Comments on: The Fair Skin Battle

By: Jenna

Jenna — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:08:46 +0000

East Asians are much much much worse than Indians and African-americans. Many of them are light skinned yes? Naturally, no. This itself shows how serious skin color is to them.

In E asia it’s nearly impossible to find a make up product that has no bleach in it, in China and other places, many girls hover under umbrellas during a sunny mid day and will teach their female children to marry white men, so their babies will look less Asian.

This is all contrary to Indians, we do not have such horrid standards and beliefs as they do.

By: Juci

Juci — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:57:52 +0000

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.

By: Tan and Loving It :)

Tan and Loving It :) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:03:12 +0000

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

By: Bela Patel

Bela Patel — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:27:49 +0000

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!

By: Ismath

Ismath — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:22:15 +0000

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.

By: asia

asia — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:15:40 +0000

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.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 16 May 2009 21:40:58 +0000

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

By: Zen

Zen — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:53:53 +0000

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.

By: Ngraceg

Ngraceg — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:12:14 +0000

Way to go Ismath Mohideen… nice writeup…

By: Asma

Asma — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:56:53 +0000

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.