Looking tājā ‘fresh’; skin whitening, and emergent masculinities in far-west Nepal

Throughout the Indian subcontinent there is a broad range of skin-whitening products (SWPs) widely advertised on TV, cinema on the streets etc …. In recent years, the multinational companies who produce these products have begun to focus on an untapped market–men and boys. Complementing feminist insights relating to the ways in which ‘body work’ is a form of control over women and constitutes a means of maintaining gender hierarchies, this paper considers the implications for men of a specific manifestation of ‘body work’, in this instance the use of SWPs. Based on the analysis of the ways that a group of young Nepali men talked about these products, this paper considers the evolving use of the Nepali word tājā (adj; fresh). Ultimately, this paper considers what are the consequences of the consumption of SWPs for local manifestations of embodied masculinities in far-west Nepal.