The Fair Skin Battle
Spotlight — By browngirlmag on February 28, 2009 at 11:03 am
Photograph by Thuy Ly.
by Ismath Mohideen
I will admit: I’ve avoided the sun so I wouldn’t get darker. I’ve gone swimming at night instead of during the day to avoid tan lines. It’s completely and utterly ridiculous. I should enjoy the sun’s warm rays and get some exercise! But where do these thoughts come from? We weren’t born with the innate ability to distinguish between skin colors and assign meanings to them. But for some women, the fair skin battle draws them into deeper depths than just avoiding sunshine during the day.
Photograph by Thuy Ly.
In South Asian tradition, a light skinned woman is supposedly more beautiful than a dark skinned woman. This belief can be traced back to early invasions of India by the Turks and British. As light skinned people inhabited India and wielded their authority, natives who sought power and beauty likened fair skin with power and status. Some say the Caste System also contributed to these attitudes, with light skinned higher caste members dominating the lower caste members with darker skin. Additionally, history might indicate that lighter skinned people enjoyed a more fanciful life, while darker skinned people worked in the fields.
For an even more blatant and modern perpetuation of this stereotype, watch any Bollywood movie’s actors and actresses. The movies tend to feature ultra-fair-skinned heros and heroines, while villains and village women tend to be portrayed by darker complexioned actors.
Can this be a realistic depiction of South Asian people? Do South Asian women strive to appear like the beautiful women seen in the movies? The majority of South Asians are not as fair skinned as the movies portray. They range in hues from ivory to caramel, from mocha to ebony.
(As a humorous side note, check out some of the matrimonial ads seeking fair maidens.)
Furthermore, the South Asian skin product market is littered with skin lightening products. Everything from our aunt’s Fair and Lovely to our dermatologist’s hydroquinone is being consumed for the purpose of a fair complexion. Some of these crèmes are harmful for the skin, and can lead to irritation. It’s amazing to observe the lengths some women will go to, sometimes dangerous lengths, just to achieve a slightly lighter shade.
Photograph by Thuy Ly.
However, Fair and Lovely is now the topic of controversy in South Asia nowadays, where a movement led by the All India Democratic Women’s Association finally begins to bring some justice to the issue of skin color.
This issue doesn’t just concern South Asians. African American celebrities like Beyonce, Rihanna, and Halle Berry are so beautiful and talented in their genres, but in all actuality, they’re considerably fair! In fact, an MSNBC article posed the question of whether Vanity Fair lightened Beyonce’s skin for a cover photo (which they vehemently denied). A darker skinned woman like Fantasia Barrino doesn’t get nearly the same spotlight, despite her enormous talent. Some African American bloggers speak of similar sentiment concerning skin color in their communities as well.
It’s clear that American Desi girls feel the fair-skin pressure because of the media coming at them from both sides of the world. Both Desi culture and American culture subconsciously allude towards the idea that a lighter complexion is more beautiful than a darker one. It’s not easy living in a society where vanity and visual appearance speak volumes before a woman even speaks!
The vast diversity in our skin colors is just one of the visual aspects of our heritage. And there’s so much wonder woven into our heritage to fret over skin color! So, feel free to bask in the sun and be proud of your glow!
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11 Comments
The issue of skin color has been a point of conversation in MANY cultures FOR-EV-ER and it’s great that you acknowledge the absurdity of it all. It’s even better that you acknowledge where it stems from and have made the decision to empower yourself by moving away from the toxicity. There is no shame in loving yourself exactly as you are.
Before I give my 2 cents on the issue of skin color, i just want to clarify that Fantasia Barrino does NOT get the same spotlight because she does NOT have enormous talent. Of course, this is just an opinion, but she sounds like a darn chipmunk to me. You are, however, totally right that most “famous” dark-skinned women actually not that dark-skinned. But then again some exceptions, like Iman, Mary J and Oprah do cut that stereotype too (but not a lot).
OK NOW – ISMATH, thank you SO much for writing about this ridiculous mindset our desi women have. I have to comment though that it’s mostly our mother’s age group of women and older that have the biggest influence, because girls our age could pretty much care less. Dark is beautiful to me, and even though I am desi, if I wasn’t scared of skin cancer I would TOTALLY go tanning. I’ve heard with my own ears aunties comment on how BEAUTIFUL a girl is, merely because her skin is white. Sista can be 5′2″, 180 lbs and have a totally flat nose and jelly rolls up the wazoo. But she’s white. WHATEVER!
And then on the other hand, white girls and other light-skinned girls go tanning and want to achieve that perfectly sun-kissed bronze/brown look. And we, we were BORN with that. So what’s the deal? The deal is that we all want what we don’t have! Straight hair girls want curly hair and vice versa. Dark girls want to have lighter skin, and the list goes on. My honest opnion, if you are healthy and take care of your self and present yourself in a nice and decent manner, who cares if you’re black or white.
Way to go Ismath Mohideen… nice writeup…
I avoid the sun but it’s not for skin color concerns, I just don’t want to age prematurely. This angle is rarely, if ever, mentioned in South Asian skin color write-ups.
First of all let me point out your ignorance because the caste system had nothing to do with skin colour or race nor is there such a thing as Aryan or Dravidian race. I have seen fair skin people from different caste and I have particularly seen Brahmins who are as black as the ace of spades so your argument that caste perpetuates the fair skin obsession is invalid. I agree that the invaders such as the Turks (Muslims) and the British (Christians) have made the notion of fair skin a status symbol but the fault lies with us as well for making that kind of association as well. If your a Hindu then you will realise that in the Mahabharata the character Draupadi was dark skinned AND considered one of the most beautfiul women of that era. Lord Krishna is dark skinned but is the most popularly worshipped deity of India. Bollywood is financed by companies from the middle east and the muslim mafia’s in India, so they pretty much have a say as to what can appear in Bollywood films and they dont want darky Hindu characters full stop.
-Muski
i avoid tha sun because it makes my skin darker Its not easy to deal with it I might sound ignorant but ligher skin would llook better on me.
Zen,
Thank you for your comment about premature aging. I hope that if we revisit this topic in the future, we will certainly mention that concern.
Anonymous,
Thank you for your comments regarding the caste system. My intention was to point out many different possible reasons historically and currently which may contribute to skin color concerns in the South Asian community. These are certainly not all of the concerns, and we can approach this topic from many angles. I appreciate your comment about Draupadi and Lord Krishna. I’m sure many of our readers can relate to your opinion. The Brown Girl Magzine staff welcomes readers from all backgrounds and religious affiliations.
This article is interesting to read and so are the comments. I think another opinion by a “white” skinned girl like me might help and help put at ease for those ladies who feel its good to use such products.
Since I was born, I was always considered a white girl with just indian facial features. It wasn’t so great and no, I did not go out into the sun to make my skin look darker. Having white skin means that you will more likely break out than darker girls, have more skin damage like sun burns, etc. I was made fun of at school for be a brown girl and at home life wasn’t so easy. At “Patel Parties”, all the aunties did bring up my skin being light, but that is all they did. They didn’t acknolwedge how hard I worked at school and how much community service I did, nor did they take interest in the program I got selected in: Young Leaders in Action. The other girls my age had a better shot of that. All the girls that I used to play with would give me a hard time for being so white. And since I was also fully Americanized, all the indian kids would make fun of my accent and tease me by calling me WHITE GIRL as I cried. This went on for years and years until I became an outcast and joined an all academic-based high school.
So the point of this very long comment is so what if you are white skinned. Be happy with the skin color you have. These products are only making darker skinned girls feel unappreciative and continuing the trend of “if it ain’t white, it ain’t right”! Put a stop to it; you’ll see that the next generation will benefit from our actions!
This well written article definitely points out one of the biggest flaws of society today. It is sad to see how, even today, people equate beauty and success with the color of one’s skin. Sometimes when I watch Indian tv channels, I see fair and lovely commercials that promise girls successful marriage proposals or amazing job opportunities if they become fair. I’m so happy that women in India are now protesting this ridiculous statement. (There is only one actress in India who’s considered “dark”– Bipasha Basu and she is called a “dusk beauty”).
I noticed that other people have also spot lighted the difficulties of being light skinned as well. In my opinion, I think it is absolutely ludicrous how fair skinned people spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on harmful tanning products and at tanning salons. Of course, there’s also the free and unhealthy amount sun tanning as well. These people, in their pursuit of the perfect “Sun touched glow” or “brown glow” are literally giving themselves cancer and other diseases. Now you have the brown people in this world using “Fair and lovely” and “Hydroquinone” in an effort to look fair. These products have been found to be carcinogenic (cancer causing), but that has yet to stop their sales. So the pursuit of the perfect look, tan or fair, seems to both lead to the same conclusion: diseases like cancer.
All I have to say is, even if the older generations feel having fair skin is “glorious,” the younger, more educated, and globally aware youth of today should stand up and say no to these STUPID stereotypes set by society about skin color. Learn to Love Yourself, light or dark
What I have noticed in many, if not all, cultures is that women are usually or mostly depicted lighter than men, which explains why the heroic Lord Krishna is dark skinned. Remember it’s “tall, dark and handsome”, not “tall, light, and handsome”. Yes compare to most people of India or South Asian nations the actors are lighter, but compared to the actresses they’re still darker. I always wonder the hatred over men who are lighter than the women in many cultures, like in the Americas? As if being fair is a feminine trait. I am guilty of liking guys who are darker than I am. Is there a biological reason for this? Keep in mind my mother is darker than my father, so it’s not nurture or experience reason, at least for me.