ABSTRACT
This chapter situates the globalization of skin-whitening biotechnology as a contemporary practice and industry which promote symbolic investment in whiteness. It also examines the extent to which the globalization of skin-whitening facilitates and reinforces racialization and Eurocentric femininity. The globalization of skin-whitening is examined here as a contemporary diffusion and circulation of whiteness. Detailed content analysis of technical reports, scholarly literature and promotions for skin-whitening products will be conducted. The aim of this challenging undertaking is to interrogate the extent to which the globalization of skin-whitening products, which promise to ‘whiten’, and ‘brighten’ the dark skin of non-white women, reinforces the racialization and biomedicalization of women’s bodies and skin. In this work, skin-whitening is defined as a lucrative global trade with profound ethical and social implications. Consequently, this chapter critically interrogates the extent to which dynamics of race, class and gender intersect and reinforce the globalization of skin-whitening primarily to women in the Global South.
