This type of product is big business all over India as well. Beauty magazines in East Asia regularly feature plastic surgery designed to give women 'less oriental' and 'more Western' appearances. There is considerable debate in Africa right now about the pros and cons of hair-straightening techniques and 'cosmetics'. (Interesting piece on this recently on the BBC News website.) In other words, across the globe, bodily appearance is highly political and deeply bound up with the politics of race and ethnicity.
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