White Skin is Prettier

So, despite popular Western thoughts and ideas, you are more attractive the lighter your skin is here. This is a fairly popular belief in much of the world. One might think that it is because they want to look more like Americans or Europeans. That's not quite the case. While, in Cambodia, many people want to be more "Western" with cooler clothes and have a haircut with "sty" (style), the skin color relates to working out in the rice fields. The general belief is that if you have darker skin it means that you are forced to work out in the rice fields more often, more particularly in the sun. As a result, it's a assumed that you have less money. If you have whiter skin, it means that you don't have to work hard and you're able to stay inside more often. Sounds kind of familiar doesn't it? The opposite train of thought is that darker skin is prettier, because you have the money not to work. And what do you do if you have money? Chill out by the pool or the beach. In fact, most bath products in this country (and much of SE Asia) have whitening products in them (i.e. bleach). Sounds health doesn't it? Many products such as make-up, face wash, lotion, soap, etc. have these ingredients in them. Other ways people attempt to have lighter skin is to wear less revealing clothing. You will often see people wearing socks with sandals, jeans, gloves, a mask (for other reasons), and a hat walking around even though it's May and it's 98 degrees out with 90% humidity. People will jump through many hoops in order to be "prettier".

Case in point (actual story):

A PCV leaves on their bike to ride into the provincial town:

Host parent: "No! You can't go out like that!

PCV: "What do you mean? I'm wearing appropriate clothing."

Host parent: "But you don't have long sleeves! Your skin will get black, and it will be ugly!"

This is a pretty popular thought throughout most of Cambodia. In fact, a couple of the other PCVs, who're African-American, have had to face constant shouts throughout their service of "Khmao! Khmao!" which means "Black! Black!" They've found that teaching them to say "Niak Kru!" which means "Teacher!" can deter this. Many times, they (Cambodians) don't realize that they're being rude or offensive (sometimes they definitely do, though). Much of rural Cambodia is based in observations, but that will be another post.

Talk to you soon,

Garrett