An Open Letter to Pond’s and All Whitening Productsby figuresandspeeches January 4, 2013Retrieved from: http://www.pinoytumblr.com/post/39608454327/an-open-letter-to-ponds-and-all-whitening-products

Dear Pond’s (and all other whitening products),

This is an open letter about your latest TV advertisement. While beauty products are there to enhance a person’s face and

body. I believe they should not exist. To define what beauty is. (2)

Your latest TV advertisement. About a young girl. Who was “stopped by her dark and oily skin” in doing what she wants sends

a wrong message to all girls and women out there. Why should one’s skin color dictate what you can or cannot do? What is

the difference between a girl who has dark skin versus a girl with light skin? Does a person who have lighter skin color

automatically become more beautiful, more empowered? Does she gain more friends, admirers? (3)

For centuries. Many people have tried to stop discrimination based on race and color, and have tried to empower women and

girls by teaching them. To love their own bodies. This is why I find it very alarming: while the struggle for equality is still

ongoing, advertisements that favor one skin tone over another, that tell girls to become someone else, is promoted in

televisions. Seen by and influencing millions. (3)

Why not, instead of making girls and women feel insecure, make them proud about the skin they’re in? Why not celebrate

differences? Why not teach true empowerment than tell them to be empowered is to look a certain way?

Filipinos are brown. A lot of times we talk about Filipino pride and yet we are ashamed of our own color, or we are dictated.

To be ashamed of our own color. We see the likes of Venus Raj, Shamcey Supsup, and Janine Tugonon. Proving us that

morenas can be absolutely beautiful too. (2)

I hope beauty products like you become a tool of women empowerment. In a world that struggles to put women at an equal

footing with the rest of the world. The least you could do is build their confidence and allow them to love. Themselves, no

matter what size, what shape, what color they are. (2)

I am writing this in behalf of girls and women who have dark skin and who have always been proud about it. For girls and

women who feel bad about the skin they are in when they shouldn’t; to girls and women, to tell them. That they are beautiful,

period — no if’s, no buts. (2)

I look forward to the day. when women don’t have to defend and prove themselves because of the skin they are in. (1)

From,

A Girl Who Loves Her Dark Skin