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Interracial Body Painting

For a different look, and for improving the culture
  (+2, -4)
(+2, -4)
  [vote for,
against]

NOTE: I didn't see much in the way of a "Painting" category anywhere.

Once upon a time a person could get a paint job and then die (actress in James Bond movie "Goldfinger" played a part to that effect). The skin needs to breathe, and paints tended to block it. Today body paints may be safer; I haven't heard about any recent fatalities. Or perhaps people are more careful about how long they let the paint stay on the skin.

Relevant Information is Necessary, before anyone attempts this Idea!

Note that a good paint job may allow someone to walk around basically nude in public, with little outcry. Other paint jobs are less likely to be publically acceptable to that extent. I mean, if you are a woman and you get a paint job such that when nude you obviously look like a nude woman, that is not likely to be acceptable in most public places.

The preceding would likely be true even if you got your entire body painted. If you were a black-skinned woman and got a paint job to look like a red-skinned woman, well, nudity is nudity, and not acceptable in most public places. But that doesn't mean you might not like the Idea of looking like a red-skinned woman!

Or a white-skinned woman might like to try on the look of a yellow-skinned woman.

And so on.

It did occur to me that with respect to fashion and such, many women are willing to change hair color, sometimes fairly often, and hardly anyone raises a fuss. So, why not change skin color? Often, even.... Could be great for gradually reducing interracial tensions, because you might never know for sure what variety of person you were actually interacting with. More equality and justice for all, see? --Interesting that this Idea is posted to the CULTURE section....

Just imagine wearing THREE coats of body paint, and having a special one-layer removal kit. You walk into a place full of appropriate racists and get dissed --and then remove a layer of paint to show how dumb they were, because now you look like them. Then, after they apologize, you strip off the NEXT layer, and now you don't look like them any more! Will they have learned a lesson? Probably not; they won't like being shown to be idiots TWICE. You will probably have to strip off that third layer in order to escape with a whole skin....

Vernon, Feb 18 2010

The "Goldfinger" myth, debunked for the umpteenth time. http://www.snopes.c...ilms/goldfinger.asp
"Although it was still widely believed at the time Goldfinger was made (1964) that we "breathe" through our skin and that closing off all the pores in one's body would result in a quick death, we now know this to be false." [jutta, Feb 18 2010]

Black. White. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11394595/
If it's been made into a reality TV show, does that count as "widely known to exist"? Please? [jutta, Feb 18 2010]

Al Jolson in the Jazz Singer http://en.wikipedia...zSingerPremiere.jpg
[pocmloc, Feb 18 2010]

fat suit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatsuit
//really, I'd much rather try out different sizes// [pocmloc, Feb 18 2010]

Tin Woodsman Aluminum Dust Reaction http://www.snopes.c...s/films/ozebsen.asp
[rcarty, Feb 18 2010]

Legend of the Pink Monkey http://www.hoagiesg...org/pink_monkey.htm
New slogan? "Racists are just a bunch of dumb animals." [Vernon, Feb 22 2010]

[link]






       See link for a debunking of the "Goldfinger" myth. People do not breathe through their skin; we have lungs for that.   

       Make-up that helps an actor or a reality show participant change race exists. Make-up that helps someone walk around nude undetected exists too, but that seems independent (and involves painting on clothing).   

       I hear blue is popular this time of year. [Awesome link, Ian. Thanks!]
jutta, Feb 18 2010
  

       [jutta], I wasn't saying that WE breathe through our skins; I was saying that the skin itself needs to breathe. (I could still be wrong, but please let me be wrong about what I actually said, and not what someone thought I said.)   

       :)   

       I also did not say "quick death". I was under the impression that several hours were required, before a painted body would succumb.
Vernon, Feb 18 2010
  

       I didn't happen to know about that TV show before.
Vernon, Feb 18 2010
  

       Skin doesn't breathe, it does sweat and extrude oils and hair. You will never suffocate, but you could easily overheat or get a nasty rash if your paint was thick enough. Since all you need is a slight pigment change, this shouldnt be an issue.   

       Also, there is a medication that will drastically increase your melanin production, turning you dark brown. Already brown? That will be more difficult.
GutPunchLullabies, Feb 18 2010
  

       A surprising number of actors have had bad reactions to body paint (Tin woodsman, per rcarty's link, Virginia Hey on Farscape), but it's all due to specific allergies or poor materials choices, not being painted.
MechE, Feb 18 2010
  

       WcW, I'm going to move some stuff from my last annotation into the main text. The rationale for interracial body painting will then become different enough from "what has been done" that you shouldn't mind deleting your MFD.
Vernon, Feb 19 2010
  

       I don't think it would work.   

       I am often surprised by people's reactions when they are introduced to me after hav ing met previously my wife & kids / introduced to my wife after having previously met my kids & I.   

       I've not noticed any real change in the way people interact with all of us. I suspect the first impression sealed the perception for everyone. A surprise afterwards doesn't seem to change much. I have a kind of unique perspective on it as I was an asst coach one of my kids sports teams & would arrive in a different car on my way home from my wife & kids.   

       It didn't matter that my kids (twins) facial structure looked exactly like mine & that their skin color is just a slightly tanner version of mine, if they were seen arriving in mom's car - people just couldn't see their identity as anything other than that of their mothers culture. If we arrive in my car the first time, it seems people predetermine that they're obviosly within the set of my culture - the reactions don't seem to change much when the obvious new info is introduced.   

       I am still a bit bothered by it all.   

       A bit wordy way to say I don't think your shock to tolerance idea might not work.
Zimmy, Feb 22 2010
  

       [FlyingToaster], this is NOT a "let's all". And it is new with respect to attempting to improve the culture by reducing racism. Only enough people need to participate in this Idea to confuse the stupid racists enough that eventually they might realize how stupid their atitude actually is. It's what's inside a person that counts, not what's outside.
Vernon, Feb 22 2010
  

       [Vernon] While I have prejudices, some of which I try to untangle, others of which I foster, what you propose is an insult to people who are *not* racist, and lends an excuse to those who are to continue being so.   

       F'rinstance my "orangutan" comment in the previous anno: was that a racist comment, or did it stem from wanting to show off my beer belly? Which would the person who decided to enroll in your program answer ?
FlyingToaster, Feb 22 2010
  

       [FlyingToaster], generally racists are people who judge others by what their body appears to look like. (I saw-in-passing a guy last week with brow ridges that I could have sworn were perfectly Neanderthal, and while I wondered about his ancestry, not for a second did I think there might be something WRONG about the fellow.)   

       I'm sure you know that skin color is the primary focus of a lot of racists. Well, by letting these racists experience people who look like themselves, and can hold their own in various conversations, the stupidity of racism can be exposed to the racists. And if they are able to do any thinking before they act (unlike monkeys; see link), then some cultural improvement should take place, one enlightened racist at a time.
Vernon, Feb 22 2010
  

       I like the idea. I do think it might eventually reduce racial tension, but I don't know that it would really stop racists.   

       Racists might cause riots to prevent it from being sold. They might start fear-mongering about how "those people" are crawling around in hiding as "us people" throughout society. There might be lynchings of "innocents" based on secondary racial traits (Hair texture, teeth, facial structure...)   

       Places where such a reaction can be elicted should eventually collapse though.
ye_river_xiv, Feb 22 2010
  

       //racists are people who judge others by what their body appears to look like//   

       That seems wrong to me. Here are some counterexamples to chew on. See what you make of them: People in the Southern USA considered "Black," though light skinned, because they come from a Black family. People not invited for job interviews because of a hispanic surname on the resume. The Nuremburg laws. Burakumin.   

       It would take a lot more than body paint to stop racism, or even slow it down. Still, seems like this idea would be a modest impediment to certain kinds of racisim, so [+]. Though how you could think that confusing racists would render them less dangerous is beyond me.
mouseposture, Feb 23 2010
  

       One of the reasons people choose to be racists is this allows them to think that they are part of a group that is somehow inherently superior to some other group. This means they will not at all like being proved to be idiots. Therefore, anything that can help prove that racism is a form of idiocy... is something that can help reduce the amount of racism in the world.
Vernon, Feb 23 2010
  

       [21 Quest], you have a point, but please keep in mind that the Law in most places limits actions more than it limits words. It is by words that people using interracial body paint can prove that racists are idiots. It is by consequent (and equally-proof-of-idiocy) actions that racists can be locked up.....
Vernon, Feb 23 2010
  
      
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