Controversy Over Who Needs A Paler Va-Jay (VIDEO, PHOTOS)
Do your ladyparts need some sprucing up? Like, color-wise?
The Huffington Post | By Jessica Misener Posted: 04/12/2012 12:27 pm Updated: 04/12/2012 12:45 pm
Wait, what? We're soooo confused. But a new ad for an Indian skin lightening product called Clean and Dry Intimate Wash, spotted by Jezebel seems to answer that question with a big fat "DUH."
In the commercial, a couple lounges in their house, the man idly reading a newspaper while the woman pouts to herself because, clearly, he's ignoring her due to her dark-colored privates. Luckily, she gets ahold of Clean and Dry, which makes her vulva a few shades lighter, and her husband is happy-go-lucky again. Whew! Divorce averted. Skin lightening creams have a long and controversial history in India and Asia, including a spree of ads for the products that feature darker-skinned women who seem devastated over the fact that they're not Caucasian. A popular Bollywood actress shucked lightening cream for the Body Shop in ads that made her skin look multiple shades paler than it does in real life. Vaseline even launched a line of whitening creams -- and a phone app that lets you digitally lighten your skin -- in India. And women in Jamaica are making potentially dangerous bleaching creams with homemade ingredients.
Of course, some people think lightening creams shouldn't be a sociologically-charged issue, arguing that women who seek pale skin aren't any different than Caucasian women who want to be tan. (Or this article, which strangely argues that fair features are... easier to see?)
But regardless, when the ideal of light skin gets intimate, a beauty issue that's already controversial gets sexualized, and you end up with commercials like the one above that not-so-subtly blames your relationship problems on your skin t