We must rip out all the epilogues of books we've never read

I cut my finger today on some glass and as I was getting a bandaid I noticed that it pretty well matched my skin tone, which made me think: what would I do for a bandaid that matched if my skin wasn't a peach brown color? Clearly, most bandaids are designed for "white" people, which made me wonder about the history of the bandaid. So I did some research. Apparently, there were a couple of doctors (named Johnson and Johnson) and some guy in their company didn't like his wife bleeding when she cut her hand. Blah blah blah. From the pictures, they are clearly white people. But I imagine that the first bandaids where made of something even more white than their skin tone: medical tape. It wasn't until the 60s that they changed make-up to the vinyl surfaces we see today. When did they change color? Johnson and Johnson don't really advertise it, but I bet that no one really liked having a bright white bandage taped to their arm or head or knee where everyone could see it so they changed color as they learned who bought their products. Why peach? A greater percentage of peaches would have had access to the money that could be spent on a luxury like bandaids. No one before that time spent money on something that would make them scar less and their wounds to heal better. For that matter, I imagine that there was a lot of folklore that had to be dispelled first before they caught on for use by anyone (ie "air lets the wound breath," "scabs are helpful," etc.) Everyone just scarred a lot.

And who would be concerned about scars? Those who didn't do physical work. And who wasn't doing most of the physical labor in the 30s and 40s and 50s? Whites. Scars and wounds don't look so hot next to a new dress or fine derby hat. So there are cultural reasons scars are not desired, and I bet that those who dominated American culture in the 1930s to the 1950s were the ones who bought the bandaids. Which is fine. And I imagine that in the post-war boom of the 50s and through the second half of the century everyone started to get more bandaids, mostly because a slew of imitators pushed prices down (the same thing happened to kleenex).

All that to say, the shade of my bandaid looks to be another indication that society is guided by the haves. Besides, bandaids have to be SOME color, it might as well be peach. The only downside is that if you are a non-peach, your wounds are a lot more evident.

Just a thought. Peace.