June 8, 2011 • 16 mins
Pale-skinned people often desire a nice, healthy tan, even though tanning can bring health risks. Yet in some other cultures, this ideal is reversed. Join Cristen and Molly as they talk about whiteness as a beauty ideal and the health risks involved.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you From House top
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. This
is Molly and I'm Kristen Kristen. Last week we talked
about some tanning and how popular it's become despite health risk.
And I'm just happy to report everyone that Kristen went
(00:24):
to the beach and did not get burned, because I
remember she was going to have that little Molly on
her shoulder, and the Molly did follow me down to
the beach, and even my friends commented on why I
was not spending much time in the sun at all,
and I just kept saying, I don't want to be summer.
New guys, the co worker has freaked me out about Sundays.
It's a little Molly on your shoulder. Did her work.
I hope she's done some work for everyone out there
(00:47):
when they head to the beach. Um. We alluded to
the fact in that podcast that while we tend to
have this ideal that a tan is a healthy, you know,
glowing thing that can make you more attractive, that is
not true around the world. And you know, we talked
about how historically pale skin was always seen as the
sign of class because you didn't have to go out
(01:09):
and be in the fields all day. And it turns
out that, you know, people with white skin are not
the only one who have had this history of of
pale skin being better, and in fact extends two people
in Asian cultures, African cultures all around the world. And
so that's what we're gonna talk about today, is how
this ideal of pale skin has led to this huge
(01:29):
business of skin lightning and skin whitening. Yeah, a friend
of mine um whose Vietnamese, actually just got back from
visiting relatives in Vietnam and they all commented to her
on how dark her skin was, and they were all
trying to push these skin lightning creams on her, and
she was saying how it was really hot and humid
(01:51):
when she was there, but whenever she'd go out, of
other girls her age, we're always wearing long sleeves and hoodies,
and it was to protect themselves from the sun, because
is the last thing they wanted to do was to
get a tan and become even darker. So we want
to talk about the industry of skin lightning, the culture
behind it, and why in similar ways that women in
the United States take health risks to get a tan.
(02:14):
Women in other countries and other parts of the world
also take health risks in order to lighten their skin.
But first, I think that we should start out with
a little bit of science to talk about why we
even have different shades of skin tone, because there are
a lot of interesting theories about why white skin even evolved. Yeah,
So what they think is that when humans started migrating
(02:37):
out of Africa, they're going to higher latitudes where there
are lower levels of vitamin D, which means the sun
is less intense. So this caused sort of just the
gradual light lightning effect of skin, this migration north, and
that's sort have been like the main theory for a
long time. But there was a Live Science article in
two thousand nine that talked about maybe some other possible
(02:59):
reasons that this could have happened. UM. One idea was
that because dark skin is more prone to frostbite, when
people went north into colder latitudes, it became sort of
something to negatively select against, because you would want to
have skin that was less prone to frostbite in colder temperatures. UM.
One theory that I think is kind of interesting given
(03:20):
some of the other things we'll talk about is that
men started preferring mates with lighter skin, so they would
select sexually for lighter skin mates, and that would just
continue on and on. And I said that they would
do that because lighter skin was supposedly a sign of
youth and fertility. And how many times have we talked
about the ways in which we unconsciously are selecting for
the most fertile mates. So that makes sense that you
(03:42):
know they would see this as you know people, you know,
babies have lighter skin than adults do, so yeah, you
would look for someone who was young because it's a
sign of fertility. And you can continue the line um.
One theory is that when we moved away from subsistence
based uh feeding ourselves, you know, the hunting, the gathering,
and went more to agriculture, we eliminated a lot of
(04:03):
vitamin D from our diets and that that affected our
skin colors. So lots of theories out there. So when
we talk about the history behind this, the preference for
lighter skin, a lot of times we might assume that
it has a lot to do with Westerns coming in
and imposing our cultural values onto these Eastern cultures, basically
(04:27):
making whiteness the new sign of wealth and class, but
it predates any kind of Western infiltration. Yeah, that was
the most interesting thing to me, is because that's what
I assumed, is that people were subjected to these Western
standards of beauty, and they have been. That's probably a
big reason as to why these ideals have continued and
(04:47):
carried on. But according to a lot of research, this
idea that white skin is better skin has been around,
you know, since the beginning of time. And there there's
talking about how and these really ancient Japanese cultures applying
white powder of the face was considered a woman's moral duty. Um.
In ancient China, women would swallow powdered pills because they
(05:08):
thought it would make them wider. Powdered pearls, powdered pearls,
powdered pills. Um. But yeah, I mean all through history,
they are these examples of how people, especially in Asia,
thought that you know, you've got to have really white skin,
and it would eventually affect your marital status, how much
money you made. It just it goes on and on,
all these reasons why you'd want to have beautiful skin,
(05:30):
and it's built into the language like fair and beautiful
in India are synonyms. Yeah, And there's a Chinese saying
that's persisted throughout the ages to that whitening is everything.
Basically you can cover up all of your defective parts
if you're white. This also extends into Arab cultures, where
wider looking children tend to be more preferential, and even
(05:50):
in uh Latino cultures, wider looking Spanish women are sometimes
considered more attractive. Right, So, I mean, even though it's
it's sort of as a tale as oldest time, according
to this research, you know, then they do, they do
become subject to these same sort of beauty ideals that
people in this country are also subject, right, And I
don't think that we should discount the fact that Western
(06:13):
beauty ideals have probably had a major impact on the
persistence of the value of whiteness. Um, which sounds weird
to say, as like two Caucasian girls sitting here talking,
but yeah, but but these are the facts. So it's
kind of interesting how it's maybe um compounded. Yeah, I mean,
you're seeing white movie stars, white models. When they're picking
(06:35):
models for advertisements, they picked the ones with the really
pale skin, so you do get that reinforcement that white skin,
light skin is better and it's just that association that
we saw even in Western cultures with wealth and higher
education levels. Um, So let's talk about skin lightning today
because it is very prevalent. For out of every ten
(06:57):
women use a whitening cream in honk Long, Malaysia, the Philippines,
South Korea, and Taiwan, and skin lightning has ballooned into
a sixteen billion dollar market and people are not only
trying to whiten the skin that you might see um
outside of their clothes, but also their armpits and some
(07:17):
women might even try to lighten their nipples. So how
do these skin lightning creams work? I mean, they're just
so prevalent in a lot of these countries. Some of
them contain acids and that will remove the old skin
to reveal lighter skin underneath, and others will inhibit melanin
h so that that will you know, if you remove melon,
that's the thing that gives your skin color. But that
(07:38):
can also, as we'll talk about later, damage your skin.
And as you might imagine, a lot of these creams,
particularly in developing countries, aren't subject to any side, any
kind of oversight, and they turn out to be quite
damaging and dangerous. Right. Mercury poisoning is one of the
main health concerns with these skin lightning creams because a
lot of the unregulated UH skin lightning cream might contain
(08:01):
mercury um. And then there are other um ingredients such
as mulberry extract, liquorice extract, coachic acid. Um. There's also
I think it's hydro quine on, which is the mercury
base acid, which is one of the most dangerous ones. Yeah.
I mean if we were a movie star who eats
sushi and gets mercury poison, you can only imagine how
(08:21):
bad would be to have it. It's seeping into your
skin regularly, and like you mentioned, Molly, there can be
some negative side effects to it. For instance, some of
these might actually they might start bleaching your skin but
leave you with darker patches of skin after you've used
it for a long time and will um, it'll just
(08:41):
give you a really patchy appearance um. And that's called
okrah gnosis, which is the appearance of very dark patches
of skin that are difficult to remove. You might also
develop something called luca derma, or the skin lucis the
ability to produce pigment so that actually turns areas of
your skin pink, and then just removing the melan and
in general puts your skin at risk for more damage,
(09:04):
kind of like how we put our skin at risk
for skin damage when we're laying under the sun baking
and tanning beds. Yeah, it reminded me so much of
that conversation Kristen, because you know, people seem to know
the risks and do it anyway, just the way we
know the risk of getting a tan and tend to
do it anyway. But you know, sometimes it just seems
like there's so much at stake. Uh. A lot of
(09:25):
reporters go in and look at the marital ads in
India where a lot of you know, marriages are arranged
through advertising, as we've discussed before, and all the ads
by and large say it's a fair skinned woman. You know,
I am a fair skinned woman, marry me, or I'm
a man looking for a fair skinned woman. It's it's
very much how you can gain status and gain any
(09:46):
sort of currency within a system is to have this
light skin and despite any risks associated with it. And
we're not saying that that all um, you know, skin
lightning creams are implicated in this, but there are very
real risks with mercury po especially for more of these
off brand um skin lightning and bleaching creams. But these
products are the most popular in India's skincare market. In
(10:10):
the skincare market there has grown forty seven since two
thousand one. So this is something also kind of like danning.
It's interesting you keep seeing the parallels that has really
picked up in the past decade or so, right, And
it's really interesting to see how advertisers market skin lightning
because you know, there's a lot of people who think
that when we tan or when we put on makeup,
(10:32):
we're buying into some sort of ideal that the makeup
companies are selling us. And they've been able to use
that same sort of mess message of empowerment that you
can fix all your flaws with these skin lightning creams.
And you know, um, there was one headline about in
the New York Times telling India's modern women that they
have power even over their skin tone. And this idea
(10:52):
that you know, you take this you know, quote unquote
Western sense of empowerment of being uh an enlightened woman,
no pun intended. But being sort of an independent person
who can make your own money and control your own
destiny and applying that to skin lightning, it's a very
powerful message, the same way that some people would argue
that lipstick is sold to us, or you know, the
(11:15):
idea that you know, by taking control of your appearance,
you can take control of your life and get a
better job and get you know, land that perfect partner.
And the same cosmetics companies that are marketing bronzers and
similar products in the West are marketing skin lightning creams
in the East under the same types of advertising. Because
(11:37):
it's all about like the tagline for fair and lovely,
one of the most popular skin liners out there is
the power of beauty. And I mean that sounds like
something we hear about in the American cosmetics industry as well.
It's just different types of beauty ideas being pedaled to
us by the same companies that are making so much
money off of this. And you know it's um I
(11:58):
think that you know, we're we're given this message that
every skin color is beautiful. Truly it is, but uh,
you know we are we would be hypocritical if we said,
you know, skin lightning should stop because uh that would
you know, someone who could make the argument that then
you know, every American when should give up her skin
wrinkle cream, that if we are applying things to our
(12:18):
skin to change it, that you know, we can't judge
people who are giving themselves mercury poisoning trying to look wider.
So it sort of goes to the heart of what
we try and do in a lot of these episodes, Christie,
where we unpack why we do certain things we do,
like wearing high heels, wearing makeup, etcetera. You know, it's
just it's a there's a really long history and a
really effective marketing system in place, and we should point
(12:40):
out too that this isn't just marketing aimed at women. UM,
Fair and Lovely has spun off into fair and Handsome
for men and it has become incredibly popular as well.
Kind of like how you know, plenty of men go
out and tan themselves in Western culture. So I think
that you know, whenever we try and do take away
from this, it's you know your risk and know why
(13:01):
you do it, and uh, you know, we may not
have the biggest audience, and you know, India and China
and all that, but you know it still affects women
in the United States. We don't want to to imply
that this is something that only happens other places. This
beauty ideal can affect you no matter where you are,
so be aware of why you think certain things are beautiful.
(13:21):
I think it is good advice for any woman or
man or men. And on that note, why don't we
head over to some listener mail from mom stuff at
how stuff works dot com. So I've got an email
here from Angela about our podcasts on cat calls, and
(13:42):
she writes, I don't have much of an opinion on
cat calls, other than to say that I think our
society in general is often far too sensitive. I do, however,
have a funny cat calls story. A friend of mine
was worth walking her grandmother's very large and dope labrador
one day and passed by a group of construction workers
who were pouring a sidewalk. The whole group of them
begin whistling and shouting, and she lost control of the
(14:05):
lab as he took off, trumping through their partially set
up concrete, leaving a permanent set of big lab paw prints.
Perhaps they learned a lesson that day. Almost twenty years later,
I still giggle when I hear a cat call while
walking my own dogs. Get it dog paws, cat calls
like it nice? Thanks Angela. I have one here from Caroline,
who lives in New York City, and she writes, one
(14:27):
of the things you didn't mention in this cat calling
podcast is how young a lot of the women who
get cat called are. I started being comments from strangers
in six or seventh grade, mostly from adult men. One
of the initiation of the anti street harassment organizations are
working on in New York is not making street harassment
entirely illegal, but creating harassment free zones around schools where
it's particularly rampant. Being cat called really upset me. When
(14:49):
I was younger, it made me feel very unsafe, but
now it just gets on my nerves. It's important to
remember that a lot of the comments are not just
nice stems, but things that are pretty vulgar and obscene.
The good news is that confronting street raptors really does work.
Even asking a guy to repeat what he just said
usually shames him enough to apologize and skulk away. I
don't think a lot of men realize how threatening it
can be when they approach women on the street or
(15:10):
in the subway. If you point out to them that
what they're doing is scary and intimidating, they usually feel
pretty bad. I would encourage women to speak up if
they if they're somewhere they feel safe doing so. And
that's the point that we've gotten um from a few
listeners Christen, is just that when it happens, it seems
to happen to really young girls, and that's that's pretty scary.
That is scary. So if you have any stories to
(15:30):
share with us Mom Stuff at how Stuff Works dot com.
We'd also love for you to like us over on
Facebook and interact with us there, and you can also
follow us on Twitter at Mom's Stuff podcast. And finally,
you can read our blog and check out a whole
library of skincare articles. I wish I had specific ones
(15:51):
to call out, but there is literally a vast library
of skincare articles millions, millions, not really millions, but hundreds,
hundreds of least undreds at least of skincare articles on
mine and Molly's home Monday through Friday. It's how Stuff
Works dot com. Be sure to check out our new
(16:27):
video podcast, Stuff from the Future join How Stuff Work
staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities
of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works I Fine app has
a ride. Download it today on iTunes
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you From House top
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. This
is Molly and I'm Kristen Kristen. Last week we talked
about some tanning and how popular it's become despite health risk.
And I'm just happy to report everyone that Kristen went
(00:24):
to the beach and did not get burned, because I
remember she was going to have that little Molly on
her shoulder, and the Molly did follow me down to
the beach, and even my friends commented on why I
was not spending much time in the sun at all,
and I just kept saying, I don't want to be summer.
New guys, the co worker has freaked me out about Sundays.
It's a little Molly on your shoulder. Did her work.
I hope she's done some work for everyone out there
(00:47):
when they head to the beach. Um. We alluded to
the fact in that podcast that while we tend to
have this ideal that a tan is a healthy, you know,
glowing thing that can make you more attractive, that is
not true around the world. And you know, we talked
about how historically pale skin was always seen as the
sign of class because you didn't have to go out
(01:09):
and be in the fields all day. And it turns
out that, you know, people with white skin are not
the only one who have had this history of of
pale skin being better, and in fact extends two people
in Asian cultures, African cultures all around the world. And
so that's what we're gonna talk about today, is how
this ideal of pale skin has led to this huge
(01:29):
business of skin lightning and skin whitening. Yeah, a friend
of mine um whose Vietnamese, actually just got back from
visiting relatives in Vietnam and they all commented to her
on how dark her skin was, and they were all
trying to push these skin lightning creams on her, and
she was saying how it was really hot and humid
(01:51):
when she was there, but whenever she'd go out, of
other girls her age, we're always wearing long sleeves and hoodies,
and it was to protect themselves from the sun, because
is the last thing they wanted to do was to
get a tan and become even darker. So we want
to talk about the industry of skin lightning, the culture
behind it, and why in similar ways that women in
the United States take health risks to get a tan.
(02:14):
Women in other countries and other parts of the world
also take health risks in order to lighten their skin.
But first, I think that we should start out with
a little bit of science to talk about why we
even have different shades of skin tone, because there are
a lot of interesting theories about why white skin even evolved. Yeah,
So what they think is that when humans started migrating
(02:37):
out of Africa, they're going to higher latitudes where there
are lower levels of vitamin D, which means the sun
is less intense. So this caused sort of just the
gradual light lightning effect of skin, this migration north, and
that's sort have been like the main theory for a
long time. But there was a Live Science article in
two thousand nine that talked about maybe some other possible
(02:59):
reasons that this could have happened. UM. One idea was
that because dark skin is more prone to frostbite, when
people went north into colder latitudes, it became sort of
something to negatively select against, because you would want to
have skin that was less prone to frostbite in colder temperatures. UM.
One theory that I think is kind of interesting given
(03:20):
some of the other things we'll talk about is that
men started preferring mates with lighter skin, so they would
select sexually for lighter skin mates, and that would just
continue on and on. And I said that they would
do that because lighter skin was supposedly a sign of
youth and fertility. And how many times have we talked
about the ways in which we unconsciously are selecting for
the most fertile mates. So that makes sense that you
(03:42):
know they would see this as you know people, you know,
babies have lighter skin than adults do, so yeah, you
would look for someone who was young because it's a
sign of fertility. And you can continue the line um.
One theory is that when we moved away from subsistence
based uh feeding ourselves, you know, the hunting, the gathering,
and went more to agriculture, we eliminated a lot of
(04:03):
vitamin D from our diets and that that affected our
skin colors. So lots of theories out there. So when
we talk about the history behind this, the preference for
lighter skin, a lot of times we might assume that
it has a lot to do with Westerns coming in
and imposing our cultural values onto these Eastern cultures, basically
(04:27):
making whiteness the new sign of wealth and class, but
it predates any kind of Western infiltration. Yeah, that was
the most interesting thing to me, is because that's what
I assumed, is that people were subjected to these Western
standards of beauty, and they have been. That's probably a
big reason as to why these ideals have continued and
(04:47):
carried on. But according to a lot of research, this
idea that white skin is better skin has been around,
you know, since the beginning of time. And there there's
talking about how and these really ancient Japanese cultures applying
white powder of the face was considered a woman's moral duty. Um.
In ancient China, women would swallow powdered pills because they
(05:08):
thought it would make them wider. Powdered pearls, powdered pearls,
powdered pills. Um. But yeah, I mean all through history,
they are these examples of how people, especially in Asia,
thought that you know, you've got to have really white skin,
and it would eventually affect your marital status, how much
money you made. It just it goes on and on,
all these reasons why you'd want to have beautiful skin,
(05:30):
and it's built into the language like fair and beautiful
in India are synonyms. Yeah, And there's a Chinese saying
that's persisted throughout the ages to that whitening is everything.
Basically you can cover up all of your defective parts
if you're white. This also extends into Arab cultures, where
wider looking children tend to be more preferential, and even
(05:50):
in uh Latino cultures, wider looking Spanish women are sometimes
considered more attractive. Right, So, I mean, even though it's
it's sort of as a tale as oldest time, according
to this research, you know, then they do, they do
become subject to these same sort of beauty ideals that
people in this country are also subject, right, And I
don't think that we should discount the fact that Western
(06:13):
beauty ideals have probably had a major impact on the
persistence of the value of whiteness. Um, which sounds weird
to say, as like two Caucasian girls sitting here talking,
but yeah, but but these are the facts. So it's
kind of interesting how it's maybe um compounded. Yeah, I mean,
you're seeing white movie stars, white models. When they're picking
(06:35):
models for advertisements, they picked the ones with the really
pale skin, so you do get that reinforcement that white skin,
light skin is better and it's just that association that
we saw even in Western cultures with wealth and higher
education levels. Um, So let's talk about skin lightning today
because it is very prevalent. For out of every ten
(06:57):
women use a whitening cream in honk Long, Malaysia, the Philippines,
South Korea, and Taiwan, and skin lightning has ballooned into
a sixteen billion dollar market and people are not only
trying to whiten the skin that you might see um
outside of their clothes, but also their armpits and some
(07:17):
women might even try to lighten their nipples. So how
do these skin lightning creams work? I mean, they're just
so prevalent in a lot of these countries. Some of
them contain acids and that will remove the old skin
to reveal lighter skin underneath, and others will inhibit melanin
h so that that will you know, if you remove melon,
that's the thing that gives your skin color. But that
(07:38):
can also, as we'll talk about later, damage your skin.
And as you might imagine, a lot of these creams,
particularly in developing countries, aren't subject to any side, any
kind of oversight, and they turn out to be quite
damaging and dangerous. Right. Mercury poisoning is one of the
main health concerns with these skin lightning creams because a
lot of the unregulated UH skin lightning cream might contain
(08:01):
mercury um. And then there are other um ingredients such
as mulberry extract, liquorice extract, coachic acid. Um. There's also
I think it's hydro quine on, which is the mercury
base acid, which is one of the most dangerous ones. Yeah.
I mean if we were a movie star who eats
sushi and gets mercury poison, you can only imagine how
(08:21):
bad would be to have it. It's seeping into your
skin regularly, and like you mentioned, Molly, there can be
some negative side effects to it. For instance, some of
these might actually they might start bleaching your skin but
leave you with darker patches of skin after you've used
it for a long time and will um, it'll just
(08:41):
give you a really patchy appearance um. And that's called
okrah gnosis, which is the appearance of very dark patches
of skin that are difficult to remove. You might also
develop something called luca derma, or the skin lucis the
ability to produce pigment so that actually turns areas of
your skin pink, and then just removing the melan and
in general puts your skin at risk for more damage,
(09:04):
kind of like how we put our skin at risk
for skin damage when we're laying under the sun baking
and tanning beds. Yeah, it reminded me so much of
that conversation Kristen, because you know, people seem to know
the risks and do it anyway, just the way we
know the risk of getting a tan and tend to
do it anyway. But you know, sometimes it just seems
like there's so much at stake. Uh. A lot of
(09:25):
reporters go in and look at the marital ads in
India where a lot of you know, marriages are arranged
through advertising, as we've discussed before, and all the ads
by and large say it's a fair skinned woman. You know,
I am a fair skinned woman, marry me, or I'm
a man looking for a fair skinned woman. It's it's
very much how you can gain status and gain any
(09:46):
sort of currency within a system is to have this
light skin and despite any risks associated with it. And
we're not saying that that all um, you know, skin
lightning creams are implicated in this, but there are very
real risks with mercury po especially for more of these
off brand um skin lightning and bleaching creams. But these
products are the most popular in India's skincare market. In
(10:10):
the skincare market there has grown forty seven since two
thousand one. So this is something also kind of like danning.
It's interesting you keep seeing the parallels that has really
picked up in the past decade or so, right, And
it's really interesting to see how advertisers market skin lightning
because you know, there's a lot of people who think
that when we tan or when we put on makeup,
(10:32):
we're buying into some sort of ideal that the makeup
companies are selling us. And they've been able to use
that same sort of mess message of empowerment that you
can fix all your flaws with these skin lightning creams.
And you know, um, there was one headline about in
the New York Times telling India's modern women that they
have power even over their skin tone. And this idea
(10:52):
that you know, you take this you know, quote unquote
Western sense of empowerment of being uh an enlightened woman,
no pun intended. But being sort of an independent person
who can make your own money and control your own
destiny and applying that to skin lightning, it's a very
powerful message, the same way that some people would argue
that lipstick is sold to us, or you know, the
(11:15):
idea that you know, by taking control of your appearance,
you can take control of your life and get a
better job and get you know, land that perfect partner.
And the same cosmetics companies that are marketing bronzers and
similar products in the West are marketing skin lightning creams
in the East under the same types of advertising. Because
(11:37):
it's all about like the tagline for fair and lovely,
one of the most popular skin liners out there is
the power of beauty. And I mean that sounds like
something we hear about in the American cosmetics industry as well.
It's just different types of beauty ideas being pedaled to
us by the same companies that are making so much
money off of this. And you know it's um I
(11:58):
think that you know, we're we're given this message that
every skin color is beautiful. Truly it is, but uh,
you know we are we would be hypocritical if we said,
you know, skin lightning should stop because uh that would
you know, someone who could make the argument that then
you know, every American when should give up her skin
wrinkle cream, that if we are applying things to our
(12:18):
skin to change it, that you know, we can't judge
people who are giving themselves mercury poisoning trying to look wider.
So it sort of goes to the heart of what
we try and do in a lot of these episodes, Christie,
where we unpack why we do certain things we do,
like wearing high heels, wearing makeup, etcetera. You know, it's
just it's a there's a really long history and a
really effective marketing system in place, and we should point
(12:40):
out too that this isn't just marketing aimed at women. UM,
Fair and Lovely has spun off into fair and Handsome
for men and it has become incredibly popular as well.
Kind of like how you know, plenty of men go
out and tan themselves in Western culture. So I think
that you know, whenever we try and do take away
from this, it's you know your risk and know why
(13:01):
you do it, and uh, you know, we may not
have the biggest audience, and you know, India and China
and all that, but you know it still affects women
in the United States. We don't want to to imply
that this is something that only happens other places. This
beauty ideal can affect you no matter where you are,
so be aware of why you think certain things are beautiful.
(13:21):
I think it is good advice for any woman or
man or men. And on that note, why don't we
head over to some listener mail from mom stuff at
how stuff works dot com. So I've got an email
here from Angela about our podcasts on cat calls, and
(13:42):
she writes, I don't have much of an opinion on
cat calls, other than to say that I think our
society in general is often far too sensitive. I do, however,
have a funny cat calls story. A friend of mine
was worth walking her grandmother's very large and dope labrador
one day and passed by a group of construction workers
who were pouring a sidewalk. The whole group of them
begin whistling and shouting, and she lost control of the
(14:05):
lab as he took off, trumping through their partially set
up concrete, leaving a permanent set of big lab paw prints.
Perhaps they learned a lesson that day. Almost twenty years later,
I still giggle when I hear a cat call while
walking my own dogs. Get it dog paws, cat calls
like it nice? Thanks Angela. I have one here from Caroline,
who lives in New York City, and she writes, one
(14:27):
of the things you didn't mention in this cat calling
podcast is how young a lot of the women who
get cat called are. I started being comments from strangers
in six or seventh grade, mostly from adult men. One
of the initiation of the anti street harassment organizations are
working on in New York is not making street harassment
entirely illegal, but creating harassment free zones around schools where
it's particularly rampant. Being cat called really upset me. When
(14:49):
I was younger, it made me feel very unsafe, but
now it just gets on my nerves. It's important to
remember that a lot of the comments are not just
nice stems, but things that are pretty vulgar and obscene.
The good news is that confronting street raptors really does work.
Even asking a guy to repeat what he just said
usually shames him enough to apologize and skulk away. I
don't think a lot of men realize how threatening it
can be when they approach women on the street or
(15:10):
in the subway. If you point out to them that
what they're doing is scary and intimidating, they usually feel
pretty bad. I would encourage women to speak up if
they if they're somewhere they feel safe doing so. And
that's the point that we've gotten um from a few
listeners Christen, is just that when it happens, it seems
to happen to really young girls, and that's that's pretty scary.
That is scary. So if you have any stories to
(15:30):
share with us Mom Stuff at how Stuff Works dot com.
We'd also love for you to like us over on
Facebook and interact with us there, and you can also
follow us on Twitter at Mom's Stuff podcast. And finally,
you can read our blog and check out a whole
library of skincare articles. I wish I had specific ones
(15:51):
to call out, but there is literally a vast library
of skincare articles millions, millions, not really millions, but hundreds,
hundreds of least undreds at least of skincare articles on
mine and Molly's home Monday through Friday. It's how Stuff
Works dot com. Be sure to check out our new
(16:27):
video podcast, Stuff from the Future join How Stuff Work
staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities
of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works I Fine app has
a ride. Download it today on iTunes
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
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Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
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