"Malu": Coloring Shame and Shaming the Color of Beauty in Transnational Indonesia

Abstract

"Malu": Coloring Shame and ShamingtheColorofBeauty in Transnational Indonesia L. Ayu Saraswati In Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation in the world, skin whitening products are ranked highest among all revenue-generating prod ucts in the cosmetics industry.1 Unilever Indonesia spent IDR 97 billion ($10.4 million) in 2003 advertising just one of its skin-whitening creams.2 This sum is larger than the estimated IDR 72 billion spent on advertis ing anti-dandruff shampoo — the top product in the hair care industry.3 Indonesia is not anomalous in this regard: transnational corporations such as Unilever, L'Oreal, and Shiseido have aggressively marketed their skin whitening creams throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States.4 Skin-whitening products are available in Indonesia, the Philippines,5 Viet nam, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico, Malawi, Ivory Coast, the Gambia, Tanzania, Senegal, Mali, Togo, Ghana, Canada, and the United States. Even in countries where they have been banned due to medical or polit ical reasons—South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Kenya, for example — skin-whitening products continue to be circulated underground.6 Many skin-whitening products have been deemed medically danger ous7 because they contain illegal ingredients such as mercury or hydro quinone beyond the allowable 2 percent limit.8 Mercury can cause black spots, skin irritation, and in high dosages can cause brain and kidney Feminist Studies38, no. 1 (Spring 2012). © 2012 by Feminist Studies, Inc. H3 ii4 L. Ayu Saraswati damage, fetal problems, lung failure, and cancer; hydroquinone is known to cause skin irritation, nephropathy (kidney disease), leukemia, hepato cellular adenoma (liver cell adenoma), and ochronosis (adverse pigmenta tion). And yet, despite warnings that the chemicals in these products may cause harm, women — the target market and primary consumers of these products — continue to use them. Why are these products so popular even when they are known to be harmful? I am not the first to pose this question. Existing studies on the popularity of skin-lightening creams tend to focus on the political and racial meanings of these products within the context of colonialism and/ or transnationalism. In recent articles, ethnic studies scholar Evelyn Nakano Glenn and anthropologist Jemima Pierre both emphasize the need to situ ate the complexity of whitening practices within global racial formations.9 Historian Timothy Burke highlights the lack of agreement on the signifi cance of skin-lightening practices in modern Zimbabwe where local activ ists and traditionalists perceive it as a sign of the "colonization of the self," while others dismiss the relationship between colonialism and skin whiten ing by justifying the practice as an aspect of local tradition.10 In discuss ing South Africa, where skin-lightening products have been banned since 1991, historian Lynn Thomas argues that transnationally circulated anti racist values in twentieth-century South Africa framed skin lighteners as "immoral technologies of the self." 11 These debates are echoed throughout African-American, Mexican-American, and Asian-American communities as well.12 Other studies focus on media representations of skin-lightening creams and, less frequently, reference biological or psychological perspectives. Cul-tural studies scholar Radhika Parameswaran and journalist Kavitha Cardoza, who examine whitening advertisements in contemporary Indian women's magazines and on television, argue that these advertisements do not necessarily reflect women's desire to be racially white.13 Terry Kawashima, who examines advertising and visual media in Japan, comes to a simi lar conclusion, stating that only viewers with a "white-privileging" posi tion would argue that skin-whitening products reveal women's desire to be white.14 From biological and psychological perspectives, Nancy Etcoff suggests that a preference for lighter-skinned women may reveal the L. Ayu Saraswati 115 working of a "fecundity detector" whereby possible mates detect women's fecundity by looking at their skin color believing that young and ovulat ing women have lighter skin.15 She is not oblivious, of course, to the fact that women's skin-whitening practices are also related to racism.16 I propose to offer a different approach. Although I shall also situate whitening practices within a transnational context and query their polit ical and racial meanings, I have turned...