Once primarily sold in markets and beauty stores, skin-lightening products have exploded in their availability online and today, they are pervasive on every major social media platform.
On Facebook and Instagram, vendors hawk creams and serums that promise lighter skin yet offer scant information about the products themselves, while on YouTube and TikTok you can find thousands of tutorials by people promoting potent products or home remedies without qualifications that support their claims. On TikTok alone, the hashtag #skinwhitening has over 254 million views, while #skinlightening has another 62 million.
Over the years, Benson has treated many people experiencing skin issues following the use and misuse of skin-whitening products, including many women who have purchased them on social media. She is concerned that social media platforms are helping people perpetuate colorist ideals — the belief that lighter skin is associated with beauty, success and often also wealth — and that they are now also providing a marketplace for the products to act on these ideals.
Previous research on other forms of media show a strong influence on colorism, explained Amanda Raffoul, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard’s public health incubator STRIPED, who is studying the way these products are promoted on TikTok. “But there’s little known about how (skin-lightening) products are promoted across social…
Source : cnn
