As you all know, I have been in Thailand now for about 1 month. Everything is going well, I have decreased my rice consumption to ONCE a day, if that. I have also found an aerobics class that meets close to my apartment. The class is HARD for me PLUS it is EXTREMELY hot in Thailand, so I sweat profusely during the class. Now on to the real reason for this post.....
A great thing about traveling and exploring new parts of the world, is learning things about their culture. I am pretty sure some of you all have heard of about this phenomenon before but this is from first-hand experience. When I first arrived, I went to the supermarket to buy some beauty products. I was looking for some soap and lotion and noticed that on some of the products it said "whitening". The deodorant even contained whitening agents!! I QUICKLY put those products down and avidly looked for the products that did not contain whitening products. I asked around about this, and I was told that in Thai culture, the lighter your skin is, the more acceptable you are in society. In Thai culture, they believe that when you have darker skin you are not well off. The dark skin people are usually stereotyped as migrant workers, farmers or food vendors, which in Thai society are deemed poor.
So, I went to the beach a few weekends ago and I noticed that ALL, well most of the Thai females were swimming FULLY clothed. Also,when walking down the street on a sunny day, they will usually carry umbrellas so that they will not get darker. This is a normal way of Thai culture and all we can do as non-Thai people is accept the facts.
Always learning,
Charmel
2 comments:
Hmm...? Interesting... Glad all is well!
Yeah, it's not just Blacks that can be colorstruck. I love the sun on a cold day but during the summer I may use an umbrella just to keep a tad bit cooler. Be careful, those whitening products can jack up your skin! -Yoruba
Post a Comment