Bleaching, lightness and representation among Somalis

[Angelina]

I think bleaching has become so rampant that people now accuse any light skin Somali girl of bleaching.

Do you lot look at light skin Somali girls and automatically assume of the bat that she has bleached?

If Somalia was to have a thriving film/presenting industry do you think lighter skinned women should get less representation, even if they’re naturally light skin?

@Keep it a boqol 💯 @Nilotic @Roorigeg @Qeelbax @Aurelian

 

[Chase]

To your first question, no. You can usually tell when a girl is beaching or not, they tend to have a "ashy" complexion.

Yes, because quintessential Somali beauty must be accompanied by a darker/brownish skin tone, for example Iman or Ubax, and I'm saying this as a guy who commonly gets mistaken for Yemeni or Eritrean.

No one light-skinned has the right to represent Somali beauty, they don't come anywhere near, just my opinion though.

 

[Angelina]

To your first question, no. You can usually tell when a girl is beaching or not, they tend to have a "ashy" complexion.

Yes, because quintessential Somali beauty must be accompanied by a darker/brownish skin tone, for example Iman or Ubax, and I'm saying this as a guy who commonly gets mistaken for Yemeni or Eritrean.

No one light-skinned has the right to represent Somali beauty, they don't come anywhere near, just my opinion though.

Bit of a sticky one still tbh. I only thought of this question as I still see myself as quintessentially Somali, but don’t know fair it is for people to say someone of my skin tone doesn’t have a right but at the same time I’m aware that if too many lighter skinned women are given media representation that would propel bleaching, even without the Arab and Indian influence.

 

[El Nino]

Shit is an epidemic, if you look at tiktok, all the girls are bleached and when a women is deemed beautiful back home, the women almost all the time is bleached. Like I have seen videos where it was a full montage of just heavily filtered and bleached women. Alhamdulillah I have seen couple darkskin somali women back home with hundreds of thousands followers on tiktok and that shushuu girl has a million I think. Good representation for darkskin girls.

 

[Angelina]

Shit is an epidemic, if you look at tiktok, all the girls are bleached and when a women is deemed beautiful back home, the women almost all the time is bleached. Like I have seen videos where it was a full montage of just heavily filtered and bleached women. Alhamdulillah I have seen couple darkskin somali women back home with hundreds of thousands followers and that shushuu girl has a million I think.

As Somalis we do have naturally light skin women. Since there is an epidemic of bleaching, do you think giving those types of women a platform is as harmful as Arab and Indian media exposure?

 

[Iceman88]

Is bleaching really relevant in the west, I though it was only done back home. And every girl from back home bleaches if they can afford it.

 

[Angelina]

Is bleaching really relevant in the west, I though it was only done back home. And every girl from back home bleaches if they can afford it.

Nope, it isn’t relevant here. 9/10 times if you see a light skin girl in the West, that is her natural color. Bleaching amongst Western Somalis is heavily stigmatized and in my days that shit would get you talked about and looked down upon. So Alhamdulliah we don’t have that issue.

but I’m talking about back home. All the female presenters and girls in the spotlight I either light skin or bleachers. At this point we can’t even blame Arab and Indian media as the vast majority of the time fobs like to watch fellow Somalis, but light skin ones.

 

[Kramer]

I honestly think its unfortunate, cause some of these girls are good looking in any skin-tone.

I prefer brown/Dark Brown skin personally. Some of these bleached girls look yellow

 

[Kramer]

Nope, it isn’t relevant here. 9/10 times if you see a light skin girl in the West, that is her natural color. Bleaching amongst Western Somalis is heavily stigmatized and in my days that shit would get you talked about and looked down upon. So Alhamdulliah we don’t have that issue.

but I’m talking about back home. All the female presenters and girls in the spotlight I either light skin or bleachers. At this point we can’t even blame Arab and Indian media as the vast majority of the time fobs like to watch fellow Somalis, but light skin ones.

At this point i don't think they doing it because of men, Its because they see the other female friends doing it, and jump on the bandwagon.

or im guessing less access to western style makeup so they bleach instead?

 

[Juliet]

I think bleaching has become so rampant that people now accuse any light skin Somali girl of bleaching.

Do you lot look at light skin Somali girls and automatically assume of the bat that she has bleached?

If Somalia was to have a thriving film/presenting industry do you think lighter skinned women should get less representation, even if they’re naturally light skin?

@Keep it a boqol 💯 @Nilotic @Roorigeg @Qeelbax @Aurelian

I posted my arm pic a while back and these guys thought i used all the overhead lights in my house lmaoo

Somalis are extremely diverse when it comes to skin tone, even among families

 

[Angelina]

I posted my arm pic a while back and these guys thought i used all the overhead lights in my house lmaoo

Loool I remember that and that kinda inspired this thread. I think bleaching has become so rampant that light skin Somali girls are now accused of bleaching.

 

[Juliet]

To your first question, no. You can usually tell when a girl is beaching or not, they tend to have a "ashy" complexion.

Yes, because quintessential Somali beauty must be accompanied by a darker/brownish skin tone, for example Iman or Ubax, and I'm saying this as a guy who commonly gets mistaken for Yemeni or Eritrean.

No one light-skinned has the right to represent Somali beauty, they don't come anywhere near, just my opinion though.

Apparently none of us actually look Somali on this site , huh?

There's nothing wrong with looking Somali, buddy

 

[Chaseyourdreamzz]

Most Somalis are dark skinned some darker then most other Africans so it’s only right dark skin women are given more representation in the media

 

[Man with a garuun]

I think bleaching has become so rampant that people now accuse any light skin Somali girl of bleaching.

Do you lot look at light skin Somali girls and automatically assume of the bat that she has bleached?

If Somalia was to have a thriving film/presenting industry do you think lighter skinned women should get less representation, even if they’re naturally light skin?

@Keep it a boqol 💯 @Nilotic @Roorigeg @Qeelbax @Aurelian

Hey sis, I wish Somalis focus on the harmful effects on bleaching, especially to the mother and the unborn children.

My understanding is, it is the fob that do this bleaching mostly. We need awareness of the underlying causes that force women to bleach themselves. What I noticed is young women dissing other women who didn't bleach themselves and whose skin tone was darker. So apparently, for women who don't sign up to the bleaching mindset, there is a huge abuse out there that they have to contend with.

Men should also do their part. I am not sure why men don't find repulsive for women who had to go extra length and subject their skin with chemicals. this is a serious health risk.

As for film industry in Somalia, I just wish there is a stricter regulations around it before it takes off.

 

[Chase]

I honestly think its unfortunate, cause some of these girls are good looking in any skin-tone.

I prefer brown/Dark Brown skin personally. Some of these bleached girls look yellow

100%, same here sxb, I don't why but a darker (ish) Xalimo would always be the ones to drive me crazy. Funnily enough, I don't have that same level of obsessive attraction with light-skinned (Somali or not) women?

My most ideal woman is the girl who played the film "desert flower", that's my preferred phenotype.

 

[El Nino]

As Somalis we do have naturally light skin women. Since there is an epidemic of bleaching, do you think giving those types of women a platform is as harmful as Arab and Indian media exposure?

We should definitely limit the exposure of lightskin women because bleaching is very harmful, it can cause dangerous health issues. Lightskin women can get a platform again when the beauty standards have changed back home, that beauty standard is lightskin.

Unfortunately the beauty standard is not going to change anytime soon, what we need to stop bleaching is for the ulama to declare it haram. Bleaching is basically like tattoos, it should be haram.

 

[Angelina]

Hey sis, I wish Somalis focus on the harmful effects on bleaching, especially to the mother and the unborn children.

Yes, they use the cheapest of bleach and skin products some having steriods and causing terrible skin conditions.

My understanding is, it is the fob that do this bleaching mostly. We need awareness of the underlying causes that force women to bleach themselves. What I noticed is young women dissing other women who didn't bleach themselves and their skin tone was darker. So apparently, for women who don't sign up to the bleaching mindset, there is a huge abuse out there that they have to contend with.

Yes, there is a saying habeen iyo doqon baa madow.

Men should also do their part. I am not sure why men don't find repulsive for women who had to go extra length and subject their skin with chemicals. this is a serious health risk.

I don’t know if we can blame men as men in the West have no issues dating/marrying darker Xalimos and dark skin Somali girls in the diaspora have a better relationship with their self image with regards to skin compared to back home. But then again, we’re more focused on not being fat and makeup ect, whilst back home being fat is acceptable and they’re more lax on beauty standards as long as you’re light.

As for film industry in Somalia, I just wish there is a stricter regulations around it before it takes off.

Definitely it is something that needs to be tackled. We have a lot of presenters and social media famous fob girls and all of them are very light. Some natural and many bleached.

 

[killerxsmoke]

You can easily tell who bleach thier skin. There are many ways to tell, one Is by looking at thier knuckles and thier lips. My sister for example she is very light and has pink lips while those who bleach usually dont have it, thier times that people you have natural light skin dont have pink lips, then the other way for you to look is thier knuckles, it is usually darker then thier bleach skin

 

[Angelina]

You can easily tell who bleach thier skin. There are many ways to tell, one Is by looking at thier knuckles and thier lips. My sister for example she is very light and has pink lips while those who bleach usually dont have it, thier times that people you have natural light skin dont have pink lips, then the other way for you to look is thier knuckles, it is usually darker then thier bleach skin

It’s 2022, those bleachers have found substances that bleach their lips pink and as for knuckles there are products they have found to tackle that. Also, what about hyperpigmentation? Some light skin people have that.

 

[Sol]

Not in the west no but its very obvious what it looks like anyway unless some new tech has come out that makes it look very real