If you're already dismissing the very real racism that POC experience, I would think long and hard before you have children. In mixed white/nonwhite relationships, the white parent can often be very clueless about the special kind of othering that their offspring is subjected to. Not to mention the racism that their…

Congratulations. I still don't buy the "naive European" thing and I don't by ignorance of offensiveness of blackface from any Westerner. I barely buy it from Asians or people from countries with no history of blackface because, as I said, there's no context where altering your appearance to appear to be a member of…

If they used blackface, then I'd think "that's racist". I'd also buy that they maybe didn't know it would be offensive, something which I absolutely do not buy from any Westerner. But, it's still offensive and racist, just like it would be offensive and racist for a Mexican person to tape the corners of their eyes…

Tell us more about who we should label as racist, white woman.

When I was a kid, we all dressed up as various important black people from history and gave little speeches about them in school. No one darkened their skin or wore wigs. I was MLK and I wore a nice suit. One kid was Tiger Woods and he dressed up like he was going golfing and held a golf club. Short answer to your…

Cue "white people" gifs. Only positive thing in articles like this.

Also possible, but then there's my cousin who's never been to America but they are convinced would pass for white despite my protests that neither of us could. Dunno, it's very weird.

Yeah, ostensibly that's not the reason why they want to appear lighter/have bigger eyes/smaller noses/blue eye/blonde hair and I am not saying that cultural beauty standards have no influence. I am saying that Western beauty ideals feed into and reinforce whatever ideas were already there about the desirability of…

omg, you're right. White women are not considered more beautiful than non-white women by the Western media. There is no white beauty ideal! Other countries are not exposed to our media and other countries have not been colonized by Europeans and been treated better or worse based on their skin tone. People are not…

Explain to me how I'm doing that, please. I am not reinforcing anything, I'm only acknowledging that white privilege exists and that people do things for reasons. No one passed judgment on all Asian women. Again, I am simply saying that this is a twofold problem. Yes, there are repressive beauty standards in Asian…

I dispute that the main reason CURRENTLY for the preference of light skin over dark skin in Asian countries is that light skin is associated with wealth or whatever it was historically associated with. Firstly because I have heard far more members of my family claim that they use skin lighteners because they want to…

You are getting that from me, because that's exactly what I'm saying. A+ reading skillz. And I am Asian, so there's that. I am not saying that POC are fixated on some white beauty ideal or that they think white people are better than them. I am saying that when a white beauty ideal permeates our (American) media and…

Never said it was. Of course other cultures have their own repressive beauty standards, but I don't think that they account for everything and I definitely don't like seeing white people claim that skin lightening and eyelid surgery is okay because toplel ancient oppressive Chinese beauty standards!! Then they don't…

Could be. Doesn't change the fact that there is a white, Western beauty ideal that reaches all corners of the globe and that skin lightening and eyelid surgery are a natural consequence of it.

Is it at all possible that these ancient beauty standards are being reinforced by the Western beauty ideals present in our media? Also, what do you have to say about the prevalence of Asians using colored circle-lenses and lightening their hair? Is there some ancient Chinese poem about colored contacts and bleach that…

I wouldn't say that a black woman straightening her hair is trying to look more "American". I would say that she's at least partially trying to appeal to the white beauty standard and that the white beauty standard is problematic. And I would say that Chen was trying to do the same thing, seeing as she SAID THAT SHE…

Thanks for articulating this. I think the privileged that's gained by altering our appearance to emulate the European beauty ideal is part of the reason we WOC are so reluctant to admit that that's what it really boils down too. I don't blame any WOC for trying to appeal to that standard because it's actually…

I know. Obviously. Of course they still prefer light skin, I was disputing the purported reason for it (ancient socioeconomic hierarchies).

She deff got a nose job with the eyelid surgery. And I think the whole "women looking better now then they did in they did as young women" phenomenon has to do with the general lack of horrible 80s hair/horrible 90s makeup. Also, photoshop.

Well, yeah I've seen that as well. But the prevalence of fake tan creams and tanning beds etc. makes me think that that most people aren't tanning because they want people to think they've been on vacation in the middle of spring semester. I don't know though, I don't tan either.