Is the near-global preference for lighter skin despite or because of European colonialism?

[Thambi]

what difference is between turks in the west and turks in turkey ? they are the same people/ethnicity

in turkey actually esmer (dark) is often said as something beautiful and desirable especially for men . like tall dark and handsome etc

people go sunbathing all over turkey . in general though in turkey people dont give much importance on pigmentation

They're same people but people in western countries dont care as much about pigmentation, while in eastern cultures they do put importance to it. So yeah culture also plays an important role.

ok yeah thats another thing. Different standards exist for men and women.

The men are preferred to be tall, DARK, and handsome.

While the females I think ideally should have fair skin, slim waist, etc.

[Hadouken]

ok yeah thats another thing. Different standards exist for men and women.

For males, its preferred to be tall, DARK, and handsome.

For females I think its Fair skin, slim waist, etc.

of course it is the best to love and accept yourself the way you are . not always easy for some people and I have to be honest I am happy with my pigmentation and the way I look (except overweight ) as I said but if you would ask me if I HAD to choose between being darker or stay the way I am now I would take my current color . I still like to tan on summer though. I also often used to post tanned pics from me . on my first classify thread here I posted pics from summer

I prefer darker pigmented women btw.

black or brown hair , tanned skin , brown or hazel eyes . yummy

[sean]

You have to define lighter skin......compared to?

[KMack]

[Duffmannn]

It´s universal, even in not colonised societies like Japan or China, even before the contact with Europe, the ligh skin was appreciated.

Also it´s not only the european colonialism, in parts of Africa the preference could be due to arab colonialism-contact, or in Southeast Asia due to chinese colonialism-chinese elites. The preference for light skin in India-Pakistan comes from millenia.

The arab slave traders sold more expensive the female white slaves (in fact the term slav to designate eastern europeans comes from this), while the black ones were cheaper, time before european colonialism.

Basically the dark skin denoted that one person was poor and worked in the countryside every day, while the light skinned ones were richer, in any society. Also the light features (eyes, hair) are always consideared attractive by instinct.