Indonesian Beauty Products in The Thread of Colorism

Nowadays, Indonesian citizen seems to be really sticked to beauty products, especially for women which are presumably the largest consumers. Many cosmetic and skincare products boomed in just a tick of time, as a result of how fast the social media promotion is. 

Many claim to have skin-plumping, whitening, anti-aging agents on their products as an attraction to people. Get attracted, people started a huge-buying and promoting those products. As a result, cosmetic dan skincare are becoming hot topics, and many beauty industries grow sky-high fast. Not to be excluded, the small businesses who grow their own. How good are those claims actually, and how are these affect our society?

In fact, the claims that they made to attract people are not all deceiving. These products really contain active agents that can make your skin better, usually contains skin-lightening agent. They are used to heal hyperpigmentation on skin, or just used to achieve lighter skin stone as a fact that lighter skin tone symbolizes wealth, health, youth, and/or beauty in some cultures including Indonesia. 

So, do people with ‘darker’ skin tone not considered as good as those words be?

The enthusiasm for skin whitening agents originated in the 1960s, an incidental discovery by black skins US workers exposed to this agent in the rubber industry on a daily basis. The use of whitening agents may be driven by dermatological needs. Therapeutic uses of whitening agents include treatment of hyperpigmentation, skin afflictions, and freckles. 

But nowadays, these practices are used more to reach the aesthetic and symbols as white skin tone is often associated with youth, clean, wealth as for dark skin is associated with lower social classes. 

This obsession can be a backfire since it can lead to major health issues, largely due to the high concentrations in the used compounds. One side, they are good for treating hyperpigmentation, but on the other, it could create a thread of colorism for the society.

Colorism itself can be defined as the ‘preference’ to people with lighter skin color. It is a form of discrimination in which people are treated differently based on their skin color. Colorism can be categorized as a type of racism. As stated in the last paragraph, beauty products with whitening agents could create a thread of colorism. 

Furthermore, there isn’t a lot of beauty brands in Indonesia that don’t mention the term ‘whitening’. The term itself is like an obligatory to add to product description. If not added, then the products won’t sell as much as the added.

Sadly, this trend is supported by the people. Looking back into the past, Indonesian people have really grown into the mindset that people with darker skin tones-which actually the skin color for Indonesian-are not seen as high as the lighter one in the term of society. We are colonized by people who have lighter skin tones, got slavery issues here and there, and those facts might add up as to why most of us consider people with lighter skin tones are ‘better’.

Not only whitening agents are dangerous if used in a high concentration, it also brings up colorism issues. Beauty brands should be more aware of these kinds of issue, and make their products friendly to all skin colors. People should also educate themselves on why we are all beautiful in our own ways. Light-skin features are beautiful, and so as dark-skin. No skin color is above another, and lastly, we are all gorgeous with our own features.