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A PERUSAL OF THE BEAUTIFYING PRODUCTS ON THE SHELVES AT DRUG STORES REVEALS MUCH ABOUT THE SURROUNDING COMMUNITY.

Case in point: on display at the drugstore on the main drag of Jackson Heights, Queens one will find a dizzying array of Ayurvedic and homeopathic cleansers, lipstick in every shade (of red), kohl eyeliner in every shade (of black), and, shelf upon shelf of creams that guarantee a transformation of the consumer's brown skin into any shade (of white). Marketed to the local South Asian community, these products reflect less an urge to assimilate into white American society than the retention of a pervasive cultural preference in South Asia for fair skin.

In India, 60% of all beauty products sold are skin lightening agents. Women use at home treatments, such as Fair and Lovely Lightness Cream—India's best-seller—as nightly rituals and to supplement more intense bleaching treatments performed in salons. Damaging to the skin over a prolonged period, these harsh ammonia treatments sting a bit on application, but they produce the desired look: a skin tone "one to three shades" lighter than natural. Soaps with added sunscreen, like the popular International LUX brand, advertise protection not from the damaging and potentially skin cancer-inducing effects of the sun, but from its "darkening effect." The soap promises to give users the confidence to "venture out in bright sunlight and say: who's afraid of the sun!"

Discrimination on the basis of skin color is part of a larger system of caste hierarchy within India. Arguably, skin tone affects women's marketability for both marriage and white collar employment, a reality which has increasingly come under attack by advocates for women's rights, as well as activists for social equality in general. For American-born women of South Asian descent, a demographic whose image is both glorified and commodified by the faddish interest in "Bollywood" style, this question of skin tone arouses contentious debate. For some, the fair skin preference reflects a legacy of colonialism on the subcontinent, in which white skin was associated with European oppression but also power, access and social control. By this logic, the preference for fair skin among South Asians is a marker of post-colonial self loathing. Others see it simply as an aesthetic preference, such as Western society's blonde hair and a thin body. And who wouldn't want to embody a beauty ideal?

However, a Saturday afternoon stroll through Sephora rush hour reveals that it is not just South Asian women who are buying Lancome, Christian Dior and Estee Lauder's new glossy packaged versions of skin bleaching agents. Their "technological breakthrough skin brightening microcapsules" are selling broadly to Asians and non-Asians alike. Which raises the question, with half the white population tanning to achieve an 'I just returned from my resort vacation in St.Tropez' look, why would achieving a greater pallor be desirable? Perhaps what is really for sale on the shelves of the Sephora store is a commodity more coveted than either the porcelain complexion or bronze tan  (with all that these skin tones imply). Armed with the requisite disposable income, the consumer can buy the luxury of self-transformation, searching for her best possible self, and redefining "best" on a seasonal basis. With beauty treatments, as with clothing style, artifice and experimentation are ends in themselves and signify the luxury of choice.

For those who want them, skin lightening products have arrived at nearly every price point on the spectrum, from 99 cent soap to $140 night cream. Apparently, beauty trends themselves shift over time, but the ability to indulge in them never goes out of style.

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