White Out

Today, I went shopping to get things for my new place.  As I meandered down aisle after aisle of colorful labels with foreign characters I noticed a few familiar labels with a slight twist:  seaweed flavored Pringles, and Trident taro flavored gum.  I was on a hunt for lotion – because the sweet-smelling lotion I brought seemed to attract flies and mosquitos and had to go.  I began exploring the gigantic aisle of lotions and came across a few familiar brands and some new ones.  I started to place the lotion in my cart, and then noticed something written on the label: “Whitening Repair Lotion.”  Wait, what?!

After doing more searching, I found that nearly all of the lotions in the store had this “UV Whitening” label on the bottle.  It turns out, here in Thailand, people bleach their skin to make it appear whiter.  These lotions contained a bleach product that worked to lighten skin gradually over time.  I thought this was ridiculous when I first saw it.  And then I realized that my strong reaction was because in the United States, people do the opposite.  We pay to sit in tanning beds and soak up artificial sunlight in the hope that we will be darker. 

We have “browning lotions” that gradually over time turn our skin darker…and here they desire the opposite!  I quickly learned after a trip up to my pool on the 26^th floor, that Thais refuse to sit in the sun – and the only people sunning by the pool were foreigners.  And the reason many Asian women bring umbrellas with them in the sun, is so they can protect themselves from getting a tan!  Certainly a change in culture!