White

My RA tells me that her family says she has been getting brighter (read whiter) since working with me. They wondered if I rubbed off on her each time we hugged goodbye? If this is the case then I am hoping her lovely brown skin would rub off on me too. Obviously this is not case but face cream to become a lighter whiter beauty are advertised widely here. Popular brands such as Garnier and Ponds pitch the ability of such creams to lighten dark spots. You can even measure the effectiveness of the lightening process by comparing your skin to the skin colour scale provided in the box. Its like choosing a skin color from a paint sample in the Home depot.
I was shocked when I first saw these advertisements, but really it exposes the other side of the same coin. Is lightening one's skin really that different from using bronzer or spray tan. One would argue that these are not as harmful as bleaching ones skin (as some women instead of getting whiter, kinda go a pinker colour where the chemical has burned her skin ) but what about baking under the sun's rays to achieve that desired glowing tan at the risk of skin cancer? It seems that the grass is always greener: As the west burn to be blacker, the east peels to be whiter.