Meanings of skin-bleaching: The construction of beauty amongst Nigerian women.

Dr. Joelle Cruz

Dominique Y. Freeman

School of Communication Studies

Kent State University

The purpose of this study is demonstrate the practices of skin bleaching amongst Nigerian women. This study is important because African women needs to be aware of the risks due to skin bleaching. They also need to recognize their own beauty, and create their own standards of beauty and not to compare it to white women. According to Hall (1995), “women are participating in this activity to be beautiful regardless of the negative factors associated with it” (p.172). Skin bleaching has become a worldwide phenomenon over the past 30 years. This qualitative research study was conducted through the thematic analysis. I used 20 newspapers articles that deal with Nigerian women who bleach their skin. These articles discuss the reasons why Nigerian women participate in these harmful behaviors. In today’s society being non-color is said to be more attractive and superior than being of color. My data connects similarities in each article that pertains to skin bleaching. Each article supports the fact that skin bleaching industry companies main target is Africa, in places such as Nigeria where skin bleaching is used at the highest rate by women, with Nigerian women at 70%, Ghana women at 30% and Senegal women at 27%. These percentages show that skin bleaching is spreading throughout Africa and also throughout the world. This study suggests that skin bleaching negatively impacts beauty norms amongst Nigerian women.

Keywords: “Skin-bleaching”, “Nigerian Women”, “Beauty.”