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·        What did you learn about the topic that most surprised you?

o   The biggest surprise was learning where the light skin vs dark skin war began. That it was instilled in us by the slave traders on how they treated you. If you were light you worked indoors and if you were dark you worked in the fields. They though the lighter slaves to be more intelligent and eye pleasing which is why they brought them into the house.

·        Provide a real-life example of how this topic is relevant or interesting for you. Relate the topic to your life in some way.

o   Being of a darker complexion I have watched many times as the lighter girl gets the guy both in film and real life. Social media portrays lighter skinned people as a higher form of beauty. The further you are from white the further from beauty. Whenever I travel to Jamaica that 'fair' ideal had plagued the mind of a friend of mine and sadly a family member. When I ask why they just tell me it's because they're too dark and no one wants them.
It’s interesting to me because even knowing that complexion plays a large role until reading the last article about how the more attractive you are typically get paid more than someone of regular looks. When you think about it white actresses stand to make millions and it cannot be said about very many black ones. I’ve wanted to be a successful black actress and knowing my looks could prevent me from advancing too far in my career in disheartening.

·        Which research did you find most interesting?  Why?

o   The further I looked into the complexion thing and realizing it wasn’t just in north America but all across the globe the higher it peaked my interest. Working in Walmart I witnessed a lot of middle eastern women purchase a product call Joglen which is a bleaching soap and never really thought that people outside of black race felt the need to be lighter.

·        What are you most likely to remember from this research?

o   I’m most likely to remember the facts about slave traders instilling the light vs dark mentality. Which is how they used to justify their colonizing and slavery. Also the crazy statistic of how in India, skin lightening cream over 50% of the beauty sales and 60-65% use these products daily. Despite the risk these women will sacrifice perfectly healthy skin to feel beautiful.

·        How has learning about this topic changed you? Discuss your attitude, practices, etc.

o   This topic has opened my eyes to the global struggle of self love, many people look in the mirror and feel inadequate for one reason or another. Complexion plays a larger role than I previously thought. I’ve since begun looking for beauty in ways I never did before. Where I once compared one woman to another, I’ve realized no 2 women’s beauty in the same and the standard is a bias placed in society to make those feel less of themselves so consumers continue to consume products to become their version of beautiful.

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This article speaks on the rising epidemic in Ghana with darker complexions being cast out and lighter complexions being the standard for beauty. Everyone bleaching their skin in order to be beautiful and the lack of care people have even with the risks of bleaching cream.

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After making series of calls, I arranged for her to be auditioned by a company that was in need of female emcees to replace the existing ones who were about to leave to do one thing or the other.

I'm sharing this experience with you for a reason and I will not disclose the name of the company, the program they run and the television stations that telecast it. Mentioning names won't necessarily add anything to whatever it is that I want to share with you.

I'm writing about it because of the recent report that gained currency in the country to the effect that American artiste Akon and Nigerian act, Wizkid had requested that dark skinned models brought for their music video shoot in Ghana be sent away and replaced with light skinned models.

The rate at which the entertainment industry in Ghana is gradually turning its back on dark skinned artistes and gladly welcoming light skinned persons is something to worry about. Don't you think, it is the reason why bleaching is becoming rife in the industry?

It appears that the era when sex was used to get roles and other benefits is gradually being replaced with skin colour.

The fact that an upcoming female actress, model or presenter is asked to warm the bed of some big man before opportunities are made available to them to do what they enjoy doing or what they are good at doing to meet their future aspiration is one thing that has been widely discussed and is still being talked about in the entertainment industry in Ghana.

The big man in this context can be a director or producer in the movie industry who by virtue of his position, capitalises on that to exploit young ladies before offering them roles in movies. Sometimes, there are no guaranteed roles to fill even after the innocent and desperate young ladies have been exploited.

When it comes to modelling, it is about that big man who visits the honey pot of ladies before he pens down a contract for the services of the young models who are employed as ushers at his company's event or an event that he is in charge. The same goes for young ladies with the zeal to become a presenter. It has become an industry of 'you scratch my back I scratch your back' thing.

All that a young lady need to do is to know how to scratch the back of some big man if only the one wants to be given the chance to try out something he or she really desires. In the process, one get her back scratched by the big man and is granted her wish. Win-Win situation, you might call it.

The practice is as old as Adam. I mean it is not new and from the look of things and stories that are told almost on daily basis, it is not dying anytime soon as many ladies are themselves even ready to give in before they are asked. However, discussions are still ongoing to curb the trend.

But, it will be difficult to curbe it totally, after all, if the victims themselves are quick and willing to give in, then what purpose is there to try to eradicate it?

That said, a totally different trend has also reared its ugly head and is partly to blame for the upsurge in black or dark skin ladies turning themselves into light skins overnight. Many of them have resorted to bleach to catch the eyes of big men in charge. How do they do this and why do they do that?

The trend can best be described as 'no to dark skin' and 'yes to light skin'. Occasionally, it is made to believe that being black or dark is beautiful but being light skinned is more attractive in this part of the world. This is not a 19th century belief. It is what is happening now!

Strangely enough, despite dangers associated with skin bleaching, there are still some who are willing to bleach and damn the consequences. Shouldn't society be blamed for the upsurge in skin bleaching nowadays? I think so!

Admittedly, there is a growing perception in the Ghana entertainment industry that light skinned personalities or those of mixed race have advantage over their counterparts who unfortunately have dark skin colour. I said unfortunately not to mean that being dark or black is bad, not at all.

Is it the fault of those of mixed race to be light skinned? If no, then why are we making it seem as if being light skinned is alright but being black or dark skinned is a curse? Why are we glorifying the light skinned and shunning the dark skinned? Why are there more opportunities for light skin people, then there is for dark skin people in the entertainment industry in Ghana?

Being light skin has some degree of attraction attached to it and people with that skin colour appear as confident if not over-confident, than perhaps those with dark skin. This is debatable, but admittedly that's the impression out there.

Ghanaian actress Salma Mumin shares that sentiment, "I admit being light skinned is nice because it gives you some confidence ..."

Back to my early story. The lady in question was left disappointed because she was boldly told that the company was looking for people with light skin to host the show; meaning she's not going to be given the chance because of her skin colour. I could feel how heartbroken she was even on the phone as she conveyed the information to me.

When I tried to pry into why such degrading statement was made, I was told that the directive came from the boss of the company. Should society, as it were, blame the lady when she begins to bleach her skin in order to be noticed?

Now, the next time an observation is made of people in the industry toning their skin, perhaps it may not be because they enjoy doing so, it might be because they want to be noticed. Well, look around now, the attention is on the mixed race or light skinned people.

By: Ebenezer Anangfio / Graphic Showbiz

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Last week a call was placed to my phone from a young lady with the ambition of becoming an actress. She also has the interest to present or host events. My number was given to her by a colleague who thinks that I can be of help.

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The normalization of Botox to rid ourselves of natural wrinkles and other things that take away from a potential to have and even complexion. Why has our complexion become so important that we allow it to define us and dictate where we belong in the world. Skin must be smooth and free of any 'deformities', women must not show any signs of aging. The sad truth is why did aging become a bad thing, why can't we embrace it and just age gracefully.

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Beauty is skin-deep: why our complexion is so important to us

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Despite skin conditions such as acne having no negative health effects, they can take a huge toll on the confidence and mental health of the person.

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The blog draws from the comments of celebrities and how they always felt the standard of beauty was long straight hair with European features but now sees the beauty in her darks skin and kinky coily hair. Which important to have confident women like tis so that other young girls can see that their beauty is not comparable to those of a different race.

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"The Perception of Beauty Standards" an essay by Lawrencia Amfo-Asiedu

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London based writer, Lawrencia Amfo-Asied u , wrote a piece in November called "The Perception of Beauty Standards" with a goal to showcase positivity and highlight inspiring individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds. She reached out to us to feature it on MelaninASS and we graciously

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Spice a Jamaican artist took a lot of heat when she released a photo of herself with white skin blonde hair and blue eyes. The bold move was to bring awareness to the plague of colorism which many people are ignorant too and play the largest roles in it. Men and women bleaching their skin to lighten their complexion to be seen as more beautiful.

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Spice On Lightening Her Skin For A Video, Jamaican Stereotypes, New Music + More

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The video touches on the root of the light skin vs dark skin epidemic and where it stems from. Amoung black people there is a well-known war that young girls face when it comes too how much melanin is in your skin. The lighter you are the more beautiful and darker skinned people come with more negative stereotypes than anything else but always seen as less attractive. The fact that it stems from slavery where the lighter slaves were to work inside the home, and the darks in the fields was the initial act of putting them against each other and the mentality has carried on for more than a century.

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Although the intended purpose behind this video was to outline the effects of racism and how its effecting the youth, you can witness them saying that comparing black and white, white is what’s more beautiful. The importance of complexion already forced onto 3-5-year-old kids. Although society likes to think they've come along from their primitive ways, in this video you can see it has not changed all that much. The children have even been made to believe int the 'fair' in skin and complexion means to be 'fair' in beauty. They all see the white baby as good and pure. The young black girl could identify with the black baby she did, but she didn't see the beauty it possessed.

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This is a photo of a model named Winnie who was born with a condition called vitiligo. The condition effect the pigmentation of her skin, much like albinism but start as small as a dime size of lost pigment and slowly grow over time taking up larger places on the body. Winnie Harlow speaks about the hate she receives in the industry because she is not deemed beautiful by regular standard. Many people still don’t see her as stunning because of her different complexion.

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This here is a music mogul who has stood at the forefront of empowering both member of the LGBT community and women in general when it comes to freedom of sexuality. However, Kim has faced her fair share of backlash from her fans and other because she has become noticeably lighter from 1999 to present day. Her famous quote “being a regular black girl wasn’t going to cut it” plagued the hearts of many of her fans who were in fact darker tones. She admits that she finds the European look more attractive and has evidently begun transitioning to look more like them. Where as kim is doing this surgically many young and old people are doing it in a less sterile way, using harmful creams that contain many unsafe ingredients. Often times, in developing nations these products must be smuggled in order to sell where he demand is high.

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This image is typical in Indian culture where women are regarded as more beautiful the fairer their ski. In the photo the same woman appears in both images left being retouched to make her lighter, youthful and perfect, right, regular complexion noticeably darker and with wrinkles and fine lines. Not even the model herself lives up to the mold set by the media.