Whitening or lightening the skin meant Black women could more closely approximate European standards of beauty and womanhood. Black women were very aware of the social advantages European women had because of their whiteness, so when a product promises to deliver it to you, it is undeniably hard to resist.
We are social beings requiring the approval of others and advertisers fed on that need for social appearance: "Everybody loves a light color. `When you have color in your favor, you've got everything,' they say." How does a Black woman compete with such claims? Ultimately her blackness will exclude her from finding suitable mates as her darkness makes her sexually unattractive to other men, presumably white men. This is in sharp contradiction to the social and historical norm where Black women were defined as sexually exotic and desirable.
Black women were also being led to the fountain of youth. The side effects of bleaching skin lighter were "clearer, softer and smoother. . .schoolgirl complexion." These all purpose creams also "erased wrinkles and lines; get rid of that old, aged look." They would solve all our vain obsessions.
Ultimately when we achieve the appropriate whiteness/lightness our lives achieve a certain glamour, happiness and success. The advertisers are truthful on one level in that social standards are defined by whiteness and power is held by Whites; "becoming White" allows access to that power. BUT as Blacks can never truly achieve the whiteness required, the products will simply continue to seduce and never deliver.
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