So glad this film is getting so much acclaim! I hate how this has happened - that young people are hating their skin (also a big thing in India; or eyes, noses a big thing in the Far East). There are dark forces of materialism, commercialism, and even the residues of colonialism at work (although it also precedes that, with caste-issues). I hate it when true beauty is denied. Nothing worse than foolish self-deception. It is pernicious and very persistent.
Model Nayakim Gatwech (Sudan) was also told to bleach her skin. "Her photographs exhibit the pride she takes in her African roots and Nuer heritage." More beautiful shots of her here
It bleeds my heart to read your comment, I also bleed for my country young ladies as well, and I become so weak at the site of older women bleaching so hard that you can through there veins and how the blood flow, then you begin to feel like vomiting when they don't have the cream to maintain and they start smelling like corpse, that's the worst part of it all.
That is a vividly nasty description of the effects of bleaching!
Totally different, and yet basically (from a very great distance) the same: the bleaching especially Kaukasians do of their hair ALSO to resemble Barbie. It makes you want to sue Mattell! Then again, see how stubborn the demand is somehow, because whenever they do make a plumper or darker skinned (or male) version of their doll nobody likes it much.
I say, forget buying Barbie all together and appeal to the inner nature of a child.
They can come in any colour of the rainbow - shaped only to be age appropriate with the aim of developing the soul.