Deciphering the Beauty Myth: A Semiotic Analysis of Taiwan’s Skin-Whitening Product Ads

Abstract

Taiwanese women’s obsession with whiter skin tones can be easily perceived because the innovation and the launch of face whitening cosmetics and skincare have never stopped. A whiter skin tone has become the dominant aesthetics for female beauty. The use of whitening agent has been blended into women’s skincare routine. Skin lightening product’s advertisement is broadcasted and immersed in our daily life. The kind of cultural phenomenon has caught my attention. The research aims at finding the reinforcement of whitening aesthetics which is attached to the message of skin lightening product’s advertisement.

Research samples for this study are five online commercials of skin whitening product. Theories that help with analyzing the cultural phenomenon are Saussure’s model of sign and Barthes’s theory on myth. Besides, the historical context of skin whitening practice and scientific studies on skin whitening agents are also introduced in this thesis.

Binary oppositions can be easily detected in all five samples. Many of the same signifiers exist not only in one commercial but also others. It is not difficult to quickly grasp that signifiers like black and ugly are notorious for causing imperfect female beauty; so to speak, the complexion is not white enough.

The result indicates that advertisers have never tried to introduce a new account for ideal beauty in their commercials; on the contrary, they reinforced the dominant ideology in Taiwanese society, that white is beautiful, to their potential consumers.