The Hypocrisy of Beauty Companies

There are a lot of companies in the U.S. who uses advertising campaigns focused on loving who you are and embracing your personal or unique beauty. That is great; however, what many U.S. consumers may not realize is how these companies use completely different tactics on the other parts of the world.

Skin bleaching is a practice that isn't a secret; especially in countries where their population is predominately nonwhite. The thing is the term "people of color" doesn't even make sense in those countries because the ratio of white to non-white people is markedly different. This, unfortunately, doesn't mean that white supremacy and eurocentric beauty standards aren't upheld outside of western society. Eurocentric beauty standards have become normalized in countries like the U.S., and european countries; regardless of the fact that there are so many diverse people living within them.

You're probably wondering how eurocentric beauty standards have become globalized the way it has and there are a couple of reasons for it: imperialism, colonialism, racism, anti-blackness, colorism, and the media are the sources and huge contributors to the perpetuation of these beauty standards.

What really gets to me is that a lot of companies exploit the harmful and damaging affects of eurocentric beauty ideals in the countries they sell their products in. These companies include: Dove, L'Oreal, Ponds, Olay, Neutrogena, Clarins, Nivea, Garnier, Estee Lauder, and Bioré. These are all companies that like to advocate for embracing your beauty and "real beauty" here but over there there the agenda switches to "try these products to get whiter, lighter skin." Its horrible and goes to show that companies are perpetuating racism, colorism, and white supremacy through their exploitation of the abuse people of color are impacted by and subjected to because of these standards.

I think we should all be critical of companies and the way advertising can be a depiction of the collective consciousness that is prevalent within society and countries around the world.