The hidden world of skin whitening and anti-ageing cosmetics

Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Amina Mire,  has written an article on a controversial and increasingly relevant subject: The business of skin whitening and anti-ageing cosmetics.

In the article, Mire examines the close cooperation between publicly funded universities and private industries in the research development and globalization of quasi pharmaceutical high-end skin whitening and anti-ageing ‘cosmeceuticals’.

The article entitled “The Scientification of Skin Whitening and the Entrepreneurial University-Linked Corporate Scientific Officer” was recently published in the Canadian Journal for Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education.

In her critique, Mire deconstructs the interlocking strategies of scientific entrepreneurialism and academic capitalism in the research and development of high-end skin whitening and anti-aging cosmeceuticals.  She explains that skin whitening and anti-aging cosmeceuticals are growing, lucrative markets whose global reach are greatly facilitated by new scientific innovations and aggressive internet advertising.

Her work has been well received by critics and peers, which has subsequently helped in initiating debate on a topic which will inevitably become more prevalent as time passes.

An example of this is a recent article by David Blades of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Victoria.  Blades has used Mire’s article as a foundation to build a broader argument on the social, health, ethical, economic, pedagogical implications of skin whitening and anti-aging products.

Read Blades’s Full Article

Ultimately, Mire’s research goal is to effectively interrogate the extent to which this research and these products promote the biomedicalization and racialization of women’s bodies and skin—A pertinent topic with very serious social consequences.

Read Mire’s Full Article