Skin Color Syndrome

Why some men find ‘yellow pawpaws’ girls more attractive!
Written by Candida
Sunday, February 17, 2008
I WILL never forget the day I agreed to have a talk with a friend who was on the verge of ditching her husband for another married man.


“I am tired of giving birth to ugly children”, she snapped at me when I broached the subject, telling her it was at the insistence of her husband, who was also a close friend. “My eldest is a boy who looks like a gorilla, my daughter is so dark I feel for her at times as there is the possibility of her attracting only ugly men.

I am dark, my husband is dark. You have seen the new man yourself, he has lovely children. Let me also have children I can be proud of too for a change!” So she left and eventually had three children by this other man.


I wish I could say they were as ugly as the ones she had with her first husband, but no. They are quite attractive and athletic and she was proud of her feet! Her husband also remarried, of course. “And his new set of kids are even uglier than the ones I had for him,” smirked my friend. Lately, I learnt both of them were thinking of going back together since they were not properly divorced. I thought the idea absurd. I would have termed it impossible, if I hadn’t heard it from the now bitter father of her 'lovely’ children, her second ‘husband’.


When she phoned a few days later, I told her of the ridiculous rumour I heard about her husband coming back to her. “Don’t mind the jerk, he’s just jealous,” she said of her now ex-lover, “by the way, Sam (her husband) is here and wants to talk to you.” “Are you back together” I asked him incredulously when he came on the phone. “Of course, we are!” he actually sounded happy.


“That stupid man is just an opportunist who wants to spend my wife’s money. He can talk until his face muscles burst, I am back with my wife. You tell him that! Let him try his luck elsewhere.”


It is true really, that some of us, dark or light, prefer light skinned mates so they could have “pretty babies” that is why skin lightening creams and horribly concocted local bleaching soaps still sell; though they are now advertised as good for making blemishes fade rather than for lightening whole complexion.


Jennifer was a dark skinned beauty in her secondary school days and had her share of boyfriends - though not particularly spectacular ones. She travelled abroad and came back ten years later almost as white as the next white-sporting multi-coloured hair extensions and wearing green contact lenses!


“When you are abroad,” she said later, “you experience a lot of racism because of your skin. It got worst when I discovered that coloured people were also picky. Being rejected by blacks because your skin is cocoa and not cream, ebony and not olive or because you are short with kinky hair instead of tall with wavy hair hurt.


“Back home, I’ve discovered that my investment in changing the colour of my skin has more than paid off. It didn’t come cheap either. Apart from very costly injections I paid to slow down the pigmentation of my dark skin, I have to keep on using expensive creams and lotions. I look in the mirror and I like what I see. It is money well spent. And my confidence has had a great boost.


“In this part of the world, it is often the ‘yellow pawpaw’ as those with very light skin are called, that reap the most attention. I mean, if someone was described that way, there was no need to say that person was good-looking. It was a given that light was lovely. It is up to those with darker skin who have to now prove themselves.


“It is a general belief that dark-skinned people often don’t take time to groom themselves - but that is not true. When I was darker, I really put in more effort than now, but it seldom showed. If we want to be frank with ourselves, we would admit that light skinned girls get picked up first - either as dancing partners or lovers. We shouldn’t be fooled by the “Black is beautiful” mantra, that died with the seventies!”


Little wonder then that men too have jumped into the “yellow-pawpaw” bandwagon with glee! Few years ago, a prominent lawmaker that was impeached in one of the Northern states proudly defended his bleached, ‘glowing’ well groomed skin, and said it had nothing to do with his efficiency. How true! But there is a limit to how far you should compete with your partner in the bleaching department!”
A colleague’s husband works with a big advertising agency and he is one of their top officers. He grew from fairly light-skinned, to albino light. “It was a bit embarrassing trying to talk him out of his stupid obsession with his skin but tried, I did” confessed his wife. “He didn’t listen to me, ofcourse. He did look better as he made the effort to slim down to compliment his new complexion - until he overdid it and spotted black patches all over his face and neck.


The chemicals in the creams he used were so potent they burnt his skin. He now has to spend a lot of money to get rid of the patches - but he still hasn’t thrown his bleaching creams away,  “As things are, I leave him to do his own thing, afterall, it’s his skin, and the fact remains that in major towns and cities, a light complexion has always been a passport to special treatment whether you’re rich or poor!”

 
http://odili.net/news/source/2008/feb/17/303.html

haven't you noticed that all those rich alhajis marry yellow southern women as 2nd and 3rd wives?some shallow men still think yellow is it.
no wonder Tura and the rest of those bleaching products are making sales.
have these yeye men bothered to look at the hands,fingers and heels of their yellow wives?
black and proud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you affected by the color syndrome?

Does color determine your potential partner?

I mean, do you  descriminate against darker or lighter people while choosing a partner

or do you only descriminate when the race is different?

Read the vanguard editorial on the color issue in Nigeria

Thank God I am "yellow" and Mr.  Almond is "jet black"!  The only problem a have is that all the little almonds including them boys are yellow.  But a guess their "Iyawos" or partner preferences will have to deal with them like that.

have these yeye men bothered to look at the hands,fingers and heels of their yellow wives?

Well, many people have skin colour syndrom. The only difference is that one is politically correct and one isn't.

For a man or woman to say, I prefer light skinned men/women is seen as wrong. However for a man or woman (even if they themselves are light) to say I prefer dark skinned men/women, people jump for joy. There is a hypocricy within the Black race when it comes to shadism, skin tone preference and discrimination.

For example, lots of people complain about light skinned video models being seen much more than dark ones, yet on the catwalk where the dark skinned model is seen much more than the light skinned one, noone sees it as the same type of discrimination/favouritism, rather it is applauded.

@ almond joy, sorry my sister, but how is this not having an issue with skin tone?

Thank God I am "yellow" and Mr. Almond is "jet black"! The only problem a have is that all the little almonds including them boys are yellow. But a guess their "Iyawos" or partner preferences will have to deal with them like that.For a healthy balance I like "Toffee"! for girls and "Mocha" for boys

Sorry, but how would that statement have sounded if a dark skinned mother with dark skinned children had said, the only problem I have is that all the little children are dark, but I guess their partner preferences will have to deal with them like that.

Sorry, but I doubt whether a dark skinned person could say that and people, including people here (possibly even you) would see it as acceptable, you just demonstrated what I was describing above, the double standard.

Nothing against you at all, but I had to keep it real.

I'm soo dark & still love my man dark

No matter what we react to the color first. If he's not the color we want, well---then if he makes sense, we listen

, lol, Almond joy, I know you are speaking from your own perspective, but so was the lady in the original article, she had dark children, but she wanted light ones. Ok she was a bit harsh, she could hardly say she doesn't have a skin tone syndrome can she? IMO (no offense) I don't see how you can say you don't have a skin tone syndrome from what you wrote.

Just like a mother saying she would rather her dark skinned daughters were light skinned, sorry but its the exact same thing. I'm sure you know as a mother and an adult, that its not skin tone ,but character which will stop your sons being sissies, that would be down to yourself and your husband. After all your husband is the very reason you have  boys, since women do not carry the Y chromosome  to produce a male child

Its absolute garbage that light skin makes a person feminine and dark skin makes them masculine, look around you. Its like saying that in order for a woman to be feminine she must be light, sorry I think that is utter nonsense.

Take no offense though, we are just airing our views,