I don’t know about you, but this commercial for Fair & Lovely, a skin “lightening” (*cough* whitening *cough* Michael Jackson) cream made me gag:
Essentially, the girl’s obstacle to attaining her dream job was…wait for it…her darker skin. And what got her the dream job? Wait, wait, I know! It was her Fair & Lovely skin cream!
Oh dear God.
I came across this video (made for the Middle Eastern market) after watching an interview a friend and fellow blogger Anushay Hossain did with Canadian channel CBC last week. In a segment entitled, “Bollywood in Toronto,” they discussed the skin-lightening issue and how the Bollywood culture perpetuates a “white” or Caucasian standard of beauty. According to Anushay, the demand for these creams has actually increased in the last few years, up 18% in 2009 and 25% last year. The Loreal country manager for India, she noted, also has said that 60-65% of Indian women use these creams on daily basis.
We’ve talked about this issue before on CHUP, when contributor Maria Saadat wrote,
We belong to an age where dark beauties like Rani Mukherjee and Bipasha Basu sizzle on screen, and fake tanner is sold by the millions in the U.S. so that lighter-skinned ladies can achieve the bronzed glow most of us Pakistanis are born with. The whole world is trying to go darker, yet our society is still hung up on what products or methods to use to become just a few shades paler. Who do we blame for this? Should we condemn advertisers hawking skin-lightening products to the working classes with the promise that success will come with fair skin? Should we point fingers at our great grandparents who passed their own prejudices down to the younger generations?
In her interview, Anushay called this type of behavior and adherence to such standards a “colonial hangover.” But why do these remnants remain, these pervasive inferiority complexes and shards of self-hatred? Is it a function of our colonial past, or can it be more simply traced to our more transnational present – where the beauty standard is arbitrarily decided for us, then packaged and shipped across cultures and boundaries? The fact that skin color has deeper societal roots, linked to class and caste, further reflects the complexity of this issue.
This is not just a South Asian problem.
At a beauty salon not too long ago, a frenzy occurred when a Vietnamese woman walked in. As the crowd around the woman gathered in excitement, another Vietnamese manicurist turned to me and whispered conspiratorially, “Ah. Yeah. She just got back from Vietnam. She got her eyes done. And she got dimples.” The Financial Times noted in an article last year, “Across Asia there are cultural traditions – from the chalking of geishas’ faces in Japan, to the effects of Spanish colonisation in the Philippines where dark and light skin continues to be polarized on the social scale – that reflect and reinforce the idea that the fairer the skin, the better.”
My African American friend and I recently had a related discussion about similar standards of beauty in the African American community, and how it has influenced women’s perceptions of their hair texture and skin color. In The Bluest Eye, author Toni Morrison commented on how society inflicts on its members “an inappropriate standard of beauty and worth, a standard that mandates that to be loved one must meet the absolute ‘white’ standard of blond hair and blue eyes.” Despite efforts like Black is Beautiful, a 1960s movement to address self-hatred, and Brown is Beautiful, a campaign to embrace more Native American-Mestizo features, communities all continue to strive for a standard that is manufactured and forced.
Beauty, even for “white” people, (who, let’s face it, also are trying to fit the mold), is often depicted as unattainable.
In South Asia, the supply for lightening creams continues because demand persists, even for men’s products. The men’s version of Fair & Lovely – Fair & Handsome – made $13 million in sales in 2008. See this ad below (the tagline: Women are attracted to fair and handsome men. So be one of them. Gag.)
Bollywood’s Shahrukh Khan is the brand ambassador to Fair & Handsome. Although this endorsement earned Khan criticism, it does point to the notion that Bollywood and local celebrities can play a role in reframing the beauty standard, and challenging the current demand. But reframing also means diversifying. There should never be one standard of beauty, for any culture or race. Period. But because that is way easier said than done, and nothing can be changed overnight, I’ll instead allow for further discussion on this topic. Converse away.
[…] The White Standard of Beauty […]
I think we are reading too much into this. Advertisers will sell anything that people are willing to buy. Some people are attracted to fair skin, some darker, different folks different stokes. If people from South Asia countries are attracted to lighter skinned women/men so be it. Why does the west have to dictate what and whom should we be attracted to? Skin-color, weight, height are just one of the physical attributes that people are attracted to. We can go ahead say that entire women kind is obsessed with finding a man who is taller than they are. How come no one objects to that? Women wear heels to look taller and society accepts it. In truest sense if we don’t make a big deal a certain predilection for skin color, it will be just as natural as being attracted to a taller mate or a not-obese partner.
Excellent point. I am a short guy (5’6”) and women have constantly rejected me because of my “shortcoming”. A lot of women who are dark skinned are offended (as evidenced by all the comments) by the fact that fair skin is preferred by men of South Asian origin , now they know how it feels to be rejected by something that is beyonds one’s control. Always remember that when you point a finger at someone the rest of the finger are pointing towards yourself.
Kalsoom, we all know that I’m a fan of your blog and your writing, but this is by far, one of the best things you’ve written!
@ Kulsoom
This article tells me that your complexion is not fair … 😆
That is why something is burning in this article… 😆
Actually I am, but good to know you missed the complete point of this article.
Dr Jawad
not only its fair but very attractive as well.
i have only seen her on TV but it made my day;)
Naughty, naughty!
Refreshing to see a blog not highlighting the usual troubles and disasters of Pakistan..lol
Kalsoom isnt it simply the outcome of external influences. By external influence i mean the geographical location, the skin colors around you and of course the perceptions strongly influenced by advertisements. I doubt it may have anything to do with colonial hangover. What you generally see around you is what you desire the least. Populated areas like punjab sindh have generally less fair complexions hence the urge and desire to look fairer. Goras are the exact opposite resulting in their love for tanning and dark tones. Conclusion
‘Insaan kisi haal mein khush nahi’ sigh
I think i am very goodlooking and very very happy with my complexion but i still cannot resist an occasional use of loreal:D Best male cosmetics..i assure you
Butterscotch,
I totally agree with ‘Insaan kisi haal mein khush nahi’ – which is why I noted that beauty is often depicted or seen as unattainable. We are always striving for something that we’re not. In the West, fake tanning and trying to be skinnier is all the rage, though it’s an interesting perspective to see how minorities in the United States feel this complex more directly.
What is also interesting is that Unilever owns both Fair & Lovely and Dove, which launched it’s True Beauty Campaign a few years ago, depicting real women of all colors and shapes who are all beautiful. And yet they still have a warped campaign when it comes to F&L = a function of demand? Is it because in the U.S. this challenge to the standard has become an integral part of the discourse and Dove just reflects that?
If you haven’t already seen it, I highly recommend Chris Rock’s film, “Good Hair.”
Thanks Seth – I’ve been wanting to watch it though my friend who I mentioned in the post thought it treated the issue too simply. I really do want to see it though!
Completely agreed Kalsoom but also have no idea how to bring about change. I’ve noticed that even in families where there is no discrimination/indoctrination, darker teenage girls start to feel bad about their skin colour by society at large. How do you change something in a culture like Pakistan where the first reaction to the birth of baby girl is “Oh no!” followed by “laykin gori hai kay nahin?”
no offense! but white color represents superiority..white people have enslaved all the world. They made larger portion of the world to work for them directly or indirectly…If you don’t believe me look at your blog. you guys are nothing more than unofficial spokes persons of the global western civilization. They successfully brain washed you cut you off from main stream population and made you work for them….
They are superior and white color is symbol of superiority. period
Yes. I’m a CIA/U.S. government mouthpiece. Bam. I’ve been discovered by a super sleuth. Oh no.
What a ridiculous statement. Do you know anything about history? Go do your research, you will find that before the rise of Western civilization darker skinned people ruled the world. This included the enslavement of whiter colored people.
Besides, how could the color of someone’s skin (just a small genetic mutation which can be changed in one mere generation) represent superiority of a culture at large? Appearances are just that, skin deep.
Of course, I am not disputing the success of Western civilization. Those successes, however, did not have anything to do with appearances. It was just the right combination of values + innovations that allowed the West to leap forward.
But who knows what will happen in the next 50 years?
@sarah
You said white people were enslaved by the colored people….is it same kind of enslavement like we saw in case of black people? can you please give me the references?
best regards
Here’s a book on the topic:
In the spirit of critical thinking, does your blog-banner, with the green-eyed girl, also push this trope? I know at one level it matches the flag, but how many Pakistanis have non-brown eyes? And don’t they brag about it if they do, as part of their “non-Indian” heritage?
Good point Javed – I never even thought of that (just that it was cool how the eyes matched the flag) – but I guess we all need to think back to the amount of times we all perpetuate the standard without meaning to!
Kalsoom,
In regards to Pakistan, if you are wealthy, have servants and don’t need to leave the house in the heat of the day, you’re skin tone will be slightly lighter.
If you are poor, you have to work in the baking sun and so your skin tone will be darker. So a lighter skin tone can also denote wealth and status. Because of Pakistan’s climate this is something that probably won’t change in a hurry, unfortunately. The only way i see this changing is if Pakistan becomes a developed country where the skin tone no longer denotes wealth!
One reason can be that it reflects the level of affluence or prosperity.
A fairer person in Asia would appear more prosperous as it might show that he or she does not need to spend time a lot of time in the sun (for example, a zamindar). In the same way, a westerner having a tanned skin might show that he or she has the necessary financial means to have regular holidays and spend time in the sun.
Regards
Once in College I had a huge thing for a girl. When I told my friends about it, they were shocked- I, a fair skinned fellow, was liking a dark skinned girl. I found it ridiculous.
Its good to see Konkana Sens and the Bipasha Basus in the Hindi Film Industry, but a lot has to change. You can see it in the lyrics of Hindi songs too with the liberal use of the word ‘Gori’.
@Kulsoom: Are you really this naive or did you write this to make for a good blog post? Are fair skinned people not better looking? How many dark people can you name right now that are good looking? Another thing is, you missed the point about fairness creams promoting racism. I am not impressed.
Wow. I don’t even know how to respond to that.
Simply right down what you thought after reading my comment. Looking forward to your reply. Hope we can have a good discussion (l know you are used to praise, and something different may come across as odd – at the same time I respect you for publishing comments that differ from your views).
I wouldn’t kick Marie Blanchard out of my bed. 😉
Google her and see what I mean!
if you look closely Mary Blanchard’s features are as Caucasian as they can get! Just saying
@Kulsoom: Sorry my first comment came across as aggressive. My apologies.
As a young black male who cant get a date because of his ‘disability’, this article really hits me in the core. On a serious note, we need to start a campaign that will start getting people to dissociate beauty from any single colour as a time may come in the future where efforts to make black a symbol of beauty may yield counter-productive results. Black will just end up being the new white. Elements of this can already be seen in places like the states where efforts like affirmative action have caused a lot of white ppl to want to be ‘like mike’.
Muhammed Yusha
thats very rascist of you!
@Ally: Being racist is not my intention. I am just presenting facts and I am against the unnecessary fuss against beauty creams and being white. Let me ask you to name me a few dark women who are beautiful. Now please don’t mention Rani Mukherjee and Bipasha Basu (like Maria Saadat did). They are not all that dark. Secondly, they are not all that beautiful. Also, for all the this debate, all that people have is Rani Mukherjee and Bipasha Basu???
Since Kulsoom did not reply to my queries, and that you find my comment racist, maybe you can tell me if fair skinned people are not better looking. Be honest. Also, since there is so much propaganda about tanning products out there, can you tell me why western women plaster their faces with make up to look even whiter.
And those who use tanning products to promote their useless debate against beauty creams, they need to do their homework. It is not to become darker, but to hide veins, get a sun glow, or to hide pimples, which some white women have.
Have you seen the very pretty African American women on TV? and remember that model Iman? Whiteness doesn’t mean prettyiness, you could be fairskined with not so nice features and dark skinned with beautiful features. it is not your skin tone alone that determines your beauty.
For you to say that fair skinned people are more beautiful is just utterly wrong.
I have seen big burly fair skinned pathan women with green eyes but a big nose and bad teeth and particularly unattractive features. I have alse flewn with Sri Lankan airlines and seen the most amazing beauties, with high cheek bones a petite nose and a smile to die for, dressed in their Kandian Sarees, jet balck hair put neatly in a bun and a sparkle in their eyes with flawless DARK skin.
I think you should travel more and open your mind!
Just because those African American and Sri Lankan women are pretty to you must mean that they are pretty to the whole word, right? Also, if you are going to bring pathan women to support your argument, then I can bring countless dark skinned women with the same features, so let’s not even go there.
You fail to answer my questions. All you have to support your debate is African-American and Sri Lankan women which only you find pretty. Not impressive.
How many dark skinned people feature in the hundred most beautiful men and women magazines. In India, which is known as a land of dark skinned people, how many dark skinned people feature in Bollywood? Who is the most beautiful person in Bollywood. Katrina Kaif. Is she dark skinned? Since you are talking about Sri Lankan, beauties, who is the most beautiful Sri Lankan out there? Jacqueline Fernandes. Is she dark?
And all the fair skinned people creating a fuss over this issue, they are all hypocrites as I know they will marry a fair skinned person, no matter how much they may deny it.
I do not want to waste any more time on this issue – this will be my last comment.
Apologies to all those dark skinned people that I may have ended up offending unintentionally.
Best Wishes.
Oh my gosh. Please. Just stop. The sad part of these stream of comments is you don’t even realize how racist you are. You don’t even realize that the reason you DON’T think dark-skinned people are good looking can be traced back to the societal symptoms I very painfully laid out in this piece. Here’s the bottom line: a person who is beautiful is beautiful regardless if their skin is light or dark – I can guarantee more than a few people feel like this. I can go through and lay out the number of people – light or dark – that I think are absolutely gorgeous, but I won’t waste my time, particularly since you’ll just attempt to trump said list with “no one else feels this way.” You are confusing your own prejudices with how everyone in the world must feel, though you are a reflection of societal perceptions that light skin automatically equates to beauty, wealth, prosperity.
You are entitled to your own opinion and I’m entitled to mine. We will not agree on this issue.
> The sad part of these stream of comments is you don’t even realize how racist you are.
The sad part of your comment is how quickly you jump to conclusions. Why do you (and Ally) automatically assume that if someone thinks that fair skinned people are better looking, they are racist? Millions of people all over the world think the same. Are they all racist?
>you are a reflection of societal perceptions that light skin automatically equates to beauty, wealth, prosperity.
I never said anything about wealth and prosperity. In fact, in the related post, I mentioned that the video showing how a woman land’s a job after she uses cream is highly idiotic.
>You don’t even realize that the reason you DON’T think dark-skinned people are good looking can be traced back to the societal symptoms I very painfully laid out in this piece.
Do you know that I have hardly lived in South Asia. Once again, it shows how quickly you jump to conclusions.
>a person who is beautiful is beautiful regardless if their skin is light or dark – I can guarantee more than a few people feel like this.
Two of my best friends were black Nigerians, and they are wonderful human beings. But the discussion is not about inner beauty, it is about facial beauty. Please stay on the same page.
Why do magazines featuring most beautiful men and women hardly feature dark skinned people?
Would you actually marry a dark skinned person? (if you are not already married – and if you are I can bet my bottom dollar he is fair skinned).
With all this talk you actually post a picture of a green eyed person on the top of your blog, and then you expect others to buy what you wrote in your post.
No offence intended. Thank you.
People watch too much TV and neglect the meaning of true beauty.
seems to me that, inasmuch as caucasians strive for color and people of color for lightness, we shouldn’t attribute any of this to a standard of beauty derived from a specific region, country or culture. instead, what we have is something along the lines of a skin tone deemed ideal by all (perhaps one most prevalent among mediterranean folks) to which members of all cultures strive. the issue then is not one of racial imperialism. of course, this understanding preserves all of your concerns about a universal standard of beauty. but it strips a lot of the “racism” worries from the “skin tone” issue, and makes skin tone just one of a bunch of other characteristics (e.g., height and build) of the supposedly perfect appearance.
Really great comment. Thanks, anon.
Whites go to the beaches, sunbathe for hours to get tanned and in a way look like us, and we try to look like them. What a tragedy.
That is exactly the point. As soon as the South Asians start buying creams to make them fair the entire world comes crashing down. Why is it OK for the west to define standards of beauty but not so the east? I think the problem is that you are associating “whiteness” with “superiority”. If you are able to dissociate those two you will see that it’s just another physical feature that attracts humans being to one another. It’s nature’s way of making our gene pool diverse, opposites attract. Whites are attracted to darker skinned, dark skinned are attracted to lighter skinned people. It’s not rocket science!
Shakil,
Its ok to look different sometimes but to obsess and punish yourself for looking the way you do is foolish, I think.
Thanks for the above reply Kulsoom, i couldn’t have said it better! (There was also no reply button!)
In Indian standard of skin tones – I am neither dark nor fair so I have equal oppurtunity to go either way. I do not apply facial creams, but if I had a choice to be darker or fairer myself – I’d choose to be fairer, although I still think Naomi Campbell is hot. The reason for the tilt towards lighter skin tone is probably a practical one.
Imagine a sparsely lit room, and 5 of us are posing for pictures, and 2 of us are dark, 2 fair and one medium skin toned. The pic u’ll get in the end is 2 smiling faces, One hazy face and 2 sets of dentures in the photograph. No points for matching the faces with the skin tones.
excellent piece on issues surrounding complexionism on the indian subcontinent.
thought you may be interested in this piece http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/new-in-ceasefire/anti-imperialist-9/ – the white wash of black beauty – an interview breaking down white supremacist beauty constructs in response to the piece satoshi kanazawa produced for psychology today on deeming black women as unattractive.
The selling tanning gunk and whitening gunk remind me of Dr. Suess’ The Sneetches.
Its a shame because I think Indian/Pakistani people are some of the most beautiful people in the world. People need to be aware of this impossible beauty ideal and realize we’re all like flowers, beautiful and unique in our own natural way.
There are double standards here. If a white man were to say he finds dark skinned Indian women beautiful and exotic, people don’t think much about it. However, if a man of South Asian origin mentions that he finds white women beautiful all hell breaks lose. In fact there is reverse racism here. Women who are dark skinned make a hue and cry blaming his predilection for fairer skin to colonialism. In fact colonialism has nothing to do it. It’s about exotic appeal. No colonial power can ever make you be attracted to a certain race, color of skin or features. In fact the Indian civilization has had a predilection for fairer skin way before the British colonized India. The Vedas have volumes expounded on the conflict between dark and light. The heroic characters from Hindu mythology have always been fairer while all the demonic characters have been dark skinned. Colonialism has absolutely nothing to do with it.
“The heroic characters from Hindu mythology have always been fairer while all the demonic characters have been dark skinned. ”
Krishna, literally means “The dark one”. But, the people suffering from inferiority complex have painted him blue on their idols.
Even, God Kali is famously has dark skin.
You are wrong.
@JPR – I am an atheist, with very mediocre knowledge in mythology, but I have to reply to your comment.
Kaal Bhairava – one of the manifestations of Shiva is so dark, death fears him. (pls google kaal bhairav durbar square)
Shiv linga – the stone depiction of shiva, is also black.
Krishna – means the dark one. And hence Venkateshwara in Andhra, Jagannatha in Orissa, Vithoba in Maharashtra, Udupi Krishna in Karnataka and Shrinathji in Rajasthan are all BLACK in colour.
Shyama – one of the names of Parvati, means night coloured.
Kali – literally means black woman.
Jambavati(one of Krishna’s consorts) and Jambavan (Jambavati’s father) – both were dark skinned.
Chaaya – wife of the Surya(Sun) Deva is dark.
Shani – Sun God’s offspring is Dark skinned. He is so powerful, even Shiva came under his shadow of influence.
Draupadi – the most important woman in the Mahabharata was dark skinned.
Andal – the tamil representation bhoomi devi (Mother Earth and sita’s mother) is Dark skinned.
Yama – God of death, dark skinned.
Now look at the other side of the story – the fairest man, who only wore the whitest clothes, sported the whitest beard and wore white pearl necklaces, and drove a white charriot driven by white horses – Bheeshma – was on the side of the kauravas(the bad guys).
Shukracharya – who is supposed to be Shukra (white/clear), was the Guru for the asuras.
Dude, I can go on and on…. when you say things like “The heroic characters from Hindu mythology have always been fairer while all the demonic characters have been dark skinned.” Two things concern me.
1. You display your lack of knowledge rather openly.
2. You might convince an unsuspecting, gullible person that your idea is right.
whatever man,happy with my dark brown skin 🙂 Although I know most Indian men in my social circle have a preference of goris,I’d rather be with a man who can look past that, and is dark0skinned too. We’ll have beauitful brown skinned Indian babies…Besides,us browned skins, we age better 🙂 why get rid of the melanin that protects our skin?
Even though it may seem as if – because of ‘fair and lovely’ originating from India – Indians are more biased as far as skin colour is concerned but Pakistanis are the most racist in this regard in South Asia (we won’t talka bout Middle-East, East Asia and so on where this is a huge problem too). I have never seen such deplorable attitude from human beings toward other humn beings asI have seen from Pakistanis to their fellow dark Pakistanis (despite majority of Pakistanis being dark-skinned). They are even allowed to make comments about skin colour and call dark being ugly on their national tv!!
Even if you look at how Pakistanis approach Indians online exchanges of abuse, they either talk about skin color or religion. Pakistanis have huge infirirority complex in this case – along with zillion other things not worth mentioning under this post.
The person called ‘Mohammad Yusha’ is a typical product of the concept of beauty in non-white cultures. He doesn’t realize that more than 80% of the world’s population is non-white and dark-skinned.
As far India being the land of the dark-skinned people is concerned, yes, Indians come in all colours, maybe that’s why you see more and more acceptance of people who are dark toned and that is a very good change in the rapidly modernizing and globalizing India. This acceptance and change in attitude can’t be expected of people who are narrow-minded, haven’t travelled the world and have very laughable concepts of beauty i.e. Pakistanis.
Pakistanis aren’t even white/fair skinned. You people have a huge challenge in front of you to change this bigotry towards skin colour and other issues not worth mentioning in this comment.
The funniest of it all is the white make-up Pakistani brides use, all for looking white! gosh, couldn’t be worse.
If you put two identical girls/boys with the same features, one fair and one dark, you will be amazed that the darker may look more attractive. I am saying this being a light-skinned Punjabi who is very much familiar with the ugly concept of beauty which is always associated with fair-skinned people. I wouldn’t mind if I was dark but I know what all dark-skinned people have to face in the sub-continent. It is just shameful and I have been educating the shameful elders from years, change takes time!
Chapeau to Kolsoom for writing an article, especially because you being a Pakistani, living in such a conservative and racially-biased country, must have taken a lot of pain to write.
@Maya – As a fellow Indian, I get a feeling you read Kalsoom wrongly. Kalsoom mentions Bollywood as an influential phenomenon of the Subcontinent, so when SRK does a fairness ad, it has a big effect in the region. South Asian community is what Kalsoom is targetting, not just Indians in particular, dont go by the word ‘Bollywood’. Kalsoom is not trying to paint all Indians as a racist lot (which I beleive we are to some extent).
Kalsoom also mentions that contributor Maria Saadat feels that Rani Mukherjee and Bipasha Basu are now sizzling the screens in bollywood. (We all know Priyanka Chopra,Kajol, Sameera Reddy, Tanushree Dutta, Koena Mitra, Freida Pinto, Nandita Das, Jiah Khan, Raima Sen, Smitha Patil et al have dark skin tones too). So Indians are given quite a little credit here as accepting all skin tones.
Having been a regular reader of Kalsoom, I can vouch that Kalsoom hardly has the ‘you people’ versus ‘we people’ attitude when it comes to dealing with the region’s problems. Kalsoom is very unbiased and neutral.
Thanks Sujay!