She knows what she likes, and that’s white, white, white.

I was watching an episode of hollyoaks recently where one of the younger characters has been the victim of bullying. She is being bulled because she is Asian and so she buys skin whitener to lighten her skin. Whilst I obviously don’t agree with forcing someone to change who they are by means of mental or physical abuse, neither do I have a problem with changing your appearance to fit in. Some people don’t like to stand out from the crowd but would rather blend into the background and look the same as their friends.
Because the skin whitener doesn’t work the character turns to household bleach and suffers burns on her legs. When the character’s parents found out about what she has done they berate her for being weak and dishonouring her culture. In all honestly this response surprised me as I don’t think that someone’s cultural identity is entirely linked to the colour of their skin. An albino black man to me is still a black man. Changing your appearance to make yourself more aesthetically pleasing is something all of us do all of the time, whether it’s styling your hair, dressing a certain way, or even having a nose job. So why should lightening your skin be any different to getting a tattoo?