Coloring The Truth

The boom of inclusive foundation shades. Skin-tone emoji that better reflect our diversity. Popular hashtags #MelaninMagic and #PaleandProud. In a word: progress. So why are some women going to extreme measures to alter their natural complexions? The reasons might be as complicated as the risks.

- Meirav Devash

Seemai Desai, a dermatologist in Plano, Texas, has noticed more dark-skinned clients requesting the “service” over the last couple of years. And time and time again, he has turned them away. The black-market ask? IV drips of glutathione, a powerhouse antioxidant naturally found in our bodies. Its most notable side effect, however, is lightening the skin by deactivating the enzyme tyrosinase, which helps produce melanin.

Desai, who is also the president of the Skin of Color Society, is troubled by the ethical implications of the non regulated treatment, mostly administered at med-spas. “My first question is ‘Why are you unhappy with your skin [color]?’” Desai says. He, like many of his peers, points to a complex answer: As our global society becomes less white and more blended, color— perhaps even more than race, which technically can’t be seen—becomes a deeper signifier of one’s place in the world, and one’s beauty.

And as cultural ideas of beauty become more globalized, “messages about whiteness are very much a part of that beauty,” says Usha Tummala-Narra, an associate professor of counseling, developmental, and educational psychology at Boston College, who adds that this thinking can afford a person higher social stature, public acceptance, and greater access to jobs.