Being Fair Is All That Matters In India

Category: Fashion

The Voice Of Women If you ask someone to describe a beautiful girl, 70% of them will start by saying “she is fair,….”, the rest of adjectives don’t matter. As Indians, our measurement for beauty is stuck at being light-skinned. Beauty is measured by skin tone This obsession with being fair in India can be relegated to our colonial past, but even after 70 years of independence, I think it is easy to understand that it is due to the fact that our society is sexist, bigoted and patriarchal. The moment a girl is born, and if the ‘well-wishers’ find her to be dark-skinned, the barrage of sympathetic chuckles for the plight of the parents and their child can easily cause depression…..Learn more The million-dollar fairness industry In 1975, Hindustan Uniliver launched a product, Fair and Lovely that has since then become ubiquitous in every Indian household, especially in the rural areas. That fairness product industry is estimated to reach a whopping 5000 crore rupees by 2023. India is a huge market for skin whitening products, with a survey indicated that 13% of the users are between the age of 12-14. Over the years many other manufacturers have joined this lucrative market….Learn more Such regressive marketing strategies were stopped only when a law was passed in this regard. Sic! Now brands have started repackaging the products as a skin brightening products. Bollywood stars are guilty of promoting these products. Even celebrities are not spared; Tannishtha Chatterjee was subjected to bullying for her skin tone back in 2016. If we notice some Bollywood heroines their skin tone has lightened considerably over the years…..Learn more The fight against this stereotype In response to this retrograde view, a campaign called the Dark is Beautiful campaign, which is sponsored by theatre personality Nandita Sen. The Saand Ki Aankh actress, the versatile Bhumi Pednaker, wants to use the cinematic medium “to fight prejudice”. She is portraying the role of a dark-skinned girl in the upcoming movie, Bala, which also stars Ayushmann Khurrana and Yami Gautam. She says that she isn’t a social activist just “somebody who cares,… somebody who truly wants to make a difference”..…Continue reading