Toxic pursuit of beauty

Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
SKIN whitening, also known as skin lightening and skin bleaching, is now an in thing in several mining communities where Chinese investors are operating.
The practice is reportedly being done by women in these communities as a desperate move to lure Chinese men, most of whom are single as they work in different areas around Manicaland, and elsewhere countrywide.
This emerged during a roundtable session on psycho-social support for men affected by mining hosted by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) in partnership with Global Greengrants Fund held in Mutare last week.
Colloquial phrases of Chinese men’s taste such as “Maria muslender”, referring to a light skinned skinny woman, are already popular in these communities and influencing the desire among women to change their skin colour.
For all their strenuous and risky effort, women often work as either office cleaners, kitchen staff or support office staff in these mining entities.
As participants chronicled the ravaging effects on mental health and the dire need for psycho-social support for men affected by mining, John Mapfura of Mberengwa, digressed into the equally reproachful experiences of the fairer sex.
Mapfura said: “The challenges that mining communities face affect, not only communities, but the individual and even family set up. The Chinese men coming to work in our communities will be alone without their wives.
“Now, there is a stampede by our women, including those perceptibly morally upright, to lure these Chinese men by bleaching. This is being done simply because there is belief that they prefer ladies who are slim and light.”
A fellow participant at the workshop, John Mugano, who resides and does mining advocacy works in Hwange, said: “The Chinese have a bias of hiring slender light skinned women. It seems the light and slender ladies gives them the nearest comparison to their own women back home.
“So out of desperation, women and young girls hoping to catch the eye of the Chinese use skin lightening creams. It is difficult to say what exactly they use, but where there is a will there is a way. So these light skinned women tend to be hired in either spaces in the kitchen or admin. They do not like the dark skinned ones unless if the Chinese man in question is progressive and learnt abroad.”
Contacted for comment, Manicaland Small-Scale Miners Association chairman, Lovemore Kasha, could neither deny nor confirm the trend.
However, Kasha was quick to note that it is highly likely given that most Chinese men come for work without their wives.
“This is something that we cannot deny even though we have not taken time to study the trend. It is highly likely to happen since most of these Chinese men come here without their wives. This we know,” said Kasha.
The skin bleaching practice, which is fast becoming unpopular among socially enlightened women, entails the use of chemical substances in an attempt to lighten the skin or provide an even skin colour by reducing the melanin concentration in the skin and this practice has proven side effects.