Indian Obsession with fair skin

‘Don’t go out in the sun’

‘Don’t drink tea you’ll get darker’

‘Drink Milk you’ll get fairer’

‘Why don’t you try fairness creams’

‘You’ve got nice features but you are dark’


You must have heard thousands of these advises and comments if you have a dusky shade as our Indian society is obsessed with fair skin so much that skin whiteners and lighteners make up the largest segment of the facial care market in India. The Indian cream market in 2014 was estimated to be around half a billion dollars that’s around 3000 crores.


Beauty in Indian minds is associated with fair skin. You are considered to be pretty only if you have a light shade. It’s like idolising fairness.


Indian obsession with fair skin has reached such a stage where people are judged on the basis of their skin colour. One of the major factors that is kept in mind while selecting a groom or bride is their skin colour. Skin colour is like an indicator for moral, ethical, intellectual qualities.


This obsession can be traced to years back when India was under the rule of the Britishers or the ‘Supreme’ white and has continued through Bollywood which is not just a film industry but a bonafide religion of India. Most stories that we’ve grown up reading or listening to have in some way or the other propagated FAIR skin after all the Queen in Snow White and Seven Dwarfs says, ‘Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?'


According to a report most Asian cultures have a fascination with ‘white or fairer’ skin as most of their royalty or colonial powers had skin colour whiter than the common people.


It’s ironic how the citizens of foreign countries try to get a tan and whereas we who are already blessed with that colour are ungrateful and try to get rid of it.


I don’t know whether people(and it’s not just girls, but boys too) these days are just too naive or it’s just this societal pressure that lets them fall into the trap of these companies that promise fairer skin, no pimples, no marks after a wash or after applying it. It’s just like promising magic.-Rushda Shamsi

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 2, 2020 at 2:45 AM

    👏🏻👏🏻I am glad atlest our generation is standing up against this!

    ReplyDelete

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