Why TVOne’s Skinned Should Never Be Shown Again
On my usual commute this past Friday, I flicked my radio dial like I’m sure thousands of others in the city did looking forward to getting my bump on to some of my favorite R&B classics. On the air; Chubb Rock and Simon Baby getting candid with “The Playa Club’s” Lisa Raye gushing about the new for-tv-film, Skinned, in which she made her first ever directorial debut on TVOne. Skinned; a breakout film to shed light on the epidemic of skin-bleaching and self-mutilation of dark-skinned individuals around the world in attempt to match society’s gelastic standards of beauty.
The conversation around the film, and even the concept intrigued me. Being a far from fair-skinned girl, with natural hair living in the South, I had a more than personal, more sensitized connection to skin-bleaching, with the prejudice, the stigma and the struggle. That evening, I set my DVR to Skinned, and at 7:59 Saturday night, was waiting for the film to air the way I used to at 10 yrs-old on Christmas Eve for Santa’s gift delivery.
When I finally sat to watch the much-anticipated “Skinned” movie, I felt myself less than consciously roll through feelings of apathy, confusion and utter disgust before settling in to sheer disappointment. Another “post-slavery-black-movie” to outline the flawed, self-loathing and absolutely ignorant Black America, doing a shoddy job of showing the devastation of the skin-bleaching pandemic, and failing to bring awareness to its damaging effects without diminishing the I.Q of the entire black population.
Can I disclose?: I had the T.I.B.S. syndrome (this is bull**** syndrome for all 2hrs “Skinned” aired.) All throughout the all-hyped film was exaggerated dialogue, unrealistic social settings, lack of storyline and no character development to sit atop a giant mountain of ignorant, offensive innuendos designed to make dark-skinned women feel insecure if they weren’t before and even more so if they already were. A looming question of mine to TVOne, the creative team and entire cast behind the making of “Skinned”; what were you trying to accomplish with this movie? If it was to perpetuate the “light is right” conception and decades-old battle of dark-skinned v.s. light-skinned girls, you nearly nailed it, maybe. But in tackling the social injustice and devastation behind skin-bleaching, you missed by Big-Dipper, Delta-sky miles.
More than a few points throughout the movie had myself, and my fellow film-gawkers raising our WTF signals.
The main character in the film (never-mind what her name is):
Becomes infertile and then develops a skin cancer that threatens to kill her?;
I get it -- the chemical in many skin-bleaching agents can cause infertility in high amounts. With the acting ingredients in many skin-bleaching agents (e.g. hydroquinone) limited to 2% or less though, she would’ve probably had to be bathing, baking in and eating these creams in order to develop life-threatening skin-cancer. It would’ve been more realistic to show her experiencing toxic shock and having to be rushed to the hospital to be flushed of these harmful chemicals in her system.
Takes no pics with fam for being the “blackie”, but is a Fashion Model?;
The main character and her husband quarrel over her lack of pictures showing when she was young. Evidently, she’s discarded all her pics because she didn’t want to be seen as the ONLY “blackie” or poor “dark girl” in all the photos. If she had her daddy’s “beautiful African skin” like Lisa Raye had stated in one scene of the film, she wouldn’t have been the only dark-skinned person in her family photos. And since her skin was inherited, wouldn’t she have more relatives with a complexion like hers? This “black sheep isolation” is CRAZY?!?! But she then manages to become a fashion model and take pics for the entire world, still as a dark-skinned woman.
Gets spit on by light-skinned girls in grade school for being dark-skinned?;
Welcome to the part before Roots Chp. I. Through all this, she seems to be the ONLY girl in school with dark-skin, that has ever had dark-skin. And then she’s spit on without provoke for being dark-skinned. What a misfortune it must be to be dark-skinned! Thank you for showing white America exactly how much disgust Black Americans have for dark-skin. We dark-skinned peeps are so dirty, so hideously repulsive that we have to be spit-shined.
Gets Paper Bag Tested at a party?;
So it’s back to the played-out light-skinned v.s. dark-skinned battle here. Some air-headed dimwatt, (who happened to be light-skinned) throws a 60′s themed party and decides that the paper-bag test should be included at the party. (Really, this still happens in 2016?) The main character obviously fails the test and is then humiliated. Maybe this is the point she turned to bleaching? Because she’s obviously the only girl on this entire college campus that must bleach because she’ll never pass the paper bag test.
Sees a psychiatrist who believes she’s been passed over for a promotion at her practice by a woman that’s lighter skinned?;
Okay this is kinda played. The psychiatrist is a confident, educated, mocha-skinned black woman with a loving husband. Her black pride has preceded her throughout the movie -- that is until Ms. Thing starts working in her practice and her boss is over all Ms. Thing. Never-mind that Ms. Thing dressed and behaved like a total slut, but she’s given a promo because she’s a lighter-skinned black woman? Not saying that can’t/doesn’t happen, but still. The psychiatrist could’ve definitely used a friend to tell her, “maybe your boss gave Ms. Thing the promo because she behaved like a skank and was all on his nuts!” Sadly, there was no such friend written in the script.
And then, there’s my favorite: The comment that the token white girl makes about the boss hiring Ms. Thing and parading her though the office; “You know he likes them young and light”?!?;
Alright -- the film is wreaking of bullocks at this point. What white person in the history of humanity would ever say of a black person, “young and light”?!?! Being the most fair/light-skinned of any human race, a white person would never in a million years let a phrase like this slip through their lips. It would’ve been much more believable for the white girl to say “young and slim”, or even “you know how he likes them”, which would’ve still left enough room for the psychiatrist to assume that Ms. Thing did get the promotion because of her complexion. I mean, WTH wrote this script??
I’m not a film-maker, or a professional actress, but I am a college grad with enough sense and self-love to know that a movie like Skinned doesn’t make me more aware of the dangers of bleaching but perpetuates centuries long inequities and insecurities with color. Rather than going on and on about all wrongs, we can turn this around with pointers for making better movies on subjects like skin-bleaching -- ones that uplift us, provide us solutions and make us feel charged to make better decisions, and improve our self worth.
Show dark-skinned black women are not SOLE SUFFERERS in the skin-bleaching epidemic. Contrary to what’s media driven, skin-bleaching is a common practice throughout Asia; not just in America and sub-saharan Africa, which you’d never know from watching this movie. This movie focused on the insecurities and self-conceived imperfections of one-girl. However, there are millions of others that struggle with this issue, and it’s not just women, but men too!
Provide more support for the characters/people that feel uncomfortable in their skin because of its darkness. This movie had such a platform to show how people with darker skin could be embraced and celebrated for their unique and irreplaceable beauty. I would’ve loved for Skinned’s main character to have a niece; a neighbor or some young girl with dark-skin to mentor and inspire to not go down the same path. But addressing misconceptions and ill-feelings that individuals with lighter skin may have to people with darker skin and trying to correct them would’ve worked well here too.
Alert the audience of alternatives to skin-bleaching for clear, brighter skin.
Not all of us necessarily want to be 5 shades lighter (I don’t), but when all is said and done, we do want clearer and brighter skin. Skin-bleaching is not the only way to do that, (and certainly not the healthiest). I am a proponent of natural/organic cleansers, and there are products with soy and citrus that can be used to help to naturally bring out clear, blemish-free complexions. Even Microderm abrasion and exfoliating can do the trick. Might I add, an INCREDIBLE confidence booster. ;)
Sidenote though, do you notice how the law of attraction works? Most dark-skinned women that bleach reportedly believe they are more attractive to the opposite sex when they bleach, and in turn feel more confident. But the thing is, if they felt the confidence all along, they wouldn’t feel the need to bleach in the first place, and would still be attractive to the opposite sex. It really is all about the insides.
Let me take time to give honorable mention to Lisa Raye and team for bringing the skin-bleaching plague to the silver screen. (Rightfully so, it needs to be there!) Even still, I believe I’ve taken enough jabs at TVOne and the Skinned production team to hopefully get this movie taken out of the on-air lineup. No other girls, families, or communities should see or witness this production. Sorry ... it’s just AWFUL. Until a more polished production can be made, Skinned should be thrown into a digital movie abyss in which it self destructs and is never seen again. How did such a promising concept with such a substantial topic at hand (skin bleaching) see its ship sink before it even left the dock? Underdeveloped -- under-researched and under-explored.
Please, Skinned, go hide in a place the sun don’t shine and spare us of the tired racial stereotypes. And seek the advice a dark-skinned individual that has actually lived the “skin-bleach” grapple if you ever want to make a future movie with this concept successful, and weave their personal encounter into your storylines, (** cause I don’t think any dark-skinned women were consulted in the making of this film.””)
As for me, I’ll be busy empowering, enlightening and spreading love for self and the skin we’re in to every woman (and man), that has ever felt inadequate, outweighed or out shined because of color. And maybe waiting for, or even creating a film that shines the right kind of light on skin-whitening.
