White Skin is a Must in Thailand
For Thai Women, the Whiter Their Skin the More Beautiful They Are Considered
Beauty products that also whiten are everywhere in Thailand. A good Thai girl worth her weight in gold wouldn't even consider buying a beauty product that won't lighten her skin. Thus, everything from hand cream to body lotion, from facial scrubs to face masks, from foot cream to, yes indeed, deodorant - everything comes with a whitening agent. In fact, you can guarantee that beautiful Thai woman you see ahead of you in line at the grocery store is whitened from head to toes. She's spent a fortune on creams and beauty treatments, then hours at home every week applying them. If she doesn't have time, then she'll head to the beauty salon and have one of Thailand's many skin whitening treatments. In Thailand, the drug stores and the beauty salons are laughing all the way to the bank.
Why though is it so important for Thai women to be light skinned? Does it denote just beauty or being sexy, or is there something beneath the idea of white for beauty's sake?
Thai friends have told me it's often for several reasons. First, Thai women don't want to be confused with laborers who work in the rice fields, migrant workers who build many of Thailand's buildings, or street food sellers. All of these groups spend a lot of time outdoors and are usually very dark skinned and often wrinkled. They are also poor. Thai women think that having dark skin could quite possibly get them confused with a laborer or a maid and that would be a terrible thing to happen.
Another reason why white is beautiful is because Thais admire the Japanese and the Koreans very much. They love Japanese cartoons and music and they adore Korean soap operas and movie stars. Therefore, because both the Japanese and Koreans are usually white skinned, Thai women want to look like them.
Thirdly, another emerging popular group in Thailand is the 'luk kreung'. These are men and women who are often actors or models and are half-Thai and half-Western. Stereotypically, they tend to have whiter skin, more Western style noses, and lighter hair. The 'luk kreung' are now the 'in thing' in Thailand and are considered to be very beautiful, so of course everybody wants to look like them.
Its not only make up though that Thai people use to avoid being dark. They will also go to extremes in the way they dress and behave to avoid getting brown. If they go to the beach with friends, they sit under umbrellas all day. If they go into the ocean at all, which a lot of them won't, they only swim in shorts and t shirts, never a swimsuit or bikini, and they make sure they are covered from head to toe in sun screen.
When a Thai woman goes outside on a sunny day, which is almost every day in Thailand, she walks down the street with an umbrella over her head. If she forgets her umbrella, she will hold a school book, a magazine, or even a shirt over her head to shade her from the sun. You will rarely see a Thai girl walking down the street on a sunny day, without also seeing her doing contortions to make sure the sun doesn't hit her. She's not however likely to wear a hat. Hats mess up your hair and make you sweaty, that's why umbrellas are so popular.
So, the next time you come to Thailand, take a quick browse down the drug store aisles and check out how many products have a whitening agent. Being Western, I'm already white, yet most of my creams and lotions also whiten my skin. Now I don't really want my skin lightening but, honestly, I don't have much of a choice. Unless I want to spend six times the normal money I would spend on a cream or lotion and shop at a high-end department store, all my beauty products will have a whitening agent. Nivea, Oil of Olay, Garnier, Yves Rocher, Victoria's Secret, The Body Shop - they're all available here, and all their products are loaded with skin whiteners. Bright white skin is just one of the inconveniences I have to put up with if I want to live in Thailand. But hey, I'm considered beautiful.
Published by Cassandra James
I'm a British-American writer currently living in Bangkok, Thailand. I've been writing for Associated Content since 2007 and was named one of AC's Top 100 Writers for 2008, 2009 and 2010. I primarily write a... View profile
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21 Comments
Post a CommentStereotypically, white skin is a sign that you come from rich, good family background. Many rich people in Thailand are of Chinese origin. It's not a surprise that they would have white skin. Also in Thai history, women with white skin were considered beautiful.
But recently Thai women have gone overboard by having Glutathione or other whitening chemical injected at the beautician. The media in Thailand contribute by projecting the betterment of having white skin added with the popularity Korea pop-culture. Korean actresses are usually considered beautiful. Thai women therefore want to imitate their look and characteristics. The other factor is that Thai men are usually preferred dating a white skin girls.
However, there are a fragment of Thai people who like to be tan or prefer their natural skin tone. They are often born and educated overseas. Hopefully, the trend would reversed to a more natural skin tone.
Oh and it must be irritating having to buy whitening products all the time even if you don't want them, LOL. Can't say I'd want to be any whiter!!!
Interesting article. I didn't know this but, then again, I've never been to Thailand! Keep up the good work, I like your writings.
Your article doesn't do that great of a job in doing in depth research about that topic. Whats the point in writing it if I could hear this from any average Jo on the streets, who've never even left their state before? "Thai people are tan and want to whiten their skin, because I and others have it and they don't" Then the ending is, I'm pretty dam lucky and they aren't.
we love the colour we are in and the way we looked thank you very much. but come on ppl who are having dark skin in thailand is not a must have, preventing your skin from the sun is good because in thailand the uv is really strong and it can also damage your skin. well english ppl are just as crazy (or you are just as bad luv!) they would spent thier little time going on a sunbed (which is so fake by the way) and would also spend their money on tanning products just like thai ppl, so you cant really say that thai ppl are funny MARIA and i think you should look back at your own comment coz we are all just as bad!!! oh one other thing, the sun damaged your skin and make you look twice as older, thats why thai ppl in the uk can never get into the night club here without an id coz they look so young.
lol you thai people are funny i have only one thing to say GROW UP i'm a 19 year old British female with very pale skin i used to sunbade every day for 2 hours to get my skin to look darker lol i mean its such a waste to change once skin color!!!!!!!!! one advice enjoy life whatever color you may be
I am an African American who I lived in Udon Thani for nearly two years. At first I did not understand my Thai women covered their faces and avoided the sun like vampires.
My Thai friend echoed the same thing you said: That Thai women don't want to be confused with laborers who work in the rice fields, migrant workers who build many of Thailand's buildings, or street food sellers.
I was also told that light-skinned Thai women stood a far greater chance at landing the good and higher paying jobs.
As a Black person, I was well received in Thailand and had no real problems. I was very popular among the Thai students I lectured.
I know that Thai's are NOT racist, which is a bad thing. Many Thai are prejudiced, however. They have preconceived notions about dark skin and Blacks. I know that much of this prejudice was taught by farang coming into Thailand who bring with them their bigoted views.
I know that Thai people, in general, are warm and friendly. I hope to return one
Same thing here in China--and it isn't just women. I've seen more umbrellas on a sunny day than on a rainy one. And some of the commercials for skin products are just frightening.
David, I get asked every week "why do Western men like BLACK girls", or get told "My Dad is very black" - then I ask them "Is he from Africa?" - they find that very funny. The whole Thai preoccupation with white skin though is very sad and it also leads to a lot of discrimination in the work place - you very rarely see 'dark' Thais in higher up positions.
I once had a male student balk at taking off his shirt when we were going to play soccor (shirts verses skins). The kid was as dark as a Thai person can get. He really did not want to admit that he lost that battle at birth. Some of my male Thai students would tell me that they only wanted fair girls; again, these guys were as dark as a Thai person can get. I seriously think this has bearing with the Thai bar scene as many Western men find dark Thai woman beautiful (I once had a student ask why Farangs like black girls) and Asians (both Thai and non-Thai) do not.