Introducing Anthropology. Laura Pountney

it a marker of racial – not just class – distinction.

Today, cosmetics companies, through mass-mediated, star-studded advertising, reflect and reinforce these notions. While it is insightful to look at these historical and global trends, it’s also important to look at the users of skin-whitening products themselves. In the Philippines, many young men are motivated by perceived social and economic gain. Call centre agent Edwin, aged 20, for instance, says that whiter skin will make him ‘more attractive to girls’. Jose, for his part, wants to someday be a flight attendant, saying: ‘If you’re fair-skinned, you’re noticeable, and that gives you an advantage.’

      Their assumptions find empirical support in studies that suggest men with lighter skin are more likely to get higher-paid jobs. When young people who do not have academic credentials or social connections have only their bodies as ‘capital’, their pursuit of whiter skin becomes understandable. But from a public health perspective, the proliferation of whitening products raises questions of efficacy and safety. For all their promised effects, there’s actually no proof that many products actually work, and a lot of them have potentially grave side effects. Mercury, for instance, is a known toxin, but it’s still found in many skin-whitening products.

      Alongside these health concerns, the moral debate continues. Is skin colour, which is determined by genes, occupation and lifestyle, becoming another layer of inequality thanks in part to skin-whitening products? By illuminating the perspectives and lived experiences of people who lighten their skins, anthropology can help us understand the phenomenon of skin whitening – and the meanings of (un)fair skin.

       ACTIVITY

      Skin bleaching is the use of cosmetics lightening products on the skin to look lighter. This practice sometimes has negative effects and these side effects can have an impact on our body image and our self-image. Skin-lightening is an aesthetic practice of global concern. Conduct research on whitening skin practices in Mumbai, the Philippines, Jakarta, South Africa and other parts of the world, and answer the following questions:

       Why do people use skin lighteners?

       What are the dangers of skin lightening products?

       How much are media or companies that sell these products to blame?

       What do whitening pills, drinks, sprays, powders and lotions do for youth in the Philippines?

       What effects are they seeking?

       How can we understand the ways chemicals affect young bodies and minds?

       What is the lasting effect of skin bleaching, both physically and psychologically?

       What is skin bias?

       How can practice of skin whitening be linked to racism?

Body Types

      Body image in Fiji

      To be healthy, the body mass of the human body has to be within a certain range. If the body is particularly underweight or obese, it will be unhealthy. It could be argued that certain body types are more likely to produce healthy children and, therefore, that there may be an evolutionary explanation for why one body type may appear more attractive to the opposite sex. However, within the range of body shapes there is a wide variety of possibilities.

Anne Becker (1995) conducted fieldwork in Fiji and examined the cultural context of the embodied self through her ethnography of bodily aesthetics, food exchange, care and social relationships. She contrasts the cultivation of the body/self in Fijian society with that in the USA, arguing that the fascination of Americans with, and motivation to work on, moulding (shaping) their body as a personal effort is permitted by their notion that the self is individuated and autonomous. On the other hand, because Fijians concern themselves with the cultivation of social relationships expressed largely through nurturing and food exchange, they have a vested interest in cultivating others’ bodies rather than their own. So, while they pay careful attention to weight and appetite changes among community members, Fijians demonstrate a relative lack of interest in self-reflexive work on the body. Becker demonstrates how the individual body is communally observed, cared for, worked upon and interpreted in Fiji, and how it is in many ways regarded and experienced as a manifestation of its community rather than of the self. Fijian embodied experience not only reflects and includes community processes, but also at times overcomes the body’s physical boundaries. Becker’s study shows that other cultures may have very different ideas from those of Western culture of what the ‘ideal’ body should look like. The reasons for favouring one body type over another relate to social factors – for example, in Fiji, a woman who can work hard is valued, and strong calf muscles are an indication of that. In modern Western society, the mass media are very influential in forming ideals of body shape, as the body does not have the same importance in relation to work or reproduction.

Training the body in sport

Humans have a basic anatomy, and there are limits to what the body can do; for example, it cannot be trained to fly. Doing physical activities produces positive hormonal changes that result in feelings of wellbeing. In more competitive sports, people can experience an adrenaline rush, which is a pleasurable feeling. Within these limits, the body can be trained to do many things that are beyond the capabilities of most people. Sociologist Loïc Wacquant (2004) used participant observation to study boxing culture in the deprived area of Woodlawn, on the south side of Chicago, USA. He spent three years as an amateur boxer and joined the gym himself. He also conducted research on racial and class inequality in the city. In Western cultures, competitive sports are valued and so form a means for people to gain self-esteem. Many people from all social classes use sport as a vehicle for gaining a respected place in society. Wacquant found that many young men from disadvantaged backgrounds in society saw boxing as a way of doing something with their lives. They experienced many problems of racism and discrimination, and Wacquant found that sport was seen as a way out of the ghetto.

      Wheelchair basketball players must train their upper bodies and arms to become more adept at their sport. (Pierreselim / Wikimedia Commons)

Ideal male body type, size: Symbolic power

      The ethnographic record concerning body preferences in males is weak, yet preliminary research suggests a universal desire for a muscular physique and for a tall or moderately tall stature. Men tend to aspire to a muscular shape characterized by well-developed upper-body muscles and a slim waist and hips. Efforts to achieve this ideal body generally centre around exercise rather than diet. Large body size may serve as an attribute of attractiveness in men because it symbolizes health, economic success, political power and social status. ‘Big-Men’, political leaders in Highland New Guinea, are described by their constituents in terms of their size and physical wellbeing: a leader is a man ‘whose skin swells with “grease” (or fat) underneath’ (Strathern 1971). The spiritual power (mana) and noble breeding of a Polynesian chief are also expected to be reflected in his large physical size.

Sexy bodies

      A good example of the way people’s ideas about body shape are socially conditioned comes from anthropological research on the Matsigenka people from a remote area of south-eastern Peru (Yu and Shepard 1998). People here were not bombarded with images and ideas about conventionally attractive female body shapes. Yu and Shepard showed pictures of females with different body shapes to male members from this culture. The Matsigenka men favoured more rounded female bodies, arguing that slim-waisted females looked skinny and pale and were perhaps recovering from a bout of diarrhoea. The researchers then tested the perception of men who used to