Men...are you bleaching???

Shemsi en Tehuti · (#1 (**permalink**))

I swear, I was just at this African-owned beauty supply store and on the front shelf was stockpiles of Ambi bleaching cream. I am having a conversation with the beautiful dark sister who owns the place, and this brother picks up like 7 or 8 boxes of this bleaching stuff. As you can see, I'm not a very dark skinned guy, but I love a dark skinned woman.

The sister who owned the place looked at me almost embarrassed as the dark skinned guy puts all these boxes of bleaching cream on the counter to purchase. After the guy left with his creamy crack, I inquired to the sister if she used that stuff. She said she had, but a different brand. I sort of lost some of my likeness for her after that. She then went to making excuses that I don't have to worry about anything because I'm "light skinned" and that it was only to even out dark spots. I don't consider myself particularly light skinned, but I guess I was to her.

Anyhow, after seeing this dude pick up a year supply of bleaching cream, I'm wondering just how prevalent this is amongst men. I knew some women did it, but is it just as common amongst my brothers too?

name · (#2 (**permalink**))

I can recognize the tell tale look that indicates a person has been using some sort of bleaching product and can say that I've seen some men that have probably bleached.

So yeah guess some guys do do it.

I don't know about the frequency or even which types of people are likely to use that stuff, but it's something I see almost daily.

Ijeoma · (#3 (**permalink**))

I know of a significant number of (West)- African men that bleach.

I kinda hoped it was just them...

Their skin looks terrible! Like dead chicken skin with pimples and/or acne...and men have to shave too.

chi · (#4 (**permalink**))

I have seen many men who have bleached, usually West African, although i'm sure Asians do it too.

In my experience, it seems to be partilcularly rampant among West African men from Francophone Africa........congo etc.

Black_Power · (#5 (**permalink**))

real men are supposed to be dark so I dont get the point of men bleaching to look like some light skinned sissy.

women on the other hand...

BTW no offence to the genuine light skinned males

Black_Power · (#6 (**permalink**))

on the real though... you tellin me they are going for the "light skinned thug" look? LOL

Judge J · (#7 (**permalink**))

BP You done ****ed up with that last comment.

Gmahogany777 · (#8 (**permalink**))

BP is actually stating something that is a quite wide-spread perception among some Black people. This idea that light skin is somehow synonymous with femininity and dark skin is equal to masculinity. All light skinned men are feminine or borderline gay and darked skinned men are the paragons of masculinity and can't possibly be gay...RIGHT...... In my experience, the exact opposite is true, especially these days. A lot of light skin dudes try harder , and are quick to jump, are quite masculine when it counts, BECAUSE of that misconception, and a lot of dark skinned dudes use that misperception as COVER, for their B*TCH ways,lol.

I know women who bypass/dismiss light skinned dudes cause they think they are "too soft or too pretty"(light skin is equal to being good looking for those who think this way, no such thing as an ugly light skin man or woman to these geniuses),MEANWHILE, all of the REAL down low bros/ HOMO-THUGS, and just garden variety, B*tch N*ggers,, are getting right by Black women's radar, UNDETECTED, just because they are blue black and have a bald head..........Don't go for the okey doke, ladies,lol.......

blkfirst · (#9 (**permalink**))

I would never bleach my skin and i wouldn't want to be around anyone who does it.

Gmahogany777 · (#10 (**permalink**))

Off topic-

That leads me to a story and how this misconception can render people incapable of seeing sh*t that would otherwise be OBVIOUS to them. My sister used to work with this good looking dark skinned dude. He was tall and burly and strong. Anway,from the time my sister laid eyes on him, she thought he was gay. He didn't even have to speak,lol. Turns out the dude was actually bi-sexual and was a friend of a female cousin of our's who happens to be gay. THis dude had women on this job AT HIM, all the time, and he was happy to partake, because again, he did not mind having sex with women, though all of his deep/emotional relationships were with men(suprise,surprise). Once he found out that he knew our cousin, he felt comfortable telling my sister the REAL deal, and he would tell her about his sexcapades with different women in the workplace. The really messed up thing is the guy didn't REALLY go out of his way to hide his true orientation that much.

My sister would try to tell some of these dumb ass broads, one or two that she was friendly with, anyway, (in so many words without totally outing the dude cause it was like an open secret to some degree). that they needed to be careful, cause this dude was a switch hitter, but they wouldn't believe it, or him, even when HE gave them hints. Why? Because the dude was big,burly and dark skinned, and didn't fit their idea of a frail, limp wristed,"pretty" gay man(eventhough he did have the prettiest eyes and eyelashes you'd ever wanna see, but of course he's dark skinned so he can't qualify as "pretty", anyway),. Plus, he was quite into having sex with women, so they reasoned he couldn't be gay, of course.Even all of the white women on the job, were snowed by his "Big Black Buck stature", and gave him alpha male status,lol.

My sister introduced me to the dude once or twice, and when I tell you that it was OBVIOUS that he was gay to anyone who wasn't born yesterday, and who wasn't tripping off of some misguided idea of what "gay" looks like (eventhough he could and would try his best to do the hard thug thing at times), I am not exaggerating. If this dude didn't look the way he looked, the women at my sister's job would have never doubted that something was up with him, and would have run in the opposite direction.

astmartins · (#11 (**permalink**))

As some have pointed out....Some Franco-phone West-African men do bleach especially the Congolese blame their makossa musicians they bleached up to the max...also seen this trend amongst some of the Benin tribe of Nigerian...i hear some scary stories about African folk in south london regarding bleaching and theres no age limit it seems...sucks!!

wifeable · (#12 (**permalink**))

Oh please, West Indian males bleach up themselves too same way as their women, particularly Jamaican's. Both Afrian and west indian bleaching mofos make me sick

BP, there was a time when I thought you just liked lightskinned woman and that was your preference, but now i see you just have some fukked obbession with light skin like it is some type of epitome of a pefected black race...only when it is half white that is. I mean woman are supposed to be light but men aren't? I guess your worship of lightness is only acceptable when it is not mirrored in a light man...who (by your own standards of perfection) is everything i guess your not
wonder what the Obama pic is about then??

Black_Power · (#13 (**permalink**))

Gmog

Ive never payed it much thought about how the whole darkin man = thug/hardman lightskinned man = pussy/sweetboy came along but It tends to be true guess growing up with images like Treach and Genuine had something to do wid it subliminally