harmful perceptions of what she calls“caste markers”are manifested through issues of
dominance and social control.^22 Skin color“may also be the basis of the allocation of
economic and psychological privileges to individuals relative to the degree those pri-
vileges are awarded to valued members of the dominant culture.”^23 The“awards”are
so large that many advertisers are accused of using“digital manipulation to lighten
ethnic models’skin tone”in their ads.^24
The United States is not the only location where members of a culture are judged
by their skin tone and seek various means to alter that tone. Because of this skin tone
preference, skin bleaching in employed in many parts of the world. Avoiding sunlight
to keep their skin light is a common practice among Asian women. U.S. Americans
who visit Thailand are often surprised to see women sitting at the beach fully dressed.
It is not uncommon to see women in China at the beach sporting face masks and sun-
protective gloves.^25 They, along with women from Brazil, Jamaica, and India, are
even using an assortment of creams and lotions to achieve a lighter tone to their
skin. We should point out that women are not the only ones concerned with pale
skin tones. In Japan, male-oriented parasols have become popular among younger
men who seek to maintain a whiter, paler look.Attire
As highlighted in this chapter’s opening vignette, clothing goes well beyond protec-
tion from the elements. Clothing can be used to tell others about economic status,
educational level, social position, current status, occupation, interests, public and pri-
vate affiliations, and the like. Perhaps most importantly, as Ross points out,“The
things that people say, or are forced to say, through their clothing are thus above all
statements about an individual’s identity.”^26 In the United States you can also
observe the link between clothing and individual identity in a variety of ways.
Whether it is a military uniform, the sweatshirt that carries a logo of a favorite foot-
ball team, the black clothing of Goth“adherents,”the specific tilt of a baseball cap,
or the attire of the hip-hop co-culture, clothing attempts to tell other people some-
thing about your identity. Among gang members, even the color of a bandana or T-
shirt is a proclamation of group affiliation. So strong is this nonverbal proclamation
that in 2013, a gang member from Los Angeles was sentenced to ninety years in
prison for mistakenly killing a fourteen-month-old child. The shooter indicated that
he was aiming at the child’s father, as he“believed the father was a member of a rival
gang because of the color of his T-shirt.”^27 Women also know the language and
power of clothing, as they, unlike men, have had to adapt and adjust their attire to
the workplace for more than forty years.^28
Nowhere is the controversial nature of clothing more apparent than in the various
types of scarves, veils, and robes associated with Muslim women. For these women,
clothing is much more than apparel to cover the body. As Torrawa points out, gar-
ments often reflect important values of Arabs.^29 As is the case with so many aspects
of culture, there is often a“below the surface”reason for cultural behaviors. This deep
structure and its significance in the Arab world are explained by Torrawa:“In all its
guises, clothing inscribes ideologies of truth and deception, echoing the words of
scripture, and revealing—and unraveling—that honor can only be attained when
every robe donned is a robe of honor and every garment a garment of piety.”^30
The clothing Torrawa is referring to takes an assortment of forms. The first is
called thehijab, which basically covers only the head, while the second scarf, knownAppearance 305Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).