Black is beautiful. Bleached is...?

Black and Proud

Dark and Lovely

Black is beautiful

Despite these popular phrases, it seems though that yellow/white is the preferred colour.  What I’ve never been sure of is if this preference is real or imagined.  Do men actually prefer light skinned women or light skinned women think they do? I know men bleach, in fact the number seems to be growing, all you need do is watch a certain TV station and you’ll see loads of them but for the purpose of this post, we’ll concentrate on women. Women in Nollywood actually. Why are women in Nollywood bleaching? Does the camera really prefer lighter skinned women or is it the men behind the camera who do? Technically, my friend who is a cinematographer insists that the camera prefers lighter skinned people. Perhaps. Considering that yellow or white(up to you) is a brighter colour but do the audience really care? In the grand scheme of things, does skin colour help or deter you from achieving stardom in Nollywood?

Let’s think about it for a bit. How many light skinned top rated actresses do we really have? Let’s work with the earlier generation Nollywood.

 

There’s Omotola Ekeinde

Rita Dominic

Tonto Dike

Ngozi Ezeonu

Monalisa Chinda

Rachel Oniga

Eucharia Anunobi

Ngozi Nwosu

Stella Damasus.

 

 Now let’s think about the dark ones. There’s Genevieve Nnaji

Ini Edo

Mercy Johnson

Patience Ozorkwo

Uche Jombo

Nse Ikpe Etim

Dakore Akande

Funke Akindele

Liz Benson

Chika Ike

Kate Henshaw

Stephanie Okereke

Chioma Akpotha

 

It looks to me like the darks have it. This is my argument each time I meet young bleached actresses who insist they did it to stand a better chance in the industry. Lie. You did it for yourself. You bleached because you wanted to bleach.

Maybe light skinned is more attractive, maybe some producers/directors will cast you because you’re light skinned and you’ll pop out on the screen but you cannot sustain a career based on that.

Without the accompanying skills and talent, as one of the marketers likes to say, you'll be headed back to the village.

 

P.S This is an inconclusive list, feel free to add your own names.