Here is something quite simple, sent along by Judy B. It’s a screenshot of Gimp, an open source image editing application. An optional plug-in, created by a user, offers a series of filters for images, including ones that “beautify.” One of the options is “skin whitening.”
This is one more reminder that we live in a racist society that conflates whiteness with beauty. Remember, too, though, that someone — very possibly a set of people — had to make a conscious decision to include skin whitening as an option and position it as a sub-category of beautification. Then they had to, literally, type the words into the program and make it so.
This shit doesn’t just happen. It’s not random. Racism isn’t just an ephemeral cultural thing. It involves actual decisions made by real people who, if not motivated by racism, are complicit with it.
Cross-posted at Racialicious.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 46
Coltrane — September 20, 2013
Just playing devil's advocate for a second; don't some companies claim that skin whitening is just to cover blemishes or skin conditions? It might be BS of the Michael Jackson vitiligo variety but I might anticipate such a defense from this software company.
Blahblah — September 20, 2013
While I agree that a "beautify" setting that whitens skin is very problematic, this isn't a standard part of the Gimp package. It's a plugin, designed by one person and released to whoever wants to download it.
Here's the original (on GitHub) - https://github.com/hejiann/beautify.
And here's the plugin at the Gimp registry - http://registry.gimp.org/node/26835.
As an avid user of Gimp, I just wanted to clarify that this doesn't seem to be a decision made by the designers but rather by one end user. So your notion that "... someone — very possibly a set of people — had to make a conscious decision to include skin whitening as an option and position it as a sub-category of beautification. Then they had to, literally, type the words into the program and make it so" is not true. As with much open-source software, one user created a new tool that people can choose to download and use. The racial vitriol about beauty = white should be focused on that individual, not the Gimp developers.
Coltrane — September 20, 2013
A function to change skin color has existed on Gimp for a long time before this plug-in, and there are various 'tutorials' on Youtube showing how to use it. That might imply that a racist potential has existed in the software far longer than this particular plug-in; however, Gimp could claim that it's a neutral tool because you can darken as well as lighten the skin.
CocoPandaba — September 20, 2013
Maybe they should just say 'skin brightening' because no matter what color your skin is, it can always look brighter in pictures. Right?
Larry Charles Wilson — September 20, 2013
It is interesting, at least to me, that Roman women whitened their skin with cosmetics and that blonde hair was very popular among the upper classes.
Borya — September 21, 2013
Is it still racist if it was developed by an east Asian developer?
https://github.com/hejiann
This isn't to suggest that POC are incapable of racism toward other POC, but all signs point to this plugin being borne of lookism rather than racism.
In many eastern Asian cultures, there is a preference for lighter skin, particularly among women. This preference is not a result of racial bias or emulation of western beauty standards as some commentators have suggested - it goes back centuries and seems to be rooted in classism, with lighter skin being indicative of higher social status and darker skin being associated with farmers and other laborers. This dichotomy is found throughout many cultures and seems to have developed independently in most of them.
Of course, a skin "whitening" plugin is very suspicious when viewed through a western lens, as it should be. But sociology is all about context and by leaving out the context of this plugin - its origin and the nationality of the developer - you leave out a vital part of the story.
chucklin72 — September 23, 2013
For a professor of sociology, you seem to have zero clue as to why light skin is akin to beauty. For most cultures, it has nothing to do with race, but everything to do with economic class.
Darker skin in most cultures signify that the person works in the field or manual labor. Ask any asian why they wish to have lighter skin and they will tell you that its associated with being economically privileged, not racially privileged.
Возмущенный — September 25, 2013
Hey you, "PhD", look here. Geishas in Japan still use your "racist" methods of beautifying to get almost white skin: http://theimpaladiaries.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/geisha.jpg
And this is tradition of bridal makeup in India: http://dilmilgaya.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/indian-bride2.jpg?w=642
In other words: when cat does nothing, he lick balls. You do the same. Don't force your ass-stupid nonsense standards worldwide please.
Lovely Links: 9/27/13 — September 27, 2013
[...] this is horrifying: Someone created a photo editing plugin called “beautify,” and one of the sub-options is “skin whiten... Because white = beautiful? GAH. A thousand times [...]
Claire — October 15, 2013
This photo editor pales in comparison to some of the smart phone apps to come out of East Asia. Take a look at PhotoWonder and you will see that the conclusion of white=beauty is a bit oversimplified. Their "beautify" setting whitens and softens skin, plumps lips, enlarges eyes, and makes the person thinner. I believe these things have much more to do with infantilizing women and (as previous comments explain) the centuries-old, cross-civilization practice of equating wealth with beauty.
LoveCelebHair — October 28, 2013
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! I love PhotoEditorX because I'm not an expert and although Gimp is an amazing free alternative to PS, I prefer PhotoEditorX because it comes with very useful tutorials.
PhotoEditorX : http://newphotoshop.com/
William Beckett — November 29, 2013
A great blog post, and informative also. It's necessary to know how to use photoshop to Create Your artwork! Thanks lisa. You had made a good effort.
Photo Editing Software
pranit — July 18, 2017
aadesh