Objectives of the Project

The project had two principal objectives:

First, to provide the first ever baseline survey of the use of skin lightening products in England. Although there is a growing literature about skin lightening worldwide, none of this work focuses on England. This is what the project seeks to accomplish, among other things.

Second, we are aiming to develop a better-informed dialogue about the use of skin lightening products by bringing together the various groups implicated in their sale and use: especially, public health professionals, medical professionals (dermatologists in particular), those academics interested in analysing the areas of ‘race’ and gender; and various media professionals whose work deals directly with beauty, fashion and cosmetics. All of these groups work on skin but do not have a mechanism through which they can talk to each other.

However, enabling and facilitating dialogue is a process. The beginning of this process is the dissemination event, held in Birmingham on 8 February 2016.