Becoming white(r): skin-whitening creams for white women? Contradictory cosmetics in early twentieth-century Spain

ABSTRACT

The market for skin-whitening creams in Spain exploded in the early twentieth century. Marketing whiteness presented a particular challenge because of the contradictory nature of the pursuit: if even white people had to strive for whiteness, it was surely exposed as a construction, rather than a natural state of being. Skin-whitening products thus went against the “ordinary, neutral, even universal” manner in which whiteness was traditionally represented, as outlined in Dyer’s White (2017, xvi). How could skin-whitening creams sell whiteness without stripping it of the invisibility that made it so powerful? To add to the challenge, marketing whiteness presented a particular problem in Spain, a country so sensitive about its whiteness. Studying the changes in the advertising approaches of two case studies in Spain, Crema Tokalon and Cera Aseptina, reveals that the term blanquear was introduced very gradually, only appearing explicitly as a unique selling point in 1930. By 1933, it was removed almost as quickly as it was added. Despite this retraction, I argue that the colour white remained central to the appeal of skin-whitening products in Spain. Whiteness had not become unsellable; rather, it had become invisible, woven into other desirable traits, such as religiosity, cleanliness and suitability for marriage.

KEYWORDS:

• Skin-whitening
• Spain
• cosmetics
• advertising
• whiteness

Acknowledgements

I am deeply indebted to my PhD supervisors: Professor Jo Labanyi, Dr. Kirsten Lloyd and Dr. Julius Ruiz. Their contribution to this article has been invaluable. I would also like to thank Professor Baltasar Fra-Molinero and Dr. Elisabeth Bolorinos Allard, who kindly discussed some key skin-whitening images with me in two separate meetings during the early stages of the project. I am grateful to the Edinburgh College of Art Prize for funding my research and to the Association for Art History (AAH) for funding relevant research trips.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Association for Art History (AAH).

Notes on contributors

Monica Lindsay-Pérez

Monica Lindsay-Pérez is a PhD student in the Art History Department of the Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. She studied art history at the University of Cambridge before completing a Special Studentship at Harvard University and a Master’s in Gender Studies at the University of Oxford.