My 2 cents.
I live in the Philippines. It is a country made up of many different ethnicities, but most all are genetically darker skinned than not(the sun is
intense here).
Here there is a huge desire to be whiter, not really western white, but silky white like Koreans(so, the whitest skin an Asian can be). It is a race
and class stigma that will not ever be avoided here.
There is a huge extremely popular following of Korean programming on television depicting the same stereotype in the first commercial in the OP..a
silky white handsome Asian. Many of the most popular Pinoy celebrities here are of mixed blood(mostly western) and their noses are more pointy, not
flatter and they are fair skinned. These are the "looks" that every one see as desirable, daily on television. This is their cultural ideal of beauty.
Not far off of western media practices of showing darker toned, fit, petite/muscular stereotypes in western countries.(like the U.S.) And similar to
the Tanning salon/spray tan popularity in the U.S.
To be dark here means; You are poor(and your ancestors were too) and have to work in the sun. The upper class strives to be out of the sunlight, they
can afford not to be exposed to sunlight in their lives. The poor however cannot, and are constantly reminded of it.
Almost all the females rich or poor always use umbrellas to shade from the sun to avoid being too dark.(the umbrella sales here is insane) The males
(mostly the poorer working class) all wear removable roll up sleeves(like a fake tattooed sleeve) when in the sunlight, even cover their faces and
neck with a second T-shirt to avoid the sun regardless of the sweltering heat.(it makes me sweat more just looking at them.) I am sure there is a
component of not wanting UV exposure(skin cancer), but UV and pigment are intertwined by nature. And I have asked them why do they wear the sleeves,
they all respond "I don't want to be dark".
There is a enormous market for whitening products, almost anything/everything that can be applied to the skin has a whitening "feature". I have
problems finding soap without whitener included. They all want to be whiter and more acceptable to the upper(whiter) class of Filipinos and the world.
In their eyes "whiter" means more opportunity.
The service class workers have a far greater chance at employment(by the upper class) at either major restaurants, hotels, resorts, or even into
private service IF they are not too dark skinned. These establishments prefer the lighter skinned for employment because there are to appear to be
more "western" and not native, regardless of skill. It's all for appearances to not offend. And as a bonus, if hired by one of these businesses you
get to work out of the sunlight and possibly with air conditioning.
Families will gladly accept either Chinese, Korean and even western white partners, to whiten their bloodline. Beside lightening their future
bloodline, it gives them an opportunity outside of this country to support the family.
But there is a sizeable portion of the population living in the outer provinces(where i live) that do not care at all of their pigmentation, they just
accept it and go about their lives. It also has to do with local regions not interacting with the upper crust. These people live more into the rural
areas/jungles mostly are farmers or construction. So they have no interest in acceptance elsewhere or anybody. They just want to earn their
livelihood, and accept their lot.
There is more to this darker vs. lighter skin stigma in the Philippines than what I just described. But basically how i see it, it's not really racism
but more like darkism = poorism.
Frankly, I myself prefer the darker skinned look.
Oh don't think there is not racism here. They can be and are quite often racist. Especially with each other and among the differing cultures here. But
I don't see it as a color issue, but more a ideology or ethnicity issue.
So the first commercial in the OP, to me is very confusing in the context of racism applied in SEA. It's more that they would prefer a silky white
Korean K-pop star, over the darker muscle bound (lost for PC descriptors here) man. OR it could all be just a funny commercial to try to sell a
product that makes clothes more white...
edit on 5/26/2016 by jappee because: (no reason given)
edit on 5/26/2016 by jappee
because: Comma, comma, comma chameleon...too many commas
edit on 5/26/2016 by jappee because: (no reason given)
edit
on 5/26/2016 by jappee because: (no reason given)