Fifty shades of fair: Why colour gets under our skin

[prasad1]

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Giriraj Singh’s remarks about “white-skinned” Sonia Gandhi shocked a lot of people this week. Tasteless though the comment was, it did bring out a prevalent Indian attitude about the colour of one’s skin. Indeed, one thing that baffles me about India is our love for fair skin. Not unlike many African and Asian countries, Indians too obsess about having a lighter skin colour, consider people with lighter skin as more beautiful and, in the worst case, even ascribe a higher status to them. From the multi-million-dollar fairness products industry to the fact that all children in our baby product ads are fair, one no longer needs to debate that Indians love lighter skin. We do, and that might have just been one of those many Indian quirks had it not had harmful effects on our society. Indians are not fair-skinned on an average, and thus millions have a complex about their skin colour.

How to fix this? Well, awareness campaigns help, but only so much. What we need to change is to separate our aspirations from skin colour, as the latter has nothing to do with it. We also need to broaden our understanding of what is attractive in a person — is it just skin colour, or is it also things such as physical fitness, a charming personality, and overall grooming? Stars like Rihanna or Will Smith are considered extremely attractive physically, even in the West. We need to fight our inherent low self-esteem, this sense of being ashamed at all things Indian, whether it is the vernacular language or the native skin colour. We are not a fair-skinned race, and that is ok. What matters is we are capable, hardworking, progressive and compassionate. We also need to grow our economy and make our country rich so this sense of shame at ourselves goes away soon. Be proud of who you are, country and colour included.

Fifty shades of fair: Why colour gets under our skin - TOI Blogs

 

[JR]

Be proud of who you are, country and colour included.

An American lady I know of is a very good artist - she paints Hindu gods and goddesses along with other types of paintings. She always depicts Hindu deities in a tone of Brown, as opposed to the traditional 'White' skin used by other artists, such as Raja Ravivarma. She says that we people should have more self-respect on our heritage and inheritance of Brown skin and that is why she is painting our devatas all in Brown skin! (I can PM her website if anyone is interested in seeing her art).

 

[renuka]

Fair skin can be beautiful..dark skin can be beautiful...tan skin can be beautiful...every shade of skin is beautiful.

In the quest to project that dark is beautiful too we should not develop a dislike for fair skin cos then it would just be reversal of the current situation.

Beauty comes in many shades..its just for us to admire every one shade.

We Indians too come is every shade..from snow white to deep ebony and a good 50 shades of brown!

The most important is to have a healthy clear skin with a natural glow..no make up can re create a natural glow.

At the end of the day I do not define anyone by their color.


I define beauty as... a good physique,symmetrical facial features..a clear glowing skin of any shade,expressive eyes, a nice smile, a good dose of sex appeal,good set of teeth and nice hair and a good height would add to it..not to mention having brains, and above all a good heart to match.

If one has all these....that person is indeed beautiful in the real sense..is hard to come across people who fulfill all these.