OPINION ON SKIN BLEACHING

This post was written last year when the topic of female celebrities enhancing their skins was high.  

Skin bleaching, toning or lightening seems to have become an issue in recent times, with many people being livid at the rate at which some female celebrities have taken up this practice.

Inasmuch as skin colour enhancement is not a new phenomenon, dermatologists do point out to the hazards associated with the practice, and those criticizing align their arguments with those by skin/ health experts.

One individual who is caught up in this debate is actress Yvonne Nelson.  Recently, a USA website listed her in the club of ’15 Celebrities Caught Bleaching’ It is an undeniable fact that her skin colour has undergone changes over the years. Evidence can be gleaned from her first role in the movie ‘Princess Tyra”.

 

Actress Yvonne Nelson came under severe bashing for alleged enhancing of skin

Late last year, another gospel musician, Ama Boahema ascribed ‘excessive milk drinking’ as reason for her now fair skin. Ama Boahema was, until now, notoriously dark.

 

Different shades of Ama Boahemaa

 But the question is: why are people so obsessed with their skin changes? Isn’t it within her right to do whatever she so desires with her body? Just as some people could go about piercing their skins or shrouding their skins with tattoos and wearing bizarre weaves so can she and many others give their skins a little ‘treat’

Yvonne Nelson and others like her are not ignorant about the health hazards of skin toning, bleaching or lightening, now or in the near future. She’s old enough to do whatever she pleases with herself. People should just respect her choice.

There are many others who are ‘treating’ their skins to enhance its lightness and for the fact that they are a bit fairer, we fail to see that.

Perhaps Yvonne Nelson (in particular) is getting all this stick for the simple reason that she is perceive as a ‘role model’ who is expected to set a ‘ good example’. But the argument could also be that, who have asked who to regard her as a ‘role model’? And because she is a ‘role model’ doesn’t she have the right to do what pleases her soul and spirit, and has to bow to meet public expectation?  Is not as if her present skin colour makes her less Ghanaian or African, compared to Africans who naturalize for other non-African countries.

Despite her denial that ‘’as an actress I take different pictures under different shades of light n with different shades of make-up…it is therefore not strange to find different pictures of me. It doesn’t mean I’m bleaching and doesn’t need an industry player to know this’’, one must not to be an ‘industry player’ to notice the changes your skin is or has undergone.  

But again, I who am I to chastise you for the ‘treatment’ you are giving your skin. It is your skin Miss.