SL is such that skins of darker colour are automatically seen as tanned Caucasian skins, and skin makers make a habit of offering them as such rather than giving their customers more racial diversity in terms of choice. It's such that I habitually refuse to wear tanned skins - I've always scoffed at the way tans have been a status symbol in the West even when they are no longer exclusive to the wealthy, and being half-Asian and not needing one at all, I dislike that golden/tanned skin has been "co-opted" in SL by people who (if not Caucasian) seek to look like affluent, white avatars.
My current avatar does appear pure Caucasian (though I often switch looks, not to mention genders, at whim), but in the beginning I was looking for options to look closer to my rl mixed-heritage self. I discovered that most "Asiatic" skins or "Asian" avatars (notably ones by Western sellers) were almost caricaturish in appearance, much like the slant-eyed broad-cheekboned cartoons of Asians in earlier, more un-PC times. One has to wonder why these creators choose to exaggerate the most unflattering features in Asian people. This is linked to the fact that often, the Western standards of beauty when it comes to other races/countries are so "exoticised" as to be ridiculous. One example that a friend suggested would be Tila Tequila - a girl who'd never even get a second glance in say, Hong Kong or Bangkok but has somehow become a (cringeworthy) Asian sex icon in the US. Also, the cultural bias against tans isn't just a Japanese phenomenon but one I've observed in Asia in general, for the same reasons you listed above.
One might prefer to purchase Asian skins from say, Japanese retailers in SL. From what I've seen the skintones are far more realistic - rather than jaundiced (another pet peeve of mine in some skins people try to pass off as Asian), the paler ones are the porcelain shade you can observe in women in East Asia, and the tanned ones less orange.
no subject
SL is such that skins of darker colour are automatically seen as tanned Caucasian skins, and skin makers make a habit of offering them as such rather than giving their customers more racial diversity in terms of choice. It's such that I habitually refuse to wear tanned skins - I've always scoffed at the way tans have been a status symbol in the West even when they are no longer exclusive to the wealthy, and being half-Asian and not needing one at all, I dislike that golden/tanned skin has been "co-opted" in SL by people who (if not Caucasian) seek to look like affluent, white avatars.
My current avatar does appear pure Caucasian (though I often switch looks, not to mention genders, at whim), but in the beginning I was looking for options to look closer to my rl mixed-heritage self. I discovered that most "Asiatic" skins or "Asian" avatars (notably ones by Western sellers) were almost caricaturish in appearance, much like the slant-eyed broad-cheekboned cartoons of Asians in earlier, more un-PC times. One has to wonder why these creators choose to exaggerate the most unflattering features in Asian people. This is linked to the fact that often, the Western standards of beauty when it comes to other races/countries are so "exoticised" as to be ridiculous. One example that a friend suggested would be Tila Tequila - a girl who'd never even get a second glance in say, Hong Kong or Bangkok but has somehow become a (cringeworthy) Asian sex icon in the US. Also, the cultural bias against tans isn't just a Japanese phenomenon but one I've observed in Asia in general, for the same reasons you listed above.
One might prefer to purchase Asian skins from say, Japanese retailers in SL. From what I've seen the skintones are far more realistic - rather than jaundiced (another pet peeve of mine in some skins people try to pass off as Asian), the paler ones are the porcelain shade you can observe in women in East Asia, and the tanned ones less orange.