Moving on from an obsession with whiteness

Skin whitening brand GlutaMAX's now-viral ad campaign. (Image: Preview)

On August 23, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria announced that the country will ban foreign models and voiceover artists from local advertisements beginning October 1. This new policy follows the Nigerian government’s push to develop more local talent and prevent an overrepresentation of white models.

Once enforced, the ban will expound on an existing tariff that fines advertisers NGN100,000 (around $235) per foreign talent. Ongoing campaigns with foreign talents will also be allowed to continue until the end of their current term, but “subsequent applications for exposure will not be granted.”

For years, many of the country’s adverts have starred and have been voiced by white talents, often with British accents. Steve Babaeko, president of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, told the Times UK that 10-20 years ago, commercials were almost “50/50 in terms of foreign faces” and that all voice overs were told with British accents.

However, that ratio is looking to change once the ban is officially enforced. Babaeko added that in the last eight-or-so years, there has been a kind of “renaissance” in which the young population has found a new sense of national pride. A new slogan for British agency AMV BBDO’s African campaign aptly reflects this shift in advertising—”Black Shines Brightest.”

Sounds about white

The overrepresentation of Western talents isn’t uncommon around the world, especially in former colonies. Historically, beauty standards celebrate whiteness as both beauty and superiority above all other races.

Nell Irvin Painter, an artist and historian known for her work The History of White People, said that it was important for early racial theorists to not only categorize races, but also to establish that their own was superior in all aspects. They were, needless to say, white and often male because they were the ruling class.

“They not only wanted the people they called 'their women' to be the most beautiful, and 'their men' to be the most virile. They wanted 'their countries' to have the best politics. So they wanted to have everything better. And that included beauty,” Painter said.

The result? People of color around the world, even hundreds of years after being colonized, are still yearning for whiteness.

Sound familiar, Filipinas?

While it’s true that colorism pre-dates European colonialism (read: Binukot in the Philippines), centuries of colonialism have evidently cemented Filipinos’ idea of beauty as whiteness.

This is seen in the skin whitening industry and the culture that fetishizes “halfies” for their European features.

The skin whitening industry’s success is a testament to colorism’s prominence. In 2004, it was an emerging market, but it continues to dominate grocery store shelves around the country today. Media featuring celebrities or models with mestiza features are common, and these same faces are awarded as winners in beauty pageants.

But our culture’s obsession with whiteness is also tied to an aspiration for a higher status in life. Whiter skin is not just a symbol of beauty, but also of class and power. In fact, this study shows that people from lower socioeconomic statuses are more likely to use skin whitening products in order to improve their situation.

Hence, the fetishization of AFAMs makes sense. People from lower socioeconomic classes aspire to rise above the conditions they face, and having white features—or having children who have them—is one indicator that they’ve “made it.”

Beauty in all colors

Fortunately, in recent years, more and more Filipinos have come to realize how exclusive the country’s beauty standards are. Multiple ads have been criticized for discriminating against people with darker skin tones.

The irony in these ads is that they seem to understand that people with darker skin are treated unfairly, but don’t want to change anything about it. It’s almost like these brands profit off people’s insecurities.

On TikTok, morena content creators like Ayn Bernos and Marj Maroket are vocal about the discrimination they’ve faced as Filipinos with darker skin. Conversely, they now use their platforms to empower people like them who have always been made to believe they aren’t beautiful.

It’s no secret that many, if not most, Filipinos still prefer lighter skin on themselves. Sure, it’s a preference, but those preferences weren’t shaped in a void.

The movement towards a more diverse definition of beauty isn’t calling for white, European features to be considered ugly; rather, it calls for people to rethink the status quo and restructure the system that influences so many of us to hate ourselves as we are.