{"id":1976,"date":"2011-12-08T12:45:57","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T17:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=1976"},"modified":"2017-09-17T14:49:13","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T19:49:13","slug":"white-privilege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/12\/08\/white-privilege\/","title":{"rendered":"White Privilege: “Flesh-Colored”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two new submissions inspired me to revive this post from 2008.<\/em><\/p>\n

Part of the privilege of being white is having a society that considers you the norm and is, therefore, organized around you.\u00a0 A really nice example of this is “flesh” color.\u00a0 What is flesh color?<\/p>\n

Ben O. sent us this 1952 ad for bandaids (from Vintage Ads<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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The next set of images come from Nathan Gibbs’ flickr photostream<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A lot of companies have gotten a clue.\u00a0 Crayola doesn’t have flesh color anymore (or so I’ve heard, let me know if I’m wrong).\u00a0 And now they make “multicultural crayons.”\u00a0 Though, Nathan notes:<\/p>\n

It’s interesting how “culture” here is a substitute for “race.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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“White” skin is still taken-for-granted in many products.\u00a0 Here are a couple examples I’ve collected (found here<\/a> and here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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Perhaps trying to walk the line, EcoPencil has a “light flesh” color, but no other flesh colors to choose from (sent in by kelebek in Australia):<\/p>\n

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Caroline observed that\u00a0Breathe Right not only centers whiteness in their logo…<\/p>\n

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…but calls white skin “normal” (see second-to-bottom line):<\/p>\n

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For more examples, see our posts on (the irony of) Michelle Obama’s champagne-colored described as “flesh-colored”<\/a>, the widespread use of such language to describe light tan in the fashion world<\/a>, \u00a0and lotion marketed as for \u201cnormal to darker skin.\u201d<\/a> See also our Contexts <\/em>essay on race and “nude” as a color<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For contrast, see this post about how\u00a0the generic human in Russian cartoons is colored black instead of white<\/a>.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two new submissions inspired me to revive this post from 2008. Part of the privilege of being white is having a society that considers you the norm and is, therefore, organized around you.\u00a0 A really nice example of this is “flesh” color.\u00a0 What is flesh color? Ben O. sent us this 1952 ad for bandaids […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[253,285,275,1757,23705],"class_list":["post-1976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-history","tag-raceethnicity","tag-multiculturalism","tag-raceethnicity-whiteseuropeans","tag-vintage-stuff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1976"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71517,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions\/71517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}