somewhere where there's a high UV level that means you're wealthy.  This got me thinking, are American's just as obsessive and fret worthy when it comes to changing their natural skin tone?  Do we tan ourselves to look wealthy just as other countries are investing in these lightening products to look wealthy?  Or is it a deeper rooted issue in racial status?

          If I had unlimited funds and time, I would investigate the true purpose of altering skin tones.  I would interview people and ask them why they use these lightening products.  I would also bring studies back home and ask people why they value being tan.  I would be interested in seeing how results from each region compared and if they were truly rooted in the heightening of one's socioeconomic statuses.  While it may be a good idea to ban these acts of skin tone altering I for the purpose of decreasing racial supremacy,  I have a hard time taking away people's right to look the way they desire.  I feel as if it's important for people to be comfortable in their own skin (literally) and taking that away from them is just not what America or the world should be about.