A Performance Studies PhD candidate at Northwestern University in the United States, Olabanke Goriola, has said skin bleaching among Nigerian women is driven by childhood conditioning that equates lighter skin with better treatment.
She said the practice is not vanity but a response to psychological wounds inflicted long before any product is bought.
Goriola, who founded The Shade Initiative for Cultural and Social Empowerment and holds three Master’s degrees from institutions across Europe and the United States, linked the practice to childhood experiences, citing scholarship by researchers Margaret Hunter and Jemima Pierre.
Speaking with PUNCH Online on Tueday, she said women who bleach are responding rationally to a social environment that has told them since childhood that darker skin is a disadvantage.
“Many women who bleach grew up in homes where lighter-skinned siblings received more attention, more warmth, more praise.
