By Sailaja Joshi – Harvard University
Wheatish. Fair. Golden.
These terms used to stand for simply ways describe a perspective bride’s skin color. Today, they have come to stand for so much more. Wrought with these words is the stigma behind being dark and how it has become entrenched in our Indian society as the ideal.
When our parents left India with the hopes of a better future for their children, they brought with them several cultural values and ideologies. Bhayathanatram, Carnatic music, the need to become a doctor. There is another thing that our parents took with them, the notion of fair and lovely.
As good Indian girls, we all know the term.We all know the product well, whether we’ve used it, or had it given to us by a caring aunt or grandmother. We know what fair and lovely represents within our Indian society, a promise, a dark skin girl can too become beautiful, fair and lovely.
Having fair skin means better job opportunities, and it means a better matrimonial candidate. For us it means a bright and promising future. But where exactly did this stem from? This idea that, being fair and lovely, was the “in” to the “in” crowd. Some anthropologists will attribute it to colonialism, others will point out that the notion of fair can be traced back to our Vedas.
Could it be possible that the idea of fair has been with us so long?
As Indian girls, we’re well educated. We’ve aced our math tests, we know our physics, so don’t we know better that being fair has nothing to do with our status in society, but is simply a remnant of cultural ideologies?
What do we as Indian girls do? How do we challenge these notions of fair as lovely and ensure that our daughters never have to question going outside to play in the sun, for fear of becoming dark.
In this series of articles, I will take a look and challenge the ideas behind fair skin, how they have permeated our culture and how they have manifested themselves around the world. We’ll take a look at how fair is no longer just for girls, but also for men and what that means on a much larger level.
Then, I’ll pose the questions to you, our brown girls, and ask the question: how can we break down this barrier, if at all?
The first article will take a look at the upcoming documentary, Dark Girls. Slated to open in the fall, the trailer for the documentary provides vignettes of women, beautiful women, talking about the struggle of being dark skinned within the African-American community. The stigma of being dark skinned, was something that this women were challenged with their entire life and did not come from some outside oppressive force. But rather, from their own family and friends. Each of the women talks about how their skin is a caveat to their beauty, and how they are beautiful in spite of their skin color.
But we all know that to be far from the truth. Because we are beautiful, beyond our skin color.
Now here is a challenge to us all, How many times have you said ‘she’s beautiful even though she’s dark skinned.’ Next time you catch yourself saying that, perhaps we should think twice and realize that our beauty does not lie in the color of our skin, but rather what is inside.
View the Trailer for Dark Girls
Visit the website for Dark Girls
Image from TLC Unpretty video from blackenterprise.com
i think this is a great idea. the fair&lovely cream ads posit that fair skin means success not only in love and beauty, but also in the work place. in fact, they imply success in the work place is contingent upon being beautiful. this implies that culture values beauty over intelligence; so the crucial question is– how do we change that?
I have heard and experienced this with my Indian/Trinidadian friends (I am a dark AA) and in the community of which I live. I have seen what it has done to Indian women who seek this ideal and on the receiving end of Indian women’s unkindness to me because of their ignorance. I have disagree that although there is pressure from within the community there is indeed an outside oppressive force however it is so ingrained within our societal norms one can not readily see them. I am looking forward to your articles.
As an African American it saddens me to find out that the legacy of William Lynch has permeated the subconsciousness of my beautiful brown Indian sisters.Brown sisters wake up ,you are some of the most beautiful women on the planet weather you are the tone of piece of soft caramel candy or the warm tone of a walnut. Embrace your beauty in it’s many forms.Remember the Universe made no mistake when it created you!
Beautiful ‘In Spite’ of her skin color? I disagree with this phrasing. It should be beautiful ‘Because’ of her skin color. Saying ‘in spite’ means that the girl, and even the author of this article, still believes that dark skin is uglier. That is not the aspiration we should have for our women. Indian girls need to view their darker skin–and the darker skin of others!– as something beautiful, despite what their society has told them. And it is beautiful–darker skin looks healthier, conceals facial flaws, and is rich in color. A few years ago, I also felt that lighter skin was better. But my attitudes have changed– mainly after I befriended people who strongly felt that the opposite was true and verbally affirmed their praise of dark skin often– that darker skin was more desirable and more beautiful. Now I am able to find beauty in both lighter and darker skin. Until we are able to rectify our attitudes about skin color, Indian women and men will continue to aspire for lighter skin and will continue to buy products such as Fair and Lovely, and fail to see themselves and those around them as truly beautiful.
I really enjoyed your thoughts and agree with your sentiments to the point where no mayter where you go in the world, there always seems to be a stigma against “darker” skin/complexion. I am a Korean American man, that for some, some reason, even in the midst of a very traditional upbringing, have always found so call “dark” to be soooooo much more beautiful and becoming. Even in South Korea, if you are from the southern areas and are darker skinned, there is a stigma against you in regards to your looks, education, and even possibly that you are of a lower socio-economic class. Colorism seems to hold true and exist across most ethnicities; so much to thr detriment of people as a whole. Its such a shame.
I have African American buddies who have been deeply hurt by Asians who say that they can date any one but Black guys. I am sooooo infuriated by the fact that I have Asian friends that say that i can and would date anyone but Black Girls or I can date Asians but Indians dont qualify. Ms. Joshi, I can understand and empathize with your fustration, anger, and most importantly your pain. To me the sting of colorism is that that ones’s “hue” determines all the most important qualities that matter in a human being. Utter ignorance like people’s misnomer in the ’80′ and early ’90s that any contact wuth an HIV aids patient, even a handshake would give a person the virus.
Ms. Joshi, thank you so much for your entry and look forward to your future entries. GOD BLESS!
Thank you so much for tackling this, Sailaja. The issues that “Brown Girls” face are unfortunately not seen as a global issue. Until now, out of all the conversations I’ve had and articles I’ve read, I have yet to see any South Asian women speak out as you have done although skin bias affects Indian women tremendously.
Hi Friends!
Thank you all for your comments! This is clearly a relevant issue in many communities and i look forward to all of your comments and responses to my upcoming articles!
S
I also noticed the “they are beautiful in spite of their skin color” statement and wanted to give my opinion that darker women are beautiful *because* of their skin color. I love the Dark Girls trailer – I cried the first time I watched it when it first came out. I’ve talked about colorism/shadeism on youtube and on Gaysi… I’ve always loved my skin and how dark it gets in the summer. Only after I met more desis after moving to the US (I didn’t know many in the UK) did people start implying my skin was too dark or I needed to use fair n lovely. It affects all minority races (there are skin bleaches in other non-Indian countries too), genders and sexualities. I loved Dee’s comment and would like to re-direct it to not just Indian women, but all dark-skinned women that feel affected:
you are some of the most beautiful women on the planet weather you are the tone of piece of soft caramel candy or the warm tone of a walnut. Embrace your beauty in it’s many forms.Remember the Universe made no mistake when it created you!
Bravo BGM! After a previous article was published I was pretty much ready to give up on this magazine. Yay! For tackling this really hard topic!
I look forward to reading something that moves beyond “you’re pretty just as you are!!” and “Love yourself no matter what!”
I hope the articles encompass the social and political ramifications that being dark has. I also hope to be able to sink my teeth into something truly substantial that covers the diaspora of how our communities have succumbed to this unfortunate, forced, standard of beauty that stems from a VERY uncomfortable origin of seeking “whiteness” as the standard of “beauty, good, and success!”
BRAVO Ms. Joshi….I hope to stand VERY corrected in my opinion on BGM! =)
your post relies entirely too much on stereotypes. while it’s true that this is common in the indian community, your blog post implies that it’s true of all indians who live in the us. completely untrue, and it’s not as deeply entrenched as you think. furthermore, the indians study math/science paradigm changed a long time ago. while many feel parental pressure to stay in those subjects, many indians study other things.
also, the final question “Now here is a challenge to us all, How many times have you said ‘she’s beautiful even though she’s dark skinned.’”
this is not really a common statement or question — it sounds as if you’re struggling with this concept yourself and are projecting these thoughts and feelings onto the entire indian community as a way to cope.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajiv_Malhotra may be interesting to you.
i enjoyed this article. and read it to my kids. to tell them that they are unique. i agree that we should be proud of ourselfs and achivements. that we can over come any obsticle. and that RASIS WHITE MAN try to bring us down. only the racis kind. black people arent the evil and juding kind. JUST LOOK UP OUR HISTORY. we are known as the smart kind. WHY DO WHITE PEOPLE ALWAYS KNOW OUR HISTORY. they want us to forget slavery but remember something like when the twin towers fell.and the government knew and hoped that the plan will work
Get over yourselves. Seriously pathetic that this vanity is even an issue. Other cultures have suffered tremendously at the hands of racism, religous extremism, and oppresion of horrid degrees. Much more important things to think about than whether you are considered beautiful – and yes – beauty comes in many forms, thats no rocket science.