It looks like Great Britain from the product labels, but wow...
Dangger — August 6, 2008
Is it very hard to write light, instead of normal? The concept of white/light being good and black/dark being bad has a lot to do with normal and deviant.
Will — August 6, 2008
Hate to contradict, but doesn't this actually imply that "normal" is somewhere in the middle between dark and light? Because they should have a corresponding product that goes "normal to lighter skin" in the opposite direction. If this bottle is meant to cover lighter to darker skin, then why would they label it at all? That would be pretty much the whole spectrum.
Liz — August 6, 2008
First, I am appalled at what is "normal." However, doesn't it seem maybe a little ironic to be talking about white skin as "normal" skin when men and women are buying products that make their skin darker? Things like this make it clear that being white or "normal" doesn't have much to do with skin color.
Penny — August 6, 2008
Memo to Johnson & Johnson: "Normal" isn't a color, or a shade of any color. It's also not the opposite of "dark" or "light."
I think the word we'd usually see used in this context in the US is "medium." Not nearly so loaded; probably still not ideal, though.
Lauren — August 6, 2008
Will; isn't it just as ridiculous to assume that 'normal' means a skin-tone between dark and white? The point is that no skin tone is 'normal'. As silly as phrases like 'healthy tan'.
Besides, 'normal' doesn't actually even tell you what type/level of tan you'd be getting; I thought products like these would used more descriptive (and still perhaps problematic) terms like 'golden', 'beige', 'bronzed', 'espresso', etc.
All the phrase actually does is highlight what Johnson&Johnson consider to be abnormal.
pamela — August 6, 2008
Maybe it just means "normal" to the untanned skin of the user (without specifying color). My body has skin that is lighter and darker in places, and yet there is a "norm" or perhaps I should say "standard" that is neither hidden from the sun (my rear) or over exposed to sun (my driver arm). Like, say, my face. Those whose skin is darker than even my darkest skin also have gradations, and therefore a "norm."
Just something to think about.
Anonymous — August 9, 2008
lisa, Dannger, Liz, Lauren, everyone. This is the thought police speaking. We are off-duty today, so will everyone please chill out?
Will in the comment above nailed it. In an admittedly bad choice of words, J&J just meant that normal is somewhere between light and dark.
The brits must be less PC than y'all. Good for them. By the way, in Israeli academic society, people freely refer to black people as "black" and to homosexuals as "homosexual" or "homo". It's only bigotry if people are bigots. All PC does is to make people keep their bigotry on the inside. Try asking some black people, in the enlightened American society, if they find it easy to hail a cab.
elad-vav — August 9, 2008
last comment it by me.
K — August 10, 2008
Will is right in his assumption: there is a version labelled "fair to normal skin". It's on my bathroom shelf. The bottles of the two versions are an identical primrose yellow; only the band is slightly darker on the version in the photo (and it's similar enough to cause confusion).
Speaking as a Brit, I wouldn't say we're necessarily less PC, but outside of London the country is vastly less multicultural than the US appears to be. It may be that the product developers at Johnson and Johnson simply haven't considered that anyone who isn't white would want to buy a tanning product. (And I'm not sure - speaking as a white woman, and therefore fairly ignorant - whether they would. Acquaintances who have a southern Asian background have complained that by their parents' standards, lighter skin is considered more beautiful.)
I would agree it's a bad choice of words, but I'm not sure what to propose as a better one. I wouldn't have selected "fair"; I usually describe myself as "pale", but maybe that's not ad-speak.
The "fair to normal" version does not exactly produce a dramatic colour change. Despite this, the product was often hailed as a bestseller in the UK press last summer.
stop complaining — September 30, 2008
normal, as is your own normal skin tone. the tone you have right now. not generally, the product is not trying to group together a certain "acceptable" skin tone. it is saying it will make whatever your current skin tone is darker if you use it.
On skin colour, ethnicity, and society at large | Toban Black — November 2, 2008
[...] at the skin coloured blog - “normal to darker skin” [via Sociological Images] (A photo of a bottle of “body [...]
Stunning Example of the Neutrality of Whiteness » Sociological Images — November 30, 2009
[...] See our post on “flesh-colored” for these examples and more. See also this post on lotion for “normal to darker skin.” [...]
Women Can Wear Men’s Shirts, but Men Cannot Wear Women’s » Sociological Images — December 18, 2009
[...] male neutrality in stick figures (here and here), male-default avatars, flesh-colored products, for normal to darker skin, Michelle Obama’s “flesh-colored” gown. 43 Comments Tags: [...]
B*tch, please — June 13, 2010
I'm "fair to normal" in the UK, and "light to medium" in the U.S. If they had a "burns like a lobster in the sun, will have skin cancer by 40," I'd buy that.
katie — October 20, 2010
i think this one just means YOUR normal skin tone to a darker skin tone in respects to the person, personally, who is using the product..
The Many Controversies of Beyoncé Knowles « Baking With Ex Mix — May 7, 2011
[...] dress” coverage here and here. (Still don’t believe me that this is a thing? Go buy this Johnson’s lotion for “normal to darker [...]
adi — January 1, 2012
oh fuck that. normal= white. fuck that
Steve — February 25, 2012
Are we sure that this isn't designed to turn your skin tone from ITs "normal'' to a "darker" tone?
PANK Blog / On Feeling Red: a failed essay about eczema, riots, Mesut Özil and Zinedine Zidane, the Belarus Free Theatre, neoliberalism, austerity and the Eurozone, KLM Airlines, Derek Jarman, Mary Magdalene, clingy women, feminist killjoys, melancholic — June 28, 2012
[...] uniform in tone and pigmentation, the standard of which being, of course, the-lighter-the-better (the beauty product description of “normal to dark skin”, dark skin being apparently abnormal; not to mention the use of skin lightening creams, which many [...]
anaisninja — October 22, 2012
I may be fair-skinned, but "normal?" C'mon Johnson & Johnson - Evolve.
Yo — October 28, 2015
Is there a hex color code for this "normal" you speak of??? I want to know if I qualify, or if I am too green
Liana — December 6, 2018
All of y'all need to chill out. Sure this may be offensive to some people but J&J means that if your let's say pale it will make you a shade or two darker. Or if your already pretty dark you will still get darker. It's your own skin tone, your own version of normal. But since we are human and therefore have our own opinions, everyone will find something that is "wrong" with anything. I can't blame y'all but maybe we could learn something from the Israeli Academic System. I'm not trying to be rude, but I am trying to tell the truth.
Sociological Images encourages people to exercise and develop their sociological imaginations with discussions of compelling visuals that span the breadth of sociological inquiry. Read more…
Comments 30
Holly — August 6, 2008
Wow. Just wow.
harrietsdaughter — August 6, 2008
Is that in the U.S.?
Bob M. — August 6, 2008
It looks like Great Britain from the product labels, but wow...
Dangger — August 6, 2008
Is it very hard to write light, instead of normal? The concept of white/light being good and black/dark being bad has a lot to do with normal and deviant.
Will — August 6, 2008
Hate to contradict, but doesn't this actually imply that "normal" is somewhere in the middle between dark and light? Because they should have a corresponding product that goes "normal to lighter skin" in the opposite direction. If this bottle is meant to cover lighter to darker skin, then why would they label it at all? That would be pretty much the whole spectrum.
Liz — August 6, 2008
First, I am appalled at what is "normal." However, doesn't it seem maybe a little ironic to be talking about white skin as "normal" skin when men and women are buying products that make their skin darker? Things like this make it clear that being white or "normal" doesn't have much to do with skin color.
Penny — August 6, 2008
Memo to Johnson & Johnson: "Normal" isn't a color, or a shade of any color. It's also not the opposite of "dark" or "light."
I think the word we'd usually see used in this context in the US is "medium." Not nearly so loaded; probably still not ideal, though.
Lauren — August 6, 2008
Will; isn't it just as ridiculous to assume that 'normal' means a skin-tone between dark and white? The point is that no skin tone is 'normal'. As silly as phrases like 'healthy tan'.
Besides, 'normal' doesn't actually even tell you what type/level of tan you'd be getting; I thought products like these would used more descriptive (and still perhaps problematic) terms like 'golden', 'beige', 'bronzed', 'espresso', etc.
All the phrase actually does is highlight what Johnson&Johnson consider to be abnormal.
pamela — August 6, 2008
Maybe it just means "normal" to the untanned skin of the user (without specifying color). My body has skin that is lighter and darker in places, and yet there is a "norm" or perhaps I should say "standard" that is neither hidden from the sun (my rear) or over exposed to sun (my driver arm). Like, say, my face. Those whose skin is darker than even my darkest skin also have gradations, and therefore a "norm."
Just something to think about.
Anonymous — August 9, 2008
lisa, Dannger, Liz, Lauren, everyone. This is the thought police speaking. We are off-duty today, so will everyone please chill out?
Will in the comment above nailed it. In an admittedly bad choice of words, J&J just meant that normal is somewhere between light and dark.
The brits must be less PC than y'all. Good for them. By the way, in Israeli academic society, people freely refer to black people as "black" and to homosexuals as "homosexual" or "homo". It's only bigotry if people are bigots. All PC does is to make people keep their bigotry on the inside. Try asking some black people, in the enlightened American society, if they find it easy to hail a cab.
elad-vav — August 9, 2008
last comment it by me.
K — August 10, 2008
Will is right in his assumption: there is a version labelled "fair to normal skin". It's on my bathroom shelf. The bottles of the two versions are an identical primrose yellow; only the band is slightly darker on the version in the photo (and it's similar enough to cause confusion).
Speaking as a Brit, I wouldn't say we're necessarily less PC, but outside of London the country is vastly less multicultural than the US appears to be. It may be that the product developers at Johnson and Johnson simply haven't considered that anyone who isn't white would want to buy a tanning product. (And I'm not sure - speaking as a white woman, and therefore fairly ignorant - whether they would. Acquaintances who have a southern Asian background have complained that by their parents' standards, lighter skin is considered more beautiful.)
I would agree it's a bad choice of words, but I'm not sure what to propose as a better one. I wouldn't have selected "fair"; I usually describe myself as "pale", but maybe that's not ad-speak.
The "fair to normal" version does not exactly produce a dramatic colour change. Despite this, the product was often hailed as a bestseller in the UK press last summer.
stop complaining — September 30, 2008
normal, as is your own normal skin tone. the tone you have right now. not generally, the product is not trying to group together a certain "acceptable" skin tone. it is saying it will make whatever your current skin tone is darker if you use it.
On skin colour, ethnicity, and society at large | Toban Black — November 2, 2008
[...] at the skin coloured blog - “normal to darker skin” [via Sociological Images] (A photo of a bottle of “body [...]
Stunning Example of the Neutrality of Whiteness » Sociological Images — November 30, 2009
[...] See our post on “flesh-colored” for these examples and more. See also this post on lotion for “normal to darker skin.” [...]
Women Can Wear Men’s Shirts, but Men Cannot Wear Women’s » Sociological Images — December 18, 2009
[...] male neutrality in stick figures (here and here), male-default avatars, flesh-colored products, for normal to darker skin, Michelle Obama’s “flesh-colored” gown. 43 Comments Tags: [...]
B*tch, please — June 13, 2010
I'm "fair to normal" in the UK, and "light to medium" in the U.S. If they had a "burns like a lobster in the sun, will have skin cancer by 40," I'd buy that.
katie — October 20, 2010
i think this one just means YOUR normal skin tone to a darker skin tone in respects to the person, personally, who is using the product..
The Many Controversies of Beyoncé Knowles « Baking With Ex Mix — May 7, 2011
[...] dress” coverage here and here. (Still don’t believe me that this is a thing? Go buy this Johnson’s lotion for “normal to darker [...]
adi — January 1, 2012
oh fuck that. normal= white. fuck that
Steve — February 25, 2012
Are we sure that this isn't designed to turn your skin tone from ITs "normal'' to a "darker" tone?
PANK Blog / On Feeling Red: a failed essay about eczema, riots, Mesut Özil and Zinedine Zidane, the Belarus Free Theatre, neoliberalism, austerity and the Eurozone, KLM Airlines, Derek Jarman, Mary Magdalene, clingy women, feminist killjoys, melancholic — June 28, 2012
[...] uniform in tone and pigmentation, the standard of which being, of course, the-lighter-the-better (the beauty product description of “normal to dark skin”, dark skin being apparently abnormal; not to mention the use of skin lightening creams, which many [...]
anaisninja — October 22, 2012
I may be fair-skinned, but "normal?" C'mon Johnson & Johnson - Evolve.
Yo — October 28, 2015
Is there a hex color code for this "normal" you speak of??? I want to know if I qualify, or if I am too green
Liana — December 6, 2018
All of y'all need to chill out. Sure this may be offensive to some people but J&J means that if your let's say pale it will make you a shade or two darker. Or if your already pretty dark you will still get darker. It's your own skin tone, your own version of normal. But since we are human and therefore have our own opinions, everyone will find something that is "wrong" with anything. I can't blame y'all but maybe we could learn something from the Israeli Academic System. I'm not trying to be rude, but I am trying to tell the truth.