Abstract
Skin whitening has evolved into a worldwide phenomenon and assumed to be related to historical, cultural, and socioeconomic factors. In the following study, the national context of Suriname is linked with the global system of power. Information was obtained about the reasons for using bleaching cosmetics. Differences were found between ethnic groups in Suriname in the frequencies of using bleaching cosmetics and their perceptions of skin color. This is considered to be the key to understanding the perceptions of color and related identities in the intraethnic as well as the interethnic relations at the levels of both the national and global society
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Notes
- 1.
Quijano and Ennis state that both “Race” and the category “White” probably have an Anglo-American origin. The Iberian Europeans were by and large more familiar with African people before the colonial conquest of the Americas. “Race” was applied first on indigenous people in South America and was used prior to “Color” in the classification of the world population (Quijano and Ennis 2000, 575).
- 2.
Westerhof (2007) argues that we need to be cautious when using pigmentation as a proxy for genetic ancestry or race. “Objective measures of pigmentation fail to correlate with race. The conclusion is that skin color is not the same thing as race.”
- 3.
Ideological reasons to change the definition of race categories are also common in the postcolonial society. In Suriname, the definition of Creole changed, both before and after the Second World War. For instance, the censuses of 1964 and 1971 broadened the concept of Creole by adding the Mixed group and Negroes in urban and rural areas.
- 4.
Norman Girvan (2001) distinguishes seven definitions of the Caribbean, based on different criteria. These range from a narrow geographical criterion to geopolitical to sociohistorical criteria. This definition includes the three Guianas and both the Deep South in the USA and northeastern Brazil. Some schools of thought, including the “plantation economy” school, often apply this sociohistorical conceptualization of the Caribbean.
- 5.
In this chapter we use the words bleaching and whitening as synonyms. However, in recent papers and advertisements there is a tendency to make a distinction between skin whitening and skin bleaching. Skin whitening refers to the use of less potent products with fewer side effects. The cosmetic industry consequently refers to skin whiteners. The pharmaceutical industry and physicians mostly speak of skin-bleaching agents, generally indicating more potent products with potentially serious side effects.
- 6.
Ochronosis is a paradoxical effect with the bleached skin becoming darker rather than achieving the desired whitening.
- 7.
Creoles in Suriname are dark-skinned people of predominant Afro-American [African American] origin in the coastal region, who are generally considered to be descendants of the free slaves. The meaning of “Creole” (Spanish criollo) changed over time and has no identical meaning in different multiethnic societies. Originally, criollo referred to descendants of Spanish whites or near whites in colonial South America. In Suriname, the meaning of the creool (Dutch) resembles the concept of “Creole negroes” by Henry Koster (1816) in Brazil, which refers to “the free negroes who had been born in the country and being of African descent, made no claim to be racially mixed” (Hoetink 1971, 33). However, in present Suriname, many Creole persons claim not to be pure African.
- 8.
The fluidity of ethnicity is also reflected in the variety of (sometimes competing) discourses that may exist within a particular ethnic group. In some of these discourses, there is a thin line between race and ethnicity, when members of a particular ethnic group strongly emphasize the notion of race, which may occur when a growing rivalry is perceived to exist with another important ethnic group.
- 9.
Ethnicity was assessed by the respondent’s perception of the ethnic group to which she belongs.
- 10.
The mixed group comprises those who subjectively perceive that they are “mixed,” as they do not consider themselves to be a member of one particular and recognized ethnic group.
- 11.
In 1999, a middle income was less than Sfl 200,000 per month and higher-income earners had over Sfl 200,000 per month. At the time of the survey in September 1999, the exchange rate was 1 US$ = 1,565 Surinamese guilders (Sfl).
- 12.
Only one of the eight persons in the case studies in the next section of this article consulted a medical doctor.
- 13.
Initially, nine persons were selected purposively with focus on negative implications of bleaching cosmetics. There was a nonresponse of six. This means that three persons remained. By applying a snowball method, two other friends of the informants were identified and who used bleaching cosmetics with the purpose to improve their skin or the skin color. Finally, three persons with skin disorders, using bleaching cosmetics, were identified at a teach-in of a beauty consultant.
- 14.
The diagnosis of ochronosis was backed by the detailed aspect of the hyperpigmentation, as viewed under a magnifying glass. Ochronosis is the bluish black discoloration of certain tissues, such as the ear cartilage and the ocular tissue, seen with alkaptonuria, a metabolic disorder. Additionally, ochronosis can occasionally occur from exposure to various substances such as hydroquinone. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1104184-overview.
- 15.
Global cosmetic centers, located in the North Atlantic and southern metropoles, are industries related to powerful networks of political institutions, businesses, and culture with professional information and research facilities, which are strongly promoting and disseminating a sort of standard Eurocentric global culture.
- 16.
These are the first and second verses of the 1960s song Banho de Lua. Nowadays, Banho de Lua is the name of a Brazilian whitening package that is sold in many Brazilian beauty salons in Paramaribo, Suriname.
- 17.
In Surinamese Hindi, ketná means “how much” and safá means “fair.”
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Menke, J. (2013). From Fair & Lovely to Banho de Lua: Skin Whitening and Its Implications in the Multiethnic and Multicolored Surinamese Society. In: Hall, R. (eds) The Melanin Millennium. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4608-4_20
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