Recently, when I read about Interview’s editorial in their May 2010 issue, which, in my opinion, has rightly been called ‘racist’ by many, I remembered I still had this blog post to write. So here it is.
Last month (April 2010), Vogue India did a cover featuring five bronzed beauties with the title “The Dawn of Dusk.” It was an attempt to denounce the traditional beauty ideals prevalent in India. Although I haven’t been able to get my hands on Vogue India to read this article and see their treatment of this issue, I found the cover to be quite thought-provoking and wanted to share some of these thoughts with all of you.
Sure, it will be naive and ignorant to say that India doesn’t have a discrimination problem when it comes to skin color. We have our Fair and Lovely and other skin lightening cream ads, where they show girls who bag their dream job, a dream husband, and their whole world starts making sense, thanks to this magical cream they have been using (eye roll!). And these ads aren’t just discriminatory; they are a depressing depiction of the society we live in. Having lived in India for six years, I have witnessed such incidents many times. In my opinion, the ones who are really fair, do get more attention – they get all kinds of job offers, many of which they aren’t even qualified for (we all know what those filthy employers want!), they get modeling offers by the dozen and of course they will never have to worry about finding a husband (read: matrimonial ads)!
And it’s not just limited to women; men face discrimination too. My bf has a dark complexion and he has told me many stories where people have downright disrespected him just on the basis of his skin color. And who are these people? No, they aren’t just uneducated people, living in some remote village, who can’t tell right from wrong; many people who come from affluent families, have graduated from renowned colleges and who hold prominent positions in their respective companies are also guilty of such behavior. Don’t we all know someone like that? Yes, we clearly have a problem!
But you know where I start to disagree? It’s when people bring up sales of skin lightening creams in the country. Like this little fact I found on the Vogue UK website:
Fuelled by the appearance of light-skinned Bollywood stars and models, the demand for skin-whitening creams – from brands including L’Oreal and Unilever – grew 18 per cent last year and is set to increase by a predicted 25 per cent this year, the Times reports.
Such arguments are often followed by something like “In the West, people are obsessed with tanning, so why are we so preoccupied with being fair?” I object! I’m sure if we start counting the demand for tanning products in the West, it will be one alarming figure as well. People are risking skin cancer with all those countless hours spent under the sun or on tanning beds, all in the name of beauty. Why isn’t that an issue? What makes buying tanning products okay but not fairness creams? Isn’t it just one beauty ideal against another?
We often forget why Indians are obsessed with fair skin in the first place. Besides the whole post-colonial hangover argument, which may or may not be true, there is also the fact that people find rare physical features beautiful. This is why we find really tall, skinny, or women with high cheekbones, extremely beautiful. This is why the West finds darker skin tones appealing, whereas in the East, people associate fair skin with beauty. In a land where most people have a brownish complexion, a super fair Aishwarya Rai or a Kareena Kapoor is bound to stand out. It’s like my fascination toward blue/green eyes. We don’t get that a lot in our country, so if I see some Indian with light eyes, it instantly makes me go, “wow.”
Dissecting the above quote further, it’s interesting how Bollywood and the Indian fashion industry are constantly blamed for encouraging color discrimination. Now I don’t know what happens behind the scenes, but am I the only one who sees that the Lakme and Wills Lifestyle runways are now filled with a good mix of fair, as well as dark models? Clearly, things are changing and when I first noticed it, I was happy that it was the fashion industry, which influences youth and culture in a big way, who had decided to take the first step in changing the definition of beauty in India.
As for Bollywood, sure Aishwarya Rai, Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor are the highest paid actresses in India, but there was a point when Kajol and Rani Mukherjee were also the reigning queens of Bollywood. If being fair was the only prerequisite to making it in Bollywood, actresses like Diya Mirza would also have been successful! And before you say something about her atrocious acting, take a look at Katrina Kaif. Her acting skills aren’t much to talk about either (let’s hope Rajneeti is an exception!) but she’s still at the top. As ridiculous as it sounds, I think luck plays a major role. It’s about being at the right place at the right time. Go see Luck by Chance and you will know what I mean! Which reminds me Konkona Sen, who clearly isn’t fair, played opposite Farhan Akhtar in that movie; she also had a lead role in Wake Up Sid opposite Ranbir Kapoor. Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra, Nandita Das and Rekha, among many others, have also had their share of success, despite having a darker complexion.
Anyway, coming back to the Vogue India cover, why should we only “celebrate the skin tone that the world (read: the West) covets?” As I’ve mentioned before, how is trading one notion of beauty with another, any better? Why can’t we just recognize beauty for what it is, beyond the color of one’s skin? Why can’t we celebrate the myriad of skin tones we have in our country or even all around the world?
The Many Shades of Indian Skin
And if that’s what Vogue India was aiming for, they miserably failed. The five models on the cover are all more or less the same color, which is too big of a coincidence to have happened. The editorial also says, “Every generation has its share of beauty myths. Perhaps it is time to bust this one. Time to say that as a magazine we love, and always have loved, the gorgeous color of Indian skin…dark, dusky, bronze, golden – whatever you call it, we love it.” But we all know that “dark, dusky, bronze, or whatever you call it” are only a minute part of what constitutes the Indian skin tone. Indians can be many shades lighter than those models on the cover, as well as many shades darker. There is no one particular Indian skin tone, but many, and all of them deserve to be appreciated. So, now the real question is, who wants to take up the challenge of depicting all of that on a magazine cover?
Write back with your thoughts!
Kisses,
SK
This post reminded me of a south Indian friend who was obsessed with Fair & Lovely fairness cream. Back in the day, there was no Fair & Handsome, hah. Anyway, this guy had been using the cream for 5 years plus, on a daily basis. I quote him, “If they scrape me, they’ll find at least 5 inch of F&L on top of my skin. Even the color of this layer is the same as my skin underneath.” I thought this was funny and sad at the same time — the quest to be of lighter skin tone. The pressures of fitting in (sigh). I believe he is using Fair & Handsome now. It is sad!
@ Marley: I’m sure Fair & Handsome hasn’t really done much to lighten his complexion!! All they do is get rid of your tan. Get him to stop using that stuff!! I don’t understand why ppl just can’t be comfortable in their own skin (pun intended). I believe Shahid Kapoor is endorsing some men’s fairness cream? Ridiculous!!
@Swati: Yeah I know these two sisters as well from Jammu. One’s dark with brown eyes..pretty little thing..but the younger one always gets more attention cuz she is fair and has blue eyes..They put her in children’s fashion shows and stuff, neglecting the older one and everyone’s always so besotted by the beauty of the younger one that no one realizes that the other one is beautiful too. Sad, because the last time I saw her she was just 5 years old and I could see that she was craving for attention!
Sad but true…and this discrimination can be seen every where in the society.. I remember when my sis was born, she was fair as a pearl and I remember the kind of reactions we got from people as compared to when she had a sibling who wasn’t pearly white 😐 Color matters when you’re a kid — fair kids – cute, dark ones – okay. When you grow up – read the matrimonial ads — they add “Fair, and convent educated” together as if FAIR is also a qualification ! Sigh…worse is go to a salon and I have seen women who are just getting their nails done being told, hey you have a tan, do u wanna use our fairness facial bla bla..and she is like “Hello, this is my original skin tone and I’d hate it getting fairer” Whoopsie, the salon just lost a regular customer 😛
I strongly agree. I just detest the fact that we, being Indians, being dusky, being brown.. judge people on the basis of their color!! It just does not make sense to me.. why “fair” is BETTER !? I had been meaning to write something regarding this because it pisses me off big time and its beyond my understanding.
Good job
Very meticulously written.. The corporate example of mindless beauties is very promptly quoted and I have experienced this in my own company where all the concepts of “Glass ceiling” looks stupid. They get well pay and promotions only the basis of their color as compared their competent male counterpart, as we have witnessed it in the movie “Life in Metro”.
The greed has increased so exponentially that all the well qualified, even HBS, IIMs, IIT alumni, as you have put it rightly, are not an exception for satisfying their superficial senses.
Surely our Indian Dusk has its own charm along with intellect and I realized this very fact when I met Chitrangada Singh, Sorry Bhai and Hazaro Khwaeishein Aisi fame, in Kolkata. Also, an example of bf that you have through is not atall a surprising treatment. Surprising is, in the country where every male and female mad about fair partner- read matrimony or any bf gf counterpart- you have got dusky one.
Nothing offensive. But its a praiseworthy condition that India is moving towards the right kind of a grounded values rather than mere ostentation.
Ofcourse, its an endless discussion. My final congratulation for selecting a very apt topic and giving your thoughts for sharing.
Good Luck..!!
Shantanu. 🙂
Arrey koi shantanu ko chup karao…yeh toh kuch zaada hi senti ho gaya 😀 😀
By the way, even unpretty people at Google get promoted .. so m lucky that way !
arey Swati.. Google do good with u dats y we r loyal with her.. Swades ka kya..?? Mulchand Bidi Udyog ko dekho, wahan Bidi banane wali aurtein bhi chun chun ke lete hain.. 😀
senti wenti nahi re.. ghar pe bimar pada hun, isliye bohot time hai likhne ke liye. 😉 Jai Hind.
Good luck. !!
@ Dipti: Why ANY complexion is considered prettier than another is beyond my comprehension!! And as I said in my comment to Marley above, as if it wasn’t bad enough that women were using fair and lovely, now they have one especially for men!!
@ Shantanu: It’s love…goes beyond all this race, color, religion stuff!!:) Yeah I can imagine how frustrating it must be to work your butt off and then see someone who doesn’t even deserve it to snag a promotion or a raise just on the basis of their looks! Thanks for giving us that perspective 🙂 and thanks for visiting my blog as well!!
@Swat!: Good to know that Google doesn’t have any ulterior motives.;) But unfortunately not all companies are like that! We know there are lots of bosses out there who are promoting for all the wrong reasons!! What do they call them? Tharki or something right?? Lol!
Thats’ the word.. “Tharki” loL..
🙂 🙂 well put I should say….I am from south India, grown up seeing women with dark skin, fair skin does appeal to me. It is true that we Indians would always think of a fair girl or guy. But when it comes to marriage or a long term relationship, we know our limitations and some how are happy with darker skin. Finally being Indians we should not show discrimination towards darker skin people.
Speaking of north Indians, they do have some kind of discrimination towards the people from the south. With experience I say, fairer skin seem to win the day finally 🙂 🙂 Nice write up
Hi LAN..thanks for visiting my blog:) I’m not really sure if it’s discrimination..but yeah I agree that many North Indians are pretty clueless about South India and treat it like it’s a foreign country! and I guess that could come across as discrimination. It’s weird..but that’s the case for all of India..when I first moved to India I was shocked looking at how much regional divide there was…I heard so much of “Punjabis are like this, bengalis are like that..blah blah,” and I was like um..I thought we were all Indian!!
Anyway, not all of us are like that though. I’m north indian and my bf is from the south and that doesn’t affect us in any way..like i said we are all Indians at the end of the day:)
thanks for sharing!!!!
Thanks for reading ash 🙂