CAIRO: For decades people have been aspiring to be anything but themselves. In my native Britain, pop into a pharmacy at this time of year and you will notice that half the shop is dedicated to fake tan, tinted moisturizer and sunscreen. Granted, the last one hardly resembles a criminal offense, but let's be honest, a huge number of people who use sunscreen do so to help them work on their tan. The desire to be dark (but not too dark) in the UK stems, in part, from the class issues of times past. In the 19th century, the whiter your skin was, the more beautiful you were deemed to be because it implied that you stayed indoors all day and thus could afford not to work. When traveling became possible, however, the more tanned you were, the better. It was a manifestation of your wealth that advertised that you could afford to go on holiday. Here in Egypt, pop into the nearest supermarket and you can find an array of skin-whitening products that hold promises of making you feel like a regular Lindsay Lohan. That's where it comes from, right? The American-Arab relationship. On the one hand we, as Arabs see America as shallow and tyrannical, but despite ourselves, we want to spin into their gravitational range. Somehow we are, for the most part, oblivious to the fact that Americans with white skin aspire to have Arab-looking skin. There is, however, an even darker (ha) side to our never-ending quest to be anything but ourselves. How can “beauty” companies ensure that their customers continue to donate them their hard-earned cash? Brainwash people into believing something as beautiful as skin, is ugly. Skin is amazing, and the color that it happens to be is of less consequence than the size of your toes. But it is a fantastically convenient cover to hoodwink half the globe into submitting to the capitalist morality. Whatever color you are, the chances are it is the “wrong” color. If we can never be ideal then we will forever be spending money on chemicals that either bleach our skin or dye it, thus becoming one of the cogs that perpetuates the consumerist cycle of today. The icing on the cake is the fact that companies such as “Fair & Lovely” and “Be White” openly market their products as if using such poisonous swill is the morally superior thing to do. Their marketing techniques include slogans posted around Heliopolis that read “Be White, Be Better.” Remember the Fair & Lovely advertisement that depicted a failing designer at work? As soon as she used Fair and Lovely, the cocaine of the beauty world, her designs were suddenly fantastic, and, as she then says, she couldn't have done it without her principles. That's right. Fair and Lovely is a bastion of principles. Isn't it obvious from the Fairness Meter that you can find on their website? To be fair (and lovely), Egypt isn't the only country to fall prey to this ploy, many Asian, African and Caribbean countries face similar challenges. Wherever there are brown people, you can be sure to find Fair and Lovely. The marketing varies slightly; in the Middle East, Fair & Lovely holds promises of a better career, in all the Indian and Nepalese advertisements I have seen, Fair & Lovely swears that a tall, fair and handsome man will come and sweep you off your little white feet. The same man who didn't even notice you when you were darker. Shock, horror. So call an egg an egg. If a multinational corporation is going to exploit the insecurities of millions of women, then they ought to have the decency and the estrogen to do so with transparency. ‘Fair' and ‘lovely' are not mutually inclusive and they are certainly not synonymous. Being white is not better. Or worse. Your intelligence will not mysteriously increase upon putting cream on your skin. The most it could possibly do is increase your self-confidence by preying on an insecurity that probably would never have been born if the product didn't exist in the first place. Your skin protects you, so show a little reciprocity. Love your skin. BM
