Wednesday, April 08, 2009

A Timely Video...

..considering my post yesterday on skin bleaching. Via Kameelah, a clip on "A Family of Skin Bleachers in Jamaica."

No transcript, but I want to point out a few things the daughter says:
Nothing sells in town like rubbings [meaning the skin bleach], hair, and clothes. Even food doesn’t sell as much as bleaching. Everyday you talk about being hungry, but if I have $1.50, I will go and run to buy one of them. They say beauty brings pain. Style is what we want, so we just have to bear it.*
And later, she smiles as she describes how the bleach has its desired effect:
…nobody can say anything; we are white*.
The video also talks briefly about men who have begun bleaching.




________________
*All emphases mine

4 comments:

Kimberly said...

This is soooooo disturbing to watch. That woman's face is so damaged, but she insists on continuing and allowing her children to do so. It's incredibly sad.

aprilx said...

i saw this awhile back. i wasn't sure if it was a hoax because it's just so horrifying!!!

MsNastassja said...

How old is this? I'm pretty sure it's more likely that she meant $150 rather than $1.50 since the rate from Jamaican to American is like 90 to 1. Then from American to British is about 1.5 to 1. Unless this was done right after Jamaica stopped being a colony and the dollar was still similar to the pound.

elle said...

It was posted in September 2008.

Revelations and ruminations from one southern sistorian...