Women's Studies 2161A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Skin Whitening, Frantz Fanon, Plastic Surgery

• School: Western University
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: Women's Studies 2161A/B
• Professor: Andrea Allen

Document Summary

Erica lawson: buying racial capital: skin-bleaching and cosmetic surgery in a globalized world. Skin bleaching: intentional alteration of one"s natural skin colour to one that is relatively or substantially lighter through use of skin bleaching products. Beauty discourse, public health discourse and new cosmetic surgery discourse. Skin bleaching is not new, embedded in old and emerging types of colonial discourses. Restore natural beauty of the skin (if it is lost or hidden) Create natural beauty (if the consumer never had it to begin with) Product holds out a promise that is shaped by race (new and old ideologies) Do different things to the body to make a statement according to personal taste and to reflect or challenge social expectations. Race body and darker skinned bodies are not fixed. Nothing biological about race, it is a social construct, we are produced into a racialized system.