JOIN USLiving down the bias towards dark skin
A flurry of advertisements of latest fairness creams are crammed into slots between news shows, films and TV soaps.
The abject racism that the advertisements perpetuate, however, can never come close to the post-midnight teleshopping commercials which last for as long as an hour.
Moreover, famous Bollywood stars, both male and female, brand ambassadors of various fairness creams, without a doubt exert a certain amount of influence on their fans.
Even though actress Nandita Das’s campaign, Dark is Beautiful, had initiated some debate on the Indian obsession with fair skin, the aftermath has not been what the awareness programme had initially expected it to be. According to a report by market researchers ACNielsen, India’s fairness cream market was worth $432 million in 2010.
And given the ever increasing market for products which promise fairness, the situation today seems to be far worse.
During their conversation with Metrolife, women expressed their views on how they look at the ad campaign of fairness creams and how such mentality seeps into their daily life.
“Some of the TV commercials are absolutely outrageous. They show how fair skinned people, particularly women, have more chance of a happy life than the ones who have a dark complexion. There is one particular advertisement which showed fairer women getting selected for a job during the interview itself.
The same advertisement also showed how dark complexioned women regretted why they hadn’t used the particular fairness cream,” said Shruti who works as Human Resource Manager. She also said that the last time she went for a job interview, she began to think of the advertisement.
“I know it’s silly, but honestly the thought came into my mind what if the interviewer picked up a fair girl instead of me just because I have a dark complexion.”
For Radhika, now 25, her childhood was filled with instances when she was targeted for her skin colour. She believes bias towards dark skin starts much earlier. “When I was a child, classmates used to make fun of my complexion and I, to be honest, didn’t know why being dark skinned was an insult. Slowly, I began to realise that I am supposed to feel bad.” Radhika said.
According to Barsha Chakraborty, a city-based activist, obsession with fair skin has a history of theological sanctioning. “The Aryans claimed supremacy because they were fair skinned. The dark complexion was looked down upon for thousands of years. Now, the difference is that it has been commercialised and is profitable,” Chakraborty said.
While talking to Metrolife, several women said ridiculing dark complexion has become a norm of sorts by people, which helps to enforce the stereotype that ‘dark is evil’. “Black cats being considered a bad omen is not a coincidence,” Piyush, a college student said.