Skin Whitening is Big Business in Bali. No Shit.

I am a fan of the sun. In fact, I suspect that I worshiped Ra and Apollo and other sun gods in my past lives. I have leathery old Yankee skin as a testament to my devotion. It has been years, eons, since I have actually sun bathed, but I walk a lot and swim whenever I get the chance and I like gardening, so I have had substantial exposure.

I have very mixed feelings about sun block as would any sentient being who has lived through the chemical miracles that turn into chemical nightmares of the past 50 years, Really, how can baking chemicals into your skin turn out all that well over time? Time will tell.

I admire the pale Irish beauties who have flawless skin and nary a wrinkle, but over all, I think a lot of white people look a bit bloodless. I equate health with rosy cheeks and high color.

I have gotten all fluffed up with righteous indignation seeing the cultural snobbery about upper class equating with being more white. You get that old shit in a lot of countries..Latin America, USA, Spain. We just perpetuate the class distinctions without even thinking about it.

All this being said, I bought some of the evil sun block in Thailand. As usual, I spent more time looking at the price than at the label. When I got to the beach and put it on my nose, I noticed that my nose had no color compared to my ruddy Irish skin. I checked out the sun block and it said "whitening" on it. Having a white nose on a tanned face was not my ideal so I went back to the market. Every skin product for face and hands had "whitening" ingredients. Everyone. Now, I think the Thai people have the most gorgeous skin and skin color. But, I think...fashion is very fickle. This must be this year's deal.

Then, one morning in Ubud, Bali, I mentioned this to a Balinese friend. She told me that skin whitening is a major industry in Bali. Major. She is in her early twenties. She said many of her friends spend a lot of money and countless hours and sometimes extreme pain whitening their skin. They not only buy many products, but get painful injections to accomplish this. I asked whether it was a class thing, maybe they didn't want to look like peasant laborers or rice farmers. She thought abut it and said, no, that wasn't it. That wasn't a thing here, a lot of the very wealthy were very dark, they just liked the look better.

It confounds me and challenges a lot of my ideas about race and class. Maybe it is really just the current idea of beauty. She and her friends couldn't believe that women in the USA go to tanning booths and lie around browning their skin. That idea made her laugh because in her world view they were paying money and time to get ugly.

We eventually concluded that women everywhere want what they don't have. She herself is very tiny, thin and graceful. She has been taking supplements and getting shots to gain weight. She thinks she looks funny so thin. Same I guess when people with straight hair work hard for curls and visa versa. We are all pretty weird.