Erasing Identity

The roots of consumerism and consumption are quite eye-opening: “designated not only the use of things but also any type of removal and various forms of disposal.”

Last quarter I produced the UCD Film Festival held at our historic Varsity Theatre in Downtown Davis. It was my job to collect the films, distribute them to the judges (who were various professors from film, theatre, TCS, and art departments), take notes on their choices or arguments, etc.

While importing various students’ submissions I came across one that brought a piece of the world into focus and reflected a very sick side of cosmetic consumption as well as culture shock.

The piece was called “Bleach.” I was told upon receiving it that it won first place at the Asian American Association Film Festival, so I immediately was excited to see a piece of quality work (sometimes there are submissions that are frightfully boring, or just poorly done). As I watched, I began to decide that the acting was distracting and the camera work was very simple.

“Bleach” discusses the issue of skin color from an asian college student’s experience. It displays a belief that being “white” is beautiful and desirable and being tan is unhealthy and dirty. The girl’s boyfriend gives her a skin cream and after examining the ingredients she discovers that it has bleach in it. The story, although has a heavy subject, is dealt with in humor.

As you will see, the most shocking part of this piece is the credits. They are real commercials of skin cream to make your skin whiter and more "desirable." This to me is the deepest form of consumption and its consumption to another level. The product has made the person’s identity disposable! No longer is the product something you can use up and go through, but rather a way to erase you.