The Bigger Picture

Gavage is now beginning to be seen by some in Mauritania as child abuse, since instruments are used to inflict pain in order to force the children to swallow. Additionally, many young girls die from complications of gavage, like choking on their own vomit. In adulthood, the women of Mauritania feel the effects of lifelong obesity, like heart trouble, difficulty breathing, and joint pain.

Skin Whitening is also has its dangerous conseqeuences. There is evidence to suggest that some types of skin-whitening products use active ingredients (such as mercurous chloride) and hydroquinone which can be harmful. Hydroquinone has now been banned in Europe and in many other countries can only be prescribed by a doctor for certain skin conditions.

A test of common skin lightening creams available in Nigeria showed that they caused mutations in bacteria and were possibly carcinogenic.

There is a growing market in skin lightening products that are toxic-free. However, they are more costly due to their expensive ingredients. Japan and the Pacific are big markets for high quality skin lightening products imported from Europe. In India and Pakistan, Fair and Lovely by Unilever remains a popular brand despite the company being forced by the Indians to withdraw television advertisements for the product in 2007 .

In todays day and age, with the amount of resources and technology that is available to us, practices like these should not be viewed as "traditional" and accepted.  We should be praising the bodies and images we were born with, not trying to distance our self from as much as possible.