I’m going to ask you to bear with me one last time regarding this. I know I’ve addressed this issue poorly at times before, though at the time it seemed like the best way to spread awareness regarding it, and I want to put this in the best way possible now.
You can see the pictures for yourself, Sooyoung knows that she’s tan, she’s aware, but due to the things she’s been told while growing up, you can clearly see that, up to this day, she’s not comfortable with her own skin tone. Even though she’s legit one of the most confident people regarding her own image, this is something that keeps on bothering her.
I included that moment with Yuri because you can see that what Sooyoung says to Yuri is a mirror of what she’s been told before. I’m not saying it should be excused, but you can see that what she says to Yuri is a reflection of what she thinks of herself, you can see that she knows that she hurt Yuri with those words and that she’s sorry for making Yuri feel bad for something that she’s also insecure of.
Since she’s not as tan as Yuri, Hyorin, Kai, Hakyeon, (etc), her skin tone gets aggressively dismissed, and until now people keep on making her skin brighter than it is on edits (etc) as if it’s okay because “she’s not that tan”. It’s not okay and those pictures up there are the reason why (which are only a few of many moments she has let her insecurities regarding this show). Spreading a false image of Sooyoung, regarding something that she’s already insecure of, isn’t good for anyone. You can see on several performances, and shows, that Sooyoung is indeed tan, if you don’t want to rely on pictures. (example1 - e2 - e3 - e4 - e5 (pretty much any fancam of kcon NY) - e6 - e7 - e8 - e9)
Yes, it’s true that her skin tone may vary and look different according to the enviroment where she is, and whether she has a spotlight on her or not, but you can always see when that’s the case, and when she was whitewashed for an edit or gifset (I won’t even address fansites because it’s not like they’re here on tumblr)
If you have whitewashed her in the past, unknowingly or not, I don’t want you to think that I’m scolding you. We’re here to learn and better ourselves. I’m only asking you to see that the best we all can do regarding this is realise and understand how our actions affect her and the people who go through the same thing everyday, for the good and the bad.
I hope I was able to put this in a better way than I have before. Thank you for your time and patience.