Lecture 3 : What we do to our skins. Professor Lester M. Davids [Lesterdavids@gmail.com] January 2017
TATTOOS EPIDERMIS DERMIS HYPODERMIS
TATTOOS...a lasting inscription, conveying the importance of belonging, commemoration and protection...can declare a person s affiliation to a social unit. are permanent and can never regain the unmarked clarity of infancy in the West during the earlier centuries, came to associate it with disreputable and marginal elements of society such as prisoners and prostitutes
today, influenced by celebrities, they are the most popular form of skin art an estimated 80 million people sport some sort of ink people who decide to get them, generally have no regrets they are undertaken after much deliberation and forethought they explicitly lack the transience of the souvenir t- shirt or temporary hair colour Mellisa often statements of romantic affiliation with a symbol or a lover s name
DESIRING DARKNESS : TANNING Two types of skin darkening Immediate Pigment Darkening (IPD) Facultative
RECREATIONAL TANNING + Source : Wikipedia Source : CANSA Sunbeds = 97% UVA; 3% UVB Habitual use of sunbeds under the age of 18 yrs increases RISK of skin cancer 28 Million Americans use artificial UV tanning Sunbed users increase RISK of SKIN CANCER by 2-3 fold >250 000 British children aged between 11-17 yrs use artificial UV tanning Certain areas of Britain, 50% of females between 11-17 yrs use artificial UV tanning
ASPIRING TO LIGHTNESS SKIN BLEACHING/SKIN LIGHTENING
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? "I've been black and dark-skinned for many years, I wanted to see the other side. I wanted to see what it would be like to be white and I'm happy"? I'm not white inside, I'm not really fluent in English, I have black kids. I'm a township girl, I've just changed the way I look on the outside" Nomasonto "Mshoza" Mnisi
ASPIRING TO LIGHTNESS : SKIN LIGHTENERS/ SKIN BLEACHES/SKIN WHITENING I believed that being fair was pretty. I used some creams then that everyone knew would lighten the skin. It was fine at first. Later, I noticed patches of my face getting darker. Now I have really dark marks around my cheeks, caused by the skin lightener. I m trying to sort it out with the help of a dermatologist, Hlengiwe Khuzwayo, Kenya IN MANY PARTS OF AFRICA AND ASIA, LIGHTER-SKINNED WOMAN ARE CONSIDERED MORE BEAUTIFUL, ARE BELIEVED TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL AND MORE LIKELY TO FIND MARRIAGE PARTNERS. I love it and wish I could swim in it. I travel to many Eastern countries and I get attention because I am now so light-skinned. I wasn t fair and didn t feel pretty enough. Now I feel beautiful and I know people are looking at me because I look so much whiter Ms Govender, SA Indian CONGOLESE HAIR STYLIST JACKSON MARCELLE SAYS HE HAS BEEN USING SPECIAL INJECTIONS TO BLEACH HIS SKIN FOR THE PAST 10 YEARS. EACH INJECTION LASTS FOR SIX MONTHS. "I PRAY EVERY DAY AND I ASK GOD, 'GOD WHY DID YOU MAKE ME BLACK?' I DON'T LIKE BEING BLACK. I DON'T LIKE BLACK SKIN"
SKIN LIGHTENERS : THEIR USES CLINICAL ASPECT Vitiligo Ephelides (Freckles) Lentigo Melasma
HYDROQUINONE (1,4 DIHYDROXYBENZENE) <2% allowed clinically The BIG 4! MERCURY (1ppm allowed) TOPICAL STEROIDS (Betamethasone and Clobetasol propionate) RETINOIDS
35% SOUTH AFRICAN WOMEN
EXOGENOUS OCHRONOSIS - HQ, phenolic compounds, quinine-based anti-malarials, picric acid and mercury I believed that being fair was pretty. I used some creams then that everyone knew would lighten the skin. It was fine at first. Later, I noticed patches of my face getting darker. Now I have really dark marks around my cheeks, caused by the skin lightener. I m trying to sort it out with the help of a dermatologist, Hlengiwe Khuzwayo, Kenya
ILLUMINATING TEXTS Sarah Nuttall, Subjectivities of Whiteness Lynn Thomas Entangled Bodily Discourses: Black Consciousness and Biomedical Opposition to Skin Lighteners in Apartheid South Africa and Beyond Nina G. Jablonski, Skin: A Natural History colorism pigmentocratic society Evelyn N. Glenn, Yearning for Lightness ; Consuming Lightness, Shades of Differences Ronald Hall, The Bleaching Syndrome internalised Western light skin as the ideal standard of beauty Yetunde Olumide, The Poor Bleach, the Middle Class Lighten
Education is the KEY!! CHALLENGES - Popular Press - Seminars/Public Talks UNDERSTAND Advertising agencies/cosmetic companies : need a Watchdog organisation CTFA? Change in Self-image PREVENTION..OR CONTROL Cosmetic ethics and legislature
FINALLY. LOVE THE SKIN YOU RE IN!!.....IT S YOUR CHOICE MAKE IT WISELY! Thanx!