Recently, I have been seeing a lot of bright girls pass by. You know what I mean by “bright”? You decide to take a stroll round your neighbourhood and all you find is orange– Now I know why they say orange is the new black.

People who are naturally dark skinned- black! Would decide to go orange, they wake up one morning with the decision to bleach their skin and turn themselves orange. I hear the men are not left out of this craze.

The orange I see everywhere has left me wondering why girls bleach.

According to Merrick Garland, there is a general perception that the fairer you are, the more successful and attractive you become either socially, economically or romantically.

For instance, most people have come to believe that about 7 out of 10 men are most likely to date a light complexioned girl compared to a dark one, doesn’t matter how equally beautiful they both look. Thus the perception that many men will choose the fair complexion woman over the dark ones.

Racism

People have concluded that being dark skined makes one disadvantaged. They see the light ones as being superior and at the centre of things, thus the decision to bleach their skin.

Look at it as racism between people of the same race/colour. These women have become racist in their thinking/mindset hence a decision to brighten themselves to be classified amongst the supposedly favoured ones: the fair skinned side.

Blemish

Some women have come to say that bleaching their skin fades away skin imperfections like acne/pimples. These skin lightening products fade scars, spots and discolourations, before finally giving in to the temptation to completely lighten their skin.

Low Self-Esteem

Ladies with low self esteem are not comfortable in their skin, they have not come to embrace and adore their pretty dark skin but believe that the only way one can be beautiful, attractive and accepted is to be light skinned. These ladies will stop at nothing until they have lightened their skin away to suit their belief.

Bullying 

Some light complexioned ladies make other dark complexioned ladies feel very uncomfortable in their skin. They make hateful comments such as: “blakky, charcoal, duduyemi, black monkey etc”. As such ladies who have self-esteem issues may not be able to handle the comments and pressures that come from this, hence may be pushed to succumb to bleaching.

No confidence

Some women are raised to loathe the dark complexion, because colourism is sometimes transferred from generation to generation. This fosters self-hatred and a desire to forget all they have been told, mars their beauty. Hence they lighten their skin.

The Bandwagon Effect

Some ladies are not complete in themselves, they are hardly satisfied with anything not even their skin or complexion. Just because their friends are bleached out/toned up they get all so jealous of their friends and decide to do same. People like this have no reason for making certain decisions, they see all their friends/contemporaries do, they become jealous and become a “copy-cat”  all because they find others do so.

The Man Factor 

Just because a selected few are of the opinion that fair-skinned individuals tend to be regarded as better looking or beautiful by Nigerian social standard, we have considered it fashionable to bleach our dark skin to look good and attractive to the men. Some even say the are toning all to make themselves appealing and acceptable to the opposite sex.

Ladies forget the side effects of these creams, all they see is the “glow” they get all so carried away and begin to use all forms of skin lightening creams with low doses of over protective pigmentation which has negative effect on the skin. Many people who bleach ruin the melanin in their skin. Once the skin has been ‘bleached’ it loses its natural protective barrier, making it susceptible to damage by the sun’s rays.

Black will always be firm and beautiful: an adorable complexion worth celebrating and embracing.

What do you think about bleaching? Would you bleach your skin?

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