Colorism

Colorism is an offshot of racism, and is tied to beauty standards. It's based more on how pale or dark your skin is than your ethnicity.

Anyways, it seems like pale skin is universally favored over having darker skin, with the former being related to purity and nobility, and dark skin with the opposite. One thing of interest is skin whitening in East/South East Asia. Then there's the conflicting reports I've gotten about Japan in this case, where one person said that the treated the paler foreigners better (white Americans, Koreans, Russians, etc) than the darker skinned individuals (African American, South Asian, Brazilian). Along with this, it seems that this is the reason most anime/manga characters are pale skinned and are essentially Eurasian, and that darker skinned characters are rarer. Hell, most characters in the media are pale skinned.

Those are my observations, and just had to throw this out there.

I think that may be because many of us live in countries that are majority lighter-skinned, although I don't know where you live. :/ Have you maybe checked the standard in other countries, where darker skin is in the majority? :3

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I recall reading somewhere that Italian people find darker skin to be more attractive. I think it was on cracked. I'd also like to point out that while pale skin is a standard of beauty, it still has frequent competition with tan skin.

Fight smart, not fair.

In Indonesian TV at least, skin whitening commercial regularly appear. It might related to racism or might not, pale skin in southeast Asia is speculated meaning that you could afford to not work in the sun, so whiter skin = rich girl.

I believe the same thing occurred during before the industrial revolution. And then it switched when being rich meant you had time to work on a tan and your fitness. I'm personally an endorser of "whatever is harder to come by is more likely to be attractive" theory.

Fight smart, not fair.

~takes on a dim expression~

I don't care what you call racism, it's still racism.

You can dress up an mean old ugly dog in pretty little clothes, and at the end of the day it's still ugly and it'll still bite your face off.

I am now known as Flyboy.

Well, tans are widely considered more attractive than pale skin over here, although hopefully the skin cancer education campaigns are changing that.

But is that what 'colorism' is about, or does it have to be a genetic/inborn thing?

Be not afraid...

I don't have any citations for this, but I remember hearing somewhere that a really high proportion of black women who are considered attractive and/or voted onto "Most Attractive/Sexiest/Hottest" lists tend to have lighter skin and/or are mixed race. Basically, the black women considered most attractive are those closest to ideal caucasian beauty standards.

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Yeah, the beauty standard has a white bias, with the only diverstiy being that you can have a slightly darker skin, as long as you're otherwise like a white person.

Not much else to say. Except maybe that it's important to remind peoople not to blame people of color *

for colorism, it's just internalized racism.

the statement above is false

Or to put it another way, they are racist towards their own race?

Keep Rolling On

Racism, by definition (unless you use a Personal Dictionary) comes from a place of privilege. White is privileged. With colorism, POC use white racist thinking of beauty standards against their own color.

the statement above is false

I'd think that racism would merely be "prejudice/bias on the basis of an arbitrary/unjustified qualifier, namely race." Being an -ism and all.

Seeing as, a poor white man can be racist against a rich black man, even if the latter probably has more privileges than the former...

I am now known as Flyboy.

Or the Reverse, a Black Man can be racist towards a White Man (or any other race towards any other race), especially if you're in a place where Blacks are a majority.

Keep Rolling On

That, too.

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Consider the following:

Tans became popular in later 20th century North America at the advent of affordable international flight. A tan meant you could afford to tavel to warm and sunny place and get a tan.

edited 21st Dec '11 5:57:32 AM by Erock

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Not just that but rich socialites were getting them as well. Before the 20th Century getting a tan was a sign of being poor because you had to work most of the day out in the sun.

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RE: Black on white racism. No, that's just prejudice. The lack of racial privilege means that there isn't a silent cultural support for your prejudice.

I'm no scholar on this, but here's a good overview on it.

[ed.] RE: Tans, it was Coco Chanel who popularized it. Of course, in her case it was a even, bronze tan, not a sunburnt, red farmer's tan that ends where the clothes start.

edited 21st Dec '11 7:49:42 AM by JethroQWalrustitty

the statement above is false

So you're saying only Whites can be racist, even when they are in the minority?

Keep Rolling On

My extreme semantics argument radar is beeping.

I am now known as Flyboy.

Well from what I've learned or seen, beauty is typically held in the hands of the privileged. So if you look more like the privileged, then you are more "beautiful".

So in Asian countries being paler means you didn't work in the sun.

In contrast, in North America tanned skin means you could afford to go on vacations.

And generally speaking, white people are generally going to be more privileged than darker skin people (ie. white Americans are generally more privileged than black people from Sudan). So you're likely to have more bias toward looking like the more privileged people.

Anyway, I generally agree with that theory of beauty.

The europeanization of the beauty standard is one of the many awful legacies of colonialism, and I hate it.

This was going through my head when I was writing the OP.

This may be of interest. It answers why the majority of characters in anime and manga are pale skinned and seem to have European features along with East Asian ones.

It at least rang true for me when it comes to Bleach...

edited 21st Dec '11 5:01:25 PM by redandblack64

I think I remember reading about this. :/ It's because for one, anime is usually really simplified, so the features kind of mix together. Two, they don't really see those features as European, really. :/ In a lot of shows that they actually give the characters enough features to make them distinct racially, many of the characters look East Asian. :/

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I'm actually pretty saddened when I think about the implications of Anime using white characters.

It's also pretty disturbing that we see, like, zero non-white main characters in western productions, even when it would make more sense for the characters to be something other than white.

About anime characters, it seem most western perceive them as "European" because of the big eyes. However, this doesn't seem how the Japanese themselves see them (or, rather, they don't perceive themselves as having small eyes). Characters who are actually meant to be Europeans tend to have vastly different features (eyes included). Usually bigger jaws.

I would also like to add that, over here, "white skin" is generally viewed as "better". However, our definition of white seems to be much broader then those of European and North Americans (minus Mexico). Furthermore, too white is seem as ugly as well. The ideal is at last slightly tanned. Sometimes downright Ambiguously Brown (specially for women).