The skin color obsession of Thai women
Who first in Thailand come it will not be missed; Thai women. They are beautiful, often slim, have long dark hair, deep brown eyes and a beautiful smile. As if that were not enough, they are also elegant and polite.
What may surprise you is the fair complexion of some of them Thai women. This brings us straight to the heart of the matter, a light skin color is the ultimate beauty ideal of almost every Thai woman. It even goes so far that you can speak of an obsession.
White is beautiful
But what if you were born with dark skin? The beauty industry has capitalized on this. Everywhere in Thailand you can buy beauty items that lighten the skin or make it look lighter. From hand cream, body lotion, face masks, to even deodorant, the "brighteners" are represented.
You can therefore assume that a Thai woman with white skin has spent a small fortune on beauty products. She will also go to a beauty salon for a 'whitening' treatment and spend an hour every week scrubbing and applying oil at home.
Beauty ideal
Why do Thai women find light skin so important and are they almost obsessive about it? There are a few reasons for this, which I will explain:
- Status
- Admiration for Japanese and Koreans
- Luk Kreung, or half-caste models and actors
- Wrinkles and skin aging
Status
In Thailand, hierarchy and status are important. This is determined by a number of aspects such as, for example, your origin, family, education and work.
Thai women do not want to be associated with unskilled workers. Think, for example, of farmers, construction workers and street vendors. These groups work outside the home and often have dark skin. Light skin means you work indoors, perhaps in an office, and that gives you more status. Or even better you are so rich that you don't have to work: HiSo. After all, a rich woman hangs around in her luxurious air-conditioned home, drives a blinded car, watches soap operas all day, calls friends and gossips a bit.
Admiration for Japanese and Koreans
Another reason why Thais like light skin is because they admire the Japanese and Koreans. They love Japanese cartoons and Japanese music, they are also crazy about Korean soap operas and movie stars. Both Japanese and Koreans have light skin, Thai women like to look like that.
Luke Kreung
A group that has been very popular in Thailand for a number of years are the so-called 'Luk Kreung' (Thai: ลูกครึ่ง) literally; 'half-child'. These are men and women, often top models, actors, singers and TV hosts who are half Thai and half Western. One of the parents, usually the man, is therefore a farang. A 'half-caste' Thai fully complies with the fashion image in Thailand, namely light skin, lighter hair, lighter eyes and a western nose. Many Thai women and men see Luk Kreung as their role model. Popular 'Luk Kreung' include Dad Young a thai pop star, Paul Taylor en Cindy Burbridge both working as models and actresses.
Wrinkles and skin aging
Thai women know, just like here in the west, that the sun is mainly responsible for skin aging and wrinkles.
mixed babies
A farang who has a relationship with a Thai woman usually goes crazy over the nagging about a baby. Because a "mixed baby" also seems to be the ultimate goal of many Thai women. In addition to tying the farang (financial security), Thais love children. Half-blood babies are beautiful even in advance and also seem to be a kind of status symbol in Thailand. Yet not every 'Luk Kreung' is happy with his Western appearance, witness this statement by a half-blood child from the first generation:
”Every single day of my life in Thailand, people impress on me that I'm not Thai, something that would never happen in the West, that would be considered extremely rude in the West,” said Giles Ungpakorn, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University, who is the son of Thai and British parents. "Thailand is extremely explosive nationalistically, so that I am never regarded as a Thai citizen when people look at my face." *
*Source: The New York Times, Bangkok Journal; Thais With a Different Look, Flaunt Your Genes!
– Reposted message –
A disadvantage for these children is that they can never be a real Thai…Barred from government jobs and no military career
According to my information, there are also pills or drinks that promote whitening of the skin. I understand from a doctor that these can be dangerous to health. And of course in the west, tanning is the luxury image (lots of vacation or free time). In the time of the French court, being white/white was more popular there too.
The white of the rich in France proved that you were not a poor slob who had to work in the fields. The brown of the whites proved that you had money to go to the sun.
This is of course strongly encouraged by the sellers of all kinds of chemical products to put on your skin.
To make black people white, or to make white people dark.
Indeed. A pale skin color is pursued, sometimes to the point of absurdity.
First of all as an ideal of beauty, but also because of the harmful consequences of too much sun… dehydrated, wrinkled parchment skin, or even worse: cancer.
In addition to the "dark complexion complex", many ladies also dream of a sharp nose and thicker breasts.
These three attributes are definitely in the top five wish list of most female Thai.
Strange, but true, but none of these three dreams are important to me. I admire my sweet Thai wife “just the way she is”!
The grass is always greener on the other side. We milky white farang prefer to be brown again. We have tanning beds, fast tanning creams and further lengthy exposure in the sun for that.
It's never right.
Besides, there are more important things in life, right?
For millennia man has wanted to show that he is "better" than the others. Cleopatra (Greek origin in Egypt) is known to have bathed in donkey milk, because that would give a lighter skin color.
We from Europe wish to show that we can afford to wallow in the sun for a long time to get a browner skin color (instead of having to work day-in-day-out for a living), in the more southern countries the opposite: paler , because then you have the luxury of being able to stay indoors.
It can be even worse, not only "white", but also Western appearance. My Thai girlfriend, an older woman, loves my nose (me not so much), but wishes she had that kind of nose and sometimes wants surgery to have a western nose. She would also like to lift her eyes for a Western appearance.
So I tell her over and over that I think she's perfect the way she looks and there's no need to change. It makes her the way she is and what I love.
Sometimes she ducks or holds something in front of her face when the sun shines on her face. I have to laugh about it, I think she can be as brown as possible.
I'm jealous again like a real whity. But my white color is another cause of admiration for her and she wishes she were white too.
Fortunately, maybe because I've convinced her that I like her tan, it's not really an issue for her to walk with a parasol. But it does play up from time to time, so keep repeating that she looks formidable just the way she is.
Thai men (including her college) seem to reinforce the problem, because they like a Western appearance (status) as possible and make the remarks when she gets a little tanned.
So I tell her to tell her college that her white friend likes it, hahahaha. She doesn't dare again, because that's another issue, intercourse in Thai.
It is strange in Asian countries they want to be white and in Europe we try to become brown again.
In China they go one step further and have their legs cut to make them longer to get a western look !!
It is certain that the titanium dioxide is abundantly present in Asia, which she still uses every day to be white.
How do we allow ourselves to be manipulated by advertising? In Europe, the beauty ideal is as brown as possible, while in Thailand the exact opposite is the case. The capital generated by the industry in this way is enormous. Currently, cycling in Thailand is booming. Just for fun, check out how the cyclists are wrapped up from head to toe. It looks like they are going to cycle the Elfstedentocht. So the ideal of beauty is not just something for Thai girls who want to be beautiful. For Thai, things like this are very important.
If you look in the north of Thailand, you often see women from Myanmar (Burma) walking around in the border areas, who give you the idea, as if they have fallen with their whole head in the yellow powder. Apart from the fact that I find it ugly, my wife indicated that they did this precisely for their beauty. In this way, the skin remains young and beautiful, and the so-called negative influence of the sun is prevented. When you consider that the sun shines almost every day, and that they are forced to walk around full of this ugly powder every day, the question arises when they show their gained beauty. Or can this only be admired at night, or when it rains, and overcast weather??
That yellow powder is Tanaka, made from a certain tree.
This powder is used as a natural sunscreen (without chemicals), and it also has a cooling effect, so also against sweat on the face.
If it's applied nicely it's not ugly, but that's personal of course.
Et voila:
.
https://goo.gl/photos/qPzKMkRBYUKzgs55A
it also partly has to do with complexes. being unsure of yourself. The Asian race just feels inferior to the Caucasian race. Even if they look like a Westerner, you can tell by many things that they feel less worthy compared to Westerners. while, for example, thai are raised from childhood and taught in school that they are superior. it is probably due to the overprotection by the family. They are, in fact, still children when they are already in an adult age. Even though they are very rich, if they notice that they are not as superior as they thought they were compared to Westerners, for example, they cut up by comparing their appearance to Westerners. This hidden insecurity also stems from the fact that they have difficulties expressing themselves. Due to lack of love and emotional life in their upbringing. They then want to compensate by only thinking about wealth and appearance, but if they have achieved that artificially, they are still empty and insecure inside
I was able to convince my Thai wife that her tan is beautiful. She also has a radiant smile. Her skin is velvety soft. I keep telling her daily that she is very beautiful and sweet.
(I mean that sincerely because I love her very much, luckily that is mutual.) When we go swimming we also enjoy the sun. We do avoid the sun between 11 am and 4 pm.
Of course she also receives many compliments in the Netherlands.
Nothing more beautiful than a tinted tan, much more beautiful than all those pale farts
Women are always concerned with their appearance. Why? Their future depends on it. The French writer Celine already knew: “The capital of a woman is between her legs” Hook someone with money with that capital. A farang, for example.
The white is indeed true, just as we want to be a little brown.
What I find very strange is the great urge for operations on the nose, eyelids, chin, eyebrows, lips, breasts, etc. The nose and breasts are the most favorite to have surgery.
A real shame about the beautiful sweet faces of Thai ladies. With such a modified nose it sometimes looks very unnatural, but people themselves do not see that, in fact, the women try to drive each other crazy to do it too. People usually don't think about the consequences for later. It doesn't seem healthy to me, such a piece of solicone in your nose after 20 years. If things go wrong, you don't want a Michael Jackson nose, I think.
Not everyone likes that bloated, unnatural… let alone even want to touch it. It no longer feels human to me. Just give me the natural product. If I want to feel silicone, I'll hold my bicycle handlebar, because it has silicone grips.
The current trend in plastic surgery is to look as Korean as possible, especially through surgery on the eyelids. The Western image has become somewhat outdated, the emphasis is increasingly on an Asian image of beauty.
The Korean/Japanese image is highly regarded here – after all, these are also the most successful economies here.
Almost everything about this subject has already been discussed in the comments, but an addition about something that should have been discussed in the form of 3, actually 2 urls.
http://www.sirinyas-thailand.de/2015/03/20/thai-beauty-ideals-and-desire-for-fair-skin/
http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-news/417680/maeya-dark-beauty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonthawan_Thongleng
Dirk
My son is also a luk groan! (ลูกครึ่ง loek, long -oe-, falling tone, khreung, falling tone, child-half). Tremendously funny. In Thailand they think he is a so-called farang (they used to say 'that damn little farang', which you don't hear in Thailand!) and in the Netherlands they think he is an Asian! No, not a Turk, but an East Asian. He's really just a sweet, handsome boy.
About this quote. Also says something about Thailand…
'….said Giles Ungpakorn, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University, who is the son of Thai and British parents.'
Giles Unpakorn is the son of the famous Puey Ungpakorn who had to flee to England on October 6, 1976, aided by the King, from an angry mob. His mother is indeed British: Margaret Smith. And Giles Ji Ungpakorn also had to flee to England when he wrote a book after the 2006 coup: 'A Coup for the Rich'. Of course you can't (irony). So he is no longer a professor in Thailand after 2006 and can never go to Thailand again. Like thousands of others.
When I first came to Thailand years ago, I was not yet aware of the phenomenon that they prefer not to get so brown.
Because I wanted to protect myself from the sun, I saw to my dismay that I had bought the wrong sun cream before my flight to Europe.
On closer reading it turned out to be a so-called self-tanner, which did little to prevent sunburn, but only ensured that I would get even more tanned without sun.
Because I had heard that many Thai women like to use products from Europe, I thought I would surprise the chambermaid of my hotel with this.
Because she couldn't read it, of course, and only saw a big sun on the packaging, she thought, just like I did with my spontaneously wrong purchase, that it was best to protect her against the effects of the sun.
It smelled good, and that must have been part of the reason that a few days later she smeared herself with my well-intentioned present.
The next morning she knocked on my hotel room door to tell me, OOH MR, NO GOOD ,NO GOOD..... Damn make it!!
And indeed the stuff had served its purpose well, because in her face she was twice as dark as before.
It wasn't until a week later that I understood how this Thai woman must have suffered, and then I was able to make up for it later with a good tip.
By the way, when I came back to the same hotel a year later, she immediately recognized me, so I suspect that it also helped against forgetfulness.555
Then I hooked a unique Thai Isaanse.
We play 9 holes on the golf course at Ubon Ratchathani almost every day.
My Chaantje (Chanthana) refuses to play under a parasol.
Moreover, because I like dark skin, she only applies coconut oil serum to her body.
And she is proud of her Isaan appearance.
Both satisfied
Tastes differ/change.
During the first few years in Thailand I was attracted to dark women, but now I find that unattractive (in addition, as they get older, there are quite a few women whose dark skin shows spots on their faces, which I do not see in women with light skin color).
Almost white skin, slightly tanned is now my taste.