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We're not fair to our girls

The fascination for fair skin is used, quite unethically, by the cosmetic industry to rake in profits

Photo: Afp

IT STARTS WITH THE FAMILY Racism at home is the cause of yearning for fair skin

"Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them."

David Hume.

That beauty is skin deep is something that is loaded with irony today. Since the dawn of globalisation in India, the cosmetics industry has grown by leaps and bounds. Urban and semi-urban India, peopled by women on the make in their careers and social life, are an obvious target. Walk into any cosmetics store in the city, and one has an array of products to choose from leaving both the market and the consumer in a state of perpetual high.

All this has come at a price, of course. The slow yet deliberate conditioning of the Indian female psyche to the Western ideal of beauty — tall, fair, slim — in is full steam. In the West, white aesthetic predominates and that ideal has come to rule our subconscious. Just switch on the television and one is bombarded with advertisements and statements by fashionistas reinforcing these concepts. Thus you have a whole new generation of young women perennially discontented with their evolutionary physiology, desperate to get their hands on products that will morph them into the TSF (tall, slim, fair) ideal.

An obsession

The fascination for white skin has become a national obsession. Flip through the matrimonial ads and you'll never see anyone asking for a dark bride. As for dark brides, they're whitewashed into `wheatish'.

It's quite a social study to watch assorted brands of `fairness creams' blatantly advocating the superiority of the `fair maiden' over the `dark-skinned loser'. And Bollywood has done its bit to glorify the `gori-gori' songs. Says Smitha, (name changed), a corporate executive: "The preference for good looks is so obviously deep-rooted, especially in today's corporate structure where image counts a great deal, that sometimes you wonder if it even impacts the selection criteria during interviews."

And this is not the affliction of aspiring urbanites. Sheila, a domestic help, says: " I spend a part of my salary every month on fairness creams for my daughter. She is of marriageable age and should get a good husband."

And I know of an inconsolable 17-year-old, very attractive but who was denied access to the `elitist circle' (read popular) at college on account of her dusky complexion.

Often victims of racist remarks, these impressionable youngsters are under tremendous pressure to succumb to the TSF complex, which often leads to depression and mental disorders.

A German tourist, flipping through the matrimonial section of a daily, commented that he simply could not fathom the Indian fascination for fair skin, and in essence said that we were quite like a coconut, brown on the outside but white inside. I couldn't have thought of a better analogy.

Discrimination

Discrimination of dark-skinned children, especially girls, starts right at home. It is often the fairer child that receives more affection and attention. We have succeeded in building a thoroughly discriminatory mindset which the global cosmetic players are putting to full use. Such is our feeling of inadequacy that even the most accomplished girl is ridden with insecurities regarding her looks and body. From an ideal skin tone to an ideal body, it is a mere nip and tuck away.

What we are doing to our girls is undermining their self-confidence and violating their sentiments through racist endorsements. We have the collective responsibility to see that our children grow up in an emotionally, physically and intellectually healthy environment. Acceptance and respecting differences, whether they be of colour, caste, or creed, to seek beauty in all of nature's creations, should be driven into young minds. Cosmetics do enhance one's looks and should be used as an accessory, not the mind-altering panacea the industry ruthlessly advocates.

Husna Mohammad

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