Skin Whitening in Vietnam

Annie: They line the shelves of Asian drugstores and supermarkets; they are marketed using packaging containing images of smiling, vibrant women that hide negative effects such as kidney damage; they are normalized and rampant amongst Asian media. These mysterious, hazardous substances are no other than skin whitening products, which are used by people all around the world. Every skin whitening product sold on the shelves of supermarkets and stores projects on young girls, their toxic health consequences as well as the influences of past and modern day colonialism.

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Annie: Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia that is populated by individuals with darker skin tones compared to those in East Asian countries. Similar to other Asian countries, Vietnam culture upholds lighter skin tones. However, most Vietnamese people aren’t born with these traits. I talked to Tran Nguyen, a young Vietnamese woman who is very familiar with Vietnamese culture. As members of a high school tennis team, I played tennis with Tran often over this last summer and had meaningful conversations about the difference in norms between America and Vietnam.

Tran: So, um, I grew up in Vietnam for, like, 10 years until I was in fourth grade that I moved to the US.

Annie: My mother, who grew up in Vietnam, painted a picture for me of the ideas surrounding skin tone there.

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Annie: Stepping into the busy streets of cities such as Saigon, you will observe crowds of people riding motorcycles or walking. For the most part, everyone wears long, thick clothing along with a sunhat despite the beaming sun. Although Vietnam’s climate is constantly humid and can reach temperatures into the 90’s, Vietnamese people still persist in wearing heavy clothing just to preserve their skin tone.

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Tran: You have to wear sunscreen, you have to wear a hat, you have to cover your arms and legs everywhere you go. It's important to cover up every part of your body so sun doesn't get you.

Annie: Wearing excessive clothing is one seemingly harmless method of conserving a light skin tone. However, many Vietnamese people take this obsession to the next level by using skin whitening products. These products range from face creams to oils, and a quick search on Google can prove the prominence and popularity of these items. Skin whitening products are even more popular amongst Asian markets and websites, and are often accompanied by advertisements depicting beautiful, light-skinned models. In Vietnam, these products are so normalized that they can be found all over peoples’ homes.

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Tran: My house is right next to a pharmacy so I see that them selling sunscreen and other whitening products and in hospitals and clinics it's always there because the demand is so high.

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Annie: Moreover, it is not only through stores and physical advertisements that skin whitening products thrive. Social media’s growth over the past decade has enabled skin whitening products to be marketed in greater numbers to an audience of younger, more susceptible individuals.

Tran: And now, even now, when I scroll to Tik Tok or Facebook, I would see um the user, they are like advertising and selling their products on there.

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Tran: And people are buying into this, they like oh look after 10 days this person using that and they got better. I should buy it too.

Annie: As Tran mentioned, apps such as Tik Tok and Instagram promote these products through sponsored advertisements made through users’ accounts as well as posts made on the companies’ page. These applications consist of a large number of young girls and women, so they will be further exposed to skin whitening products and believe that they are safe to use. The increased access and exposure to skin whitening products leads to a large number of the Vietnamese community who use the products.

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Tran: It's, it’s the norm, because everyone else is using it, their mother, their friends are using it, and so they are using it too, because to them it's normal. Like everyone is using it, so it must be safe for me to use it to.

Annie: This bandwagon mentality is partially responsible for the boom in the skin whitening industry in Vietnam. As beauty companies marketed and successfully sold their products, they became increasingly popular amongst young Vietnamese women. The more that others used these products, the more that individuals who avoided them were shunned. This growing trend is so dangerous because skin whitening products are harmful in several ways. First, there are countless dangerous health effects of skin whitening products. These range from mercury poisoning to dermatitis. One of the most dangerous is nephrotic syndrome, which is a kidney disorder that can cause swollen ankles, foamy urine, and fatigue. Finally, skin whitening creams may contain corticosteroids which can cause your skin to react negatively and produce steroid acne. Moreover, the harmful effects of skin whitening products are not only medically-related.

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Tran: Society in Vietnam, they like to have, um, a woman, especially for women, they want to have like this pure and innocent look, and so they need to be like white skin, no makeup and have thin body. So that's why white skin is so important because you have to be able to look like you’re pure because white skin is associated with purity while dark skin is considered dirty.

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Annie: Apart from the social pressure to use the popular skin whitening products, there are other cultural reasons for why Vietnamese people feel the need to lighten their skin. This is mainly centered around the discrimination towards darker skin tones, which can be traced back to the colonialism of Vietnam by the French in World War Two.

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Annie: Vietnamese society also has a habit of fetishizing the appearance of young girls, which they have placed on a pedestal as the beauty standard for young women. This discrimination of darker skin tones has encouraged a racist undertone amongst the Vietnamese culture and turns Vietnamese individuals against those who look have darker skin, whether these are people from Vietnam or different countries. This encourages discrimination and hate amongst Vietnamese people, which can lead to hate crimes and systemic racism in professional settings such as workplaces and schools. Moreover, skin whitening products promote the beauty standard of the “pure” young woman, which can lead to pedophilic and predatory attitudes among Vietnamese men. This perpetuates damaging expectations amongst people all around the globe and can contribute to the negative behaviors we see in men in our society. For example, there has been an increase in sexual assault cases as well as pedophilia. Moreover, racist ideologies in Vietnam can affect other countries through all of Asia, which creates a chain of stereotypes and hate crimes around various communities. While this starts in Vietnam, it also has the potential to expand to other different countries.

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Annie: Sadly, there isn’t a likelihood of people, back in Vietnam, moving away from using skin whitening products, at least for the foreseeable future. This is mostly due to the normalcy of these products as well as the heavy expectation that you should have a light skin tone.

Tran: They are like using it every day, no, because society make them to use it and so now if they don't use it, they kind of, like they an outcast.

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Annie: However, there is still hope. Vietnamese culture had existed without skin whitening products in the past, and before the colonialism and growth of Western influence, they weren’t as fixated on light skin tones as they are now. In figuring out methods of how to prevent and solve the skin whitening crisis in Vietnam, I reached out to an individual who was of Vietnamese descent but was more disconnected from the Vietnamese culture. I will refer to him as Thomas, which is not his real name.

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Thomas: Oh hey, I am a male college student who's currently studying in his second year at college. I grew up completely in America, I was born and raised here, so I don't have any experiences of Vietnam, apart from one single visit when I was very young. I think my relation more so, is towards the Vietnamese American Community more so than Vietnam.

Annie: His ties to Vietnam are stronger towards the young, college-aged Vietnamese-American community. This particular demographic has shown signs of straying away from the deep-rooted need for skin whitening products and light skin tone. Therefore, a clever intervention method when dealing with skin whitening products would be to mirror the actions this community is taking. Thomas mentioned that, in college, he had never seen skin whitening products used among friends or family members. Moreover, many young Vietnamese individuals are rejecting skin whitening products entirely. This may be due to the normalization of Western culture amongst Vietnamese individuals living in America.

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Thomas: Many of us have assimilated to Western culture. Now, most of our ideals about beauty are based on what the American beauty standards are and not so much Asian ideals of beauty.

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Annie: Young Vietnamese college students also have less time to deal with extraneous matters such as lightening their skin. College life consists of a busy, stacked schedule--not only are you constantly taking classes, you are also working part-time, doing internships, and dealing with relationships.

Thomas: You walk into the library, walk into the dining room, not many people wouldn't be dressed. And just make up and all that for women, at least I seen in colleges it's not something that people use daily just because there's no need to.

Annie: Finally, as college students today have become more tech-savvy, they can easily use the internet to search up the negative effects of skin-whitening products. These findings, taken from certified health organizations, would likely deter them from using the products entirely. Moreover, the internet and social media allows for easy sharing among family and friends, which would spread the message of the dangers of skin whitening products.

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Annie: So, we know now that skin whitening products are prevalent in Vietnam, and that young Vietnamese-Americans are straying away from these products through their own strategies. Combining these two discussions can help us formulate a plan for how we can deal with the skin whitening craze in Vietnam.

Annie: Firstly, we know that social media has been instrumental in both spreading the skin whitening trend and reducing it. Therefore, we can use this tool to our advantage to spread awareness and education surrounding skin whitening products. One way to do this would be to emphasize the different shades of skin tone through social media apps, in order to normalize the idea that lighter skin tones do not define beauty.

Tran: Like social media and products from the West maybe will be good for Vietnam to kind of open up and accept. Like tourism is also good, because they will see a variety of people like Middle Eastern people, African people that have different skin like tones.

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Annie: Next, implementing more recreational activities and educational opportunities in Vietnam could allow Vietnamese people to meet others from different communities. This is similar to the American college environment where you are introduced to a melting-pot of different individuals. This would open their eyes up to the color that follows diversity and the beauty of all individuals. Moreover, these educational opportunities could instruct them of the dangers surrounding skin whitening products, and discourage them from using them.

Annie: Finally, skin whitening products are known to be sold in shady environments under disguises of “brightening” creams and washes. Implementing requirements for these products in order for them to be sold would help to notify the user of any negative effects.

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Thomas: They make people aware of the dangers that these whitening products may have. Many of these products may not have been approved by the governmental agencies that overlook standards for marketing, so just making people aware of the dangers of these beauty products may have on their health now and years from now, may serve as more effective.

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Annie: These “standards” could be indicated as danger labels on the packages that come along with a pamphlet filled with needed information. When customers become aware of these dangers, this could discourage them from purchasing them and make their society as a whole aware that skin whitening products are not safe.

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Thomas: To anyone who’s listening to this podcast if you're interested in using whitening products, just don't, and neither you should use tanning beds or tanning oils or what not, because those increase one's chances of getting cancer. I mean, everyone has their own beauty standards and, you know, you can dress how you want, and you can look how you want, but if, in the end of the day, that beauty standards that you subscribe to will affect your overall health and take away years from your life, then you probably shouldn't do those things. You’re beautiful as you are.

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