Has political correctness actually gone mad?

This whole concept of microaggressions has set the whole political correctness debate into chaos. Anything that doesn't happen as you want it to can be deemed a microaggression.

The cashier at the grocery doesn't greet you with a smile? Microaggression. Never mind it may simply be someone having a bad day, you can deem it some form of -ism. Crazy stuff in my opinion.
 
VeevaVee said:
Possibly not the right place for this but whatever. This one actually made me laugh.

I mean it's obviously making the face brighter and face/nose thinner, which would make most (white) people a bit more attractive if the Snapchat filters are anything to go by. This app is crap at it anyway.

FaceApp sorry for 'racist' filter that lightens skin to make users 'hot'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/artic...t-filter-that-lightens-skin-to-make-users-hot
Click to expand...

I wonder what the people offended by that would make of the 4 billion Asians obsessed with skin whitening products!
 
11101 said:
I wonder what the people offended by that would make of the 4 billion Asians obsessed with skin whitening products!
Click to expand...
Oh, come off it.

There's a small minority of middle class people in Asia with a worrying desire to lighten their skin. That is not 'four billion Asians obsessed' for fecks sake, you dramatic twit.
 
DiseaseOfTheAge said:
Based on what? The ad breaks, or actual statistics?
Click to expand...
Based on living here and meeting people. I dont know if there are any statistics, and I would love it if my tiny sample group were in a small minority.. but I doubt it. There definitely seems to be a preference for fairer skin..

Its also not an overwhelming majority.. but not a small minority either.
 
prateik said:
Based on living here and meeting people. I dont know if there are any statistics, and I would love it if my tiny sample group were in a small minority.. but I doubt it. There definitely seems to be a preference for fairer skin..

Its also not an overwhelming majority.. but not a small minority either.
Click to expand...
Is it fair to assume you are probably socialising in middle class communities, though?
 
DiseaseOfTheAge said:
Is it fair to assume you are probably socialising in middle class communities, though?
Click to expand...
Everyone, except the upper class has an obsession with having fairer skin, to some extent. The younger generation is slowly moving away from this nonsense, but it's not uncommon for your elders or relatives to bring up the topic of an arranged marriage and tell you about all the pretty and fair girls they want you to get married off to.
 
van der star said:
Everyone, except the upper class has an obsession with having fairer skin, to some extent. The younger generation is slowly moving away from this nonsense, but it's not uncommon for your elders or relatives to bring up the topic of an arranged marriage and tell you about all the pretty and fair girls they want you to get married off to.
Click to expand...
If you are going purely by wealth, then I dont think even the upper class is any better. Highly educated, smart people probably are above all this nonsense.. There are a lot of idiots with a lot of money ...
 
Donovan_red7 said:
This whole concept of microaggressions has set the whole political correctness debate into chaos. Anything that doesn't happen as you want it to can be deemed a microaggression.

The cashier at the grocery doesn't greet you with a smile? Microaggression. Never mind it may simply be someone having a bad day, you can deem it some form of -ism. Crazy stuff in my opinion.
Click to expand...


What now?

I understand that as a principle. Makes me glad I relocated to the third world. (New Zealand : Third World country pretending to be a first world country)
 
prateik said:
If you are going purely by wealth, then I dont think even the upper class is any better. Highly educated, smart people probably are above all this nonsense.. There are a lot of idiots with a lot of money ...
Click to expand...
That is true. It's usually people who have actually seen the world and are in the know how of how life is outside of India who aren't susceptible to all this tomfoolery. You could be the smartest kid in school but you will get dragged down by what the majority of the public adheres to, unless you expand your viewpoint to a global scale.
 
van der star said:
That is true. It's usually people who have actually seen the world and are in the know how of how life is outside of India who aren't susceptible to all this tomfoolery. You could be the smartest kid in school but you will get dragged down by what the majority of the public adheres to, unless you expand your viewpoint to a global scale.
Click to expand...

The fairness industry today works it way into society via Bollywood stars - there's nothing at all that suggests that it is less in upper classes.
 
prateik said:
If you are going purely by wealth, then I dont think even the upper class is any better. Highly educated, smart people probably are above all this nonsense.. There are a lot of idiots with a lot of money ...
Click to expand...
van der star said:
That is true. It's usually people who have actually seen the world and are in the know how of how life is outside of India who aren't susceptible to all this tomfoolery. You could be the smartest kid in school but you will get dragged down by what the majority of the public adheres to, unless you expand your viewpoint to a global scale.
Click to expand...
A part of me wants to think it no different to British people wanting to have a good tan but, culturally and historically, it really feels very different.
 
11101 said:
I wonder what the people offended by that would make of the 4 billion Asians obsessed with skin whitening products!
Click to expand...

Black people have racial divides and insults based on light skin / dark skin too.

The app and the article are pathetic. But the skin tone argument is nothing to do with white people. White people desire a tan. Across the board.
 
berbatrick said:
The fairness industry today works it way into society via Bollywood stars - there's nothing at all that suggests that it is less in upper classes.
Click to expand...
Hopefully the lawsuits against these very Bollywood stars for misleading advertisement will make people come to their senses.
 
DiseaseOfTheAge said:
Oh, come off it.

There's a small minority of middle class people in Asia with a worrying desire to lighten their skin. That is not 'four billion Asians obsessed' for fecks sake, you dramatic twit.
Click to expand...

Walk into almost any pharmacy across the continent and you'll find plenty of skin whitening products. In the poorer places they just keep their skin covered in the sun.

China, Japan, Korea, India etc etc

Have you ever actually been to any of those places?
 
11101 said:
Walk into almost any pharmacy across the continent and you'll find plenty of skin whitening products. In the poorer places they just keep their skin covered in the sun.

China, Japan, Korea, India etc etc

Have you ever actually been to any of those places?
Click to expand...
Four billion.
 
oates said:
When? I want a firm record of being right once.
Click to expand...

Here is the proof.:)

oates said:
Well I'm more than half jesting, honestly but with you going straight to the 'Different' question which @Pogue Mahone picked up too and then ruling it out (The Racial Empathy Gap) I thought it was worth thinking about. On the other hand if you are fully aware that you are a racist as are we all and addressed that within yourself then you are perfectly entitled to scratch it. ;)
Click to expand...
 
11101 said:
So you haven't been to any of those places then I take it. You'd know how common the desire for whiter skin is otherwise.
Click to expand...
No but I've got friends who grew up in India who I've discussed it with.

Walk in to any corner shop in the UK and you'll find plenty of orange juice. 60 million people, obsessed with orange juice.
 
Dunno why DOTA is being so pedantic. A desire for lighter skin is clearly a "thing" for a significant amount of people in the subcontinent. In a way, the fact that it is an real issue is justified the fact that people are annoyed by this app. The fact that light skin is perceived as more attractive than dark skin is a legacy of generations of systemic racism.

EDIT: Although it's not just racism. Snobbery plays a part. Poor people work outdoors and the gentry wear makeup and stay out of the sun.
 
Last edited:
Pogue Mahone said:
Dunno why DOTA is being so pedantic. A desire for lighter skin is clearly a "thing" for a significant amount of people in the subcontinent. In a way, the fact that it is an real issue is justified the fact that people are annoyed by this app. The fact that light skin is perceived as more attractive than dark skin is a legacy of generations of systemic racism.

EDIT: Although it's not just racism. Snobbery plays a part. Poor people work outdoors and the gentry wear makeup and stay out of the sun.
Click to expand...
Plus there's the 'Hey, look at me: I can develop Vitamin D!' angle.
 
Donovan_red7 said:
This whole concept of microaggressions has set the whole political correctness debate into chaos. Anything that doesn't happen as you want it to can be deemed a microaggression.

The cashier at the grocery doesn't greet you with a smile? Microaggression. Never mind it may simply be someone having a bad day, you can deem it some form of -ism. Crazy stuff in my opinion.
Click to expand...

The whole concept of micro aggression is just insane, it's basically saying that any minor thing is ill intent on the other persons behalf. The people who parrot this stuff are the kinds who think a innocuous compliment is sexism, racism or any other -ism.
 
I don't think the skin tone that people want is white. I would estimate it is somewhere around the Latino or mixed race Afro/Western European skin tone. Hence why a majority of young white people spend a lot of time and money darkening their skin.
 
Classical Mechanic said:
I don't think the skin tone that people want is white. I would estimate it is somewhere around the Latino or mixed race Afro/Western European skin tone. Hence why a majority of young white people spend a lot of time and money darkening their skin.
Click to expand...


Most countries in Latin America have their own “the lighter the better” hierarchy of skin-color. While I havn’t lived in Asia, I do know Japanese and Korean women who are scared going to the beach, because it could give them tan – and they are as pale as it gets. I also know that the skin-lighting products industry is fairly strong in the Middle East. So there seems to be demand for that as well. A fairly popular beauty standard in many of these countries is not really “beach-tan”, but snow-white (exaggeration). Just looking at some of the advertisement in these country makes that fairly clear.
 
PedroMendez said:
Most countries in Latin America have their own “the lighter the better” hierarchy of skin-color. While I havn’t lived in Asia, I do know Japanese and Korean women who are scared going to the beach, because it could give them tan – and they are as pale as it gets. I also know that the skin-lighting products industry is fairly strong in the Middle East. So there seems to be demand for that as well. A fairly popular beauty standard in many of these countries is not really “beach-tan”, but snow-white (exaggeration). Just looking at some of the advertisement in these country makes that fairly clear.
Click to expand...

Japanese people seem porcelain in skin tone anyway. How does the Western obsession with skin darkening fit in with it all? Is there really a narrative here that us pasty white people have to feel bad about?

I saw this the other day!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/glamour-model-biggest-boobs-europe-10217073
 
Classical Mechanic said:
I would estimate it is somewhere around the Latino or mixed race Afro/Western European skin tone. Hence why a majority of young white people spend a lot of time and money darkening their skin.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Tend to agree with this. I just googled and this skin tone strangely comes up as 'olive'.

PedroMendez said:
Most countries in Latin America have their own “the lighter the better” hierarchy of skin-color. While I havn’t lived in Asia, I do know Japanese and Korean women who are scared going to the beach, because it could give them tan – and they are as pale as it gets. I also know that the skin-lighting products industry is fairly strong in the Middle East. So there seems to be demand for that as well. A fairly popular beauty standard in many of these countries is not really “beach-tan”, but snow-white (exaggeration). Just looking at some of the advertisement in these country makes that fairly clear.
Click to expand...

South (India, Pak, Middle East etc) Asians they prefer to have lighter shades of brown, but not exactly the paleness that the Far East (China, Japan, Korea etc) Asians prefer. When I was in China, I knew a girl who'd wear a hat at night claiming she gets moon-burn's.
 
Classical Mechanic said:
Japanese people seem porcelain in skin tone anyway. How does the Western obsession with skin darkening fit in with it all? Is there really a narrative here that us pasty white people have to feel bad about?

I saw this the other day!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/glamour-model-biggest-boobs-europe-10217073
Click to expand...


Imo, Western beauty standards changed fairly recently towards a darker skin tone (at some point during the last 100 years). Without knowing anything about it, my guess is that it was made popular by a (Hollywood) celebrity upper-class, that fancied "jetting around the world". So maybe they could show their cosmopolitan character and wealth by being tanned. That thought could be utter bollocks, so don't quote me on it.

I guess there is at least some link between western colonial heritage and a certain obsession with light skin. E.g.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanqueamiento

That doesn't mean, that we have to feel bad about that today. People have agency.

edit: like Edgar Alllen Pillow mentioned: and obsession with extremely pale tan might be specific to certain far eastern societies, while other countries have their own regional ideas. Even in Latin America the perception changed even during my life-time and a mild tan is seen as favourable (compared to being pale).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.