Skin tones and stereotypes: racial inequity in medical beauty norms

To the Editor, Cosmetic surgery and dermatology are two fields that deal with both health and beauty. They have a big impact on how people see normalcy and what they want. So, it’s very important that we pay close attention to the health standards of beauty. It is increasingly likely that these standards are predominantly based on Eurocentric notions. This not only promotes racial bias but it also has real, negative effects on patient care and health equity. This article is compliant with the TITAN Guidelines 2025 governing the declaration and use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in research and publication[1] One big problem is that medical school hasn’t always had a lot of different kinds of people, especially in dermatology. For a long time, books and hands-on classes in dermatology have mostly been about skin problems that affect White people. This is a big lack of information because many diseases look different on people of color. This means that Black, Asian, and other non-White people get the wrong diagnosis, get treatment later, and have worse health outcomes. This isn’t about how it looks; it’s about having the right skills and keeping people safe[2,3]. There is also a clear bias in cosmetic surgery, which is usually done to make White people look better. Messages that say things like “smaller noses,” “thinner lips,” or “certain forehead shapes” might slowly push people of different races to conform to a single, limiting standard of beauty. It’s important to respect the patient’s right to privacy, but the business needs to think about whether it’s just meeting demand or intentionally making it in a way that devalues racial features and supports a racial hierarchy of beauty[4]. This absurd demand affects not merely how well a medical professional does what they do, additionally how mentally fit their clients are. If the profession of medicine decides what is “standard” or “perfect,” with no taking race into account, Black people may feel like they don’t belong or are not sufficient. Individuals might start loosing faith in the medical sector and view their distinctive qualities as issues requiring rectification rather than attributes to take pride in[5]. In short, the medical field needs to work hard to get rid of the Eurocentric beauty standards that many of its methods are based on right now. We need to work together to make sure that training materials are more diverse, that clinical research includes people from all walks of life, and that beauty medicine promotes a culture that values and enhances a wide range of ethnic traits. Everyone should be involved in real patient care, and it shouldn’t push a certain, biased idea. Instead, it should celebrate how different people look.