You can have any colour, as long as it’s white
I have a friend, a very good friend, who from time to time will throw in a casually dismissive remark about herself. Because of the colour of her skin - a beautiful, cocoa-coloured one which of course simply is not entitled in this country to be called beautiful. My friend, is one of the most beautiful people I know. Kind, to the point of being unable to say no to people who sponge on her. Incapable of being mean to anyone. Highly accomplished at what she does and hard-working. Loved by everyone who knows her. She is indeed one of the nicest people I know. Now, you may think none of this inner beauty stuff is the sort one can see in the mirror. So let me tell you that she also has a fine figure, sparkling eyes, evenly set teeth and a lovely smile. All of which she can surely see in the mirror, and yet, I can see that she does not think herself beautiful.
Simply because she has a skin tone that is the common skin tone found across our country. Simply because, in this country, there is only colour that qualifies as beautiful, and that is white, the whiter the better.
The recent ruling on a L’Oreal division being found guilty of racial discrimination is only a judicial affirmation of what is already known. Whether in France or here at home, marketers and advertisers believe that dark-skinned people do not sell. If this is indeed true, then it points to an even more pervasive problem, for it is not marketers alone who are pushing on us this idea of whiteness - society as a whole has internalised it.
I’m tempted to agree with that, although it cannot help a dark-skinned child to be constantly bombarded with images of whiteness and to be told that this is the only kind of beauty. Yet, 20-30 years ago, when atleast in India, media and television weren’t so pervasive, the craze for whiteness still remained. Almost as soon as a child is born, that’s the first question asked, ‘How fair is s/he?’ And of course the question carries disproportionate weight for girls, since everyone wants ‘fair and homely’ girls. Dark-skinned boys can make up with their achievements in other fields, but since girls must be beautiful above and beyond everything else, the weight of dark skin cannot be shed so easily.
I remember something I heard years ago when a somewhat dark girl in the distant family was finding it difficult to find a suitable boy. Someone said, well, if the boy is fair, they want a fair girl to ‘match his looks’, and if the boy is dark, they want a fair girl so that atleast the children will turn out fair! Either way, there is relentless pressure to turn into something you cannot.
What does it do to a child to constantly hear that she is in some way inferior? What does it do to a South Indian child to be told that she ‘looks South Indian’, as if that were an infectious disease? Discrimination on colour is well and kicking in this country. Leaving aside the issue of media representations, until parents and schools start confronting it head-on, a large proportion of children in this country are going to grow up with warped ideas of what beauty is.
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I too have written about this topic of media’s obsession with fair skin.http://opinionsandexpressions.wordpress.com/2008/06/21/lost-love-and-fair-skin/
I’m with you when you say:I think society as a whole has internalized the white is better concept. Marketing just uses the prevalent preferences, if only reinforcing it while they are at it. But you cannot question people’s preferences, they are what they are.
Reema - will read…
Sri - actually, why cannot one question people’s preferences? We must question, for change to occur. I’m not saying you can legally mandate preferences, but nobody can stop us questioning…
change has to begin at school and home - that is so right
but i also can’t digest that seemingly sensible people like john and asin endorse these fairness brands
I think view is changign slowly…..mostly becuase of how ‘black beauty’ is being accepted in world market….say in Miss World Pagent. World is gettign smaller with technologies and people have started to appreciate indian color , hopefully over the period of time it would help us to change out mind set.
I think view is changing slowly…..mostly becuase of how ‘black beauty’ is being accepted in the world market….say in Miss World Pageant. World is getting smaller with technologies and people have started to appreciate indian color , hopefully over the period of time it would help us to change our mind set.
I would like to believe that we are changing slowly but surely specially when I look at all the dusky actresses, the many other women who are being admired for what they have achieved..(we still have a long way to go though)
but then again it only takes a glance at the marriage scene to tell us the ugly reality
Art - I’ve long ceased to expect ethics from actors; besides, people will rationalize anything for money.
Ananmika - Is ‘black beauty’ really accepted as a norm or as some kind of exotic fetish?
Indyeah - the kind of actresses we call ‘dusky’ itself says something about us…and yeah, the the marriage scene - its still pretty ugly!
The problem is that people tend to think that fair people are more good looking and that is where the bias starts. Even in Africa people think like this and go for fairness creams. It will be difficult to get rid of this bias I think unless everyone is the same colour!
I think it is not a norm at all yet….but can’t say it is just exotic fetish…. it is kind of in between. I live in US and I have seen then enjoying Indian beauty…they like to go and find indian life partner (that is because of our culture) that would be possible if color was not an issue
Sorry for the late responses…
Nita, we’re all never going to be the same colour, so the solution has to be something else no?
Ananmika - Not sure if that applies to a small minority of people?
Apu, it is very disheartening - first off that beauty for women overrides her any and all other accomplishments. Infact, people even seem to be believe that an overaccomplished woman was merely over-compensating for her “lack of good looks”. What’s worse is the issue of color - bleaches (many of them are toxic), Fair’n'lovely, Fairever, (the ads make me want to throw up). I was watching a movie clip last night where the heroine actually goes to the hero’s side kick and says “Onnoda color enna, ennoda color enna, kittakvey varamudiyadu nee”(Look at your color and look at mine, we are eons apart). The change has to be from inside out. Dove has won rave reviews for it’s Real Beauty ads where they look for real people with real lives and show them as their models (teachers, housewives, engineers) - the women come in all shades and sizes and there are many companies that are adopting that method. Dove also holds workshops for young girls to teach them to accept who they are as beautiful. We need that kind of education and maybe in India, the older generation first needs to go to a sensitivity work shop like that? (lol!)
I once read a blog post somewhere about the “skin colour” crayon that comes as part of every crayon pack. The post talked about how that “skin colour” that we all used to draw people should have made us question it’s name. None of the people we see around us have skin that shade of pink-white, so they? So WHY is it name “skin colour” in India? For whites, maybe. But here, no.
I liked your post a lot. It really brings to mind the row upon row of fairness creams that are sold in grocery stores and chemists. So many lotions and creams promising us a “better” (meaning fairer) complexion. “Fair and Lovely” proclaiming that you have to be fair to be lovely.
Personally, I love dark skin. I’m not very fond of my complexion, not because it’s dark, but because it’s uneven and not the same colour everywhere. I find darker men more attractive (in general) to fairer men, and I hate it when people talk about how lucky the darker parents of a fair child are to have had a baby who missed their curse of dark skin.
Laksha - movies I feel are a lot more powerful in India than any advertising can be; it’s a pity they keep on peddling these regressive ideas.
Sumedha - thank you. somehow, very few of us grow up to love dark skin, (and esp in women) because, since we are children, its ingrained in us that fair is beautiful…
Apu, I couldn’t agree more with you… We’re all so busy sitting back and blaming society and the media and everthing that we forget that we play a big role in all the existing stereotypes.