For decades, the beauty industry has controlled what the idea of beauty is. Traditionally the ideal woman was a skinny, fair skinned, light-haired(usually), doe-eyed, young looking woman.

In this paper, Aishah Khan explores the history and culture behind skin whitening.

Skin-whitening is an age-old phenomenon which has been adopted by white women as well as women of colour as early as 1600 in Japan (Ashikari, 89, 2005) and 1889 in the United States (Mire, par.2, 2005). It is a practise which incites controversy, not only because it is questionable that women across ethnicities wish to appear white and consume these products, but there are also serious health risks that arise due to the use of skin-whitening products…