The FDA proposed a ban in 2006, but there are still lightening products being sold, many on the black market. (The European Union banned hydroquinone, known to cause leukemia in mice, from cosmetics in 2001. It is sold in the United States as an over-the-counter drug, but with a concentration not exceeding 2 percent.)

In Jamaica, blogger Francis Wade writes, "Some… firmly believe that bleached skin is also a sign of beauty." But the hydroquinone in bleaching products can be incredibly damaging. "It's not too hard to pick out someone who has applied these chemicals to their skin," Wade explains. "The color of the epidermis takes on a reddish, purplish tinge and often it has a different tone from skin on the neck, hands and chest." He links to a stomach-turning video in which a woman who has been using bleaching creams "for years" is shown to have very damaged, burned and disfigured skin. Users risk liver and kidney damage as well as skin cancer. Why do people do this to themselves?

Vanessa Walters notes: "This legacy of slavery or colonization, where lighter-skinned or white people were given visible privileges over hundreds of years has resulted in societies where the lighter you are, the higher your status socially and economically." She continues:

Advertisers may not be aware of how younger girls are influenced by images of women being airbrushed ever lighter, skinnier, blonder. L'Oreal have denied that their actions were deliberate, but nevertheless yet another message, that the whiter you are the more successful you will be, has been sent.

Mighty White [Guardian]
Beyoncé Knowles: L'Oreal Accused Of 'Whitening' Singer In Cosmetics Ad [Guardian]
Skin Bleaching [Moving Back To Jamaica]
Skin Bleaching [YouTube]

Skin-Lightening Cremes Sold On Black Market Have Serious Health Risks [Medical News Today]

Earlier: 'White Beauty' Has An Ugly Message

Some doctors in England are prescribing antidepressants for women who suffer from PMS (and show no depressed traits). • A play titled This Wide Night deals with the pain that some women go through when they are released from prison because of a lack of prison aftercare. • JC Penny launches an online RPG, Dork Dodge, to appeal to "fashion-conscious women" entering their first year of college by using real-life awkward moments of college life as a basis of the game. • Women athletes will make up 45% of the Olympic competitors in Beijing. • Disney rebrands Toon Disney into Disney XD, a channel that will appeal more to boys ages 6 to 14 by including more masculine gender stereotypes! • Robert Hazard, the musician who wrote Cyndi Lauper's 1983 hit, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", died today at the age of 59. • A small, unscientific survey has found that most women lie to avoid hurting someone's feeling, not necessarily to avoid getting out of trouble. * Young children (and women) in Afghanistan are being raped as the security situation of the country continues to deteriorate. • A female high school football player on a male-dominated team is suing her former coach who she claims made her practice without safety equipment (which her male peers had) resulting in getting her clavicle broken. • A 54-year-old grandma was arrested for child abuse after she took her 3-year-old granddaughter out for a joy ride (and "some air") by letting her sit on the roof of her car as she drove around.