The Fairness Craze

I posted the following Status Update on Facebook yesterday: "My son doesn't want to be fair-skinned, and wants to get a tan. When told that fairness creams in India were incredibly popular, he thought that was crazy ... black (dark) is beautiful, of course, but I had to veto the tanning thing! Teenagers!!! " Well, 16 of my friends had LIKEd this status, and it led to a whole discussion thread about how multi-national corporations sell the fairness concept in India, which was not at all fair. My friend Chitra commented that she wished corporates stopped stooping to the levels they do to sell fairness in India, and that it appeared to her that all cosmetic companies, MNCs, etc., who promoted the fairness creams seemed to have no scruples at all.

True, indeed! Fifteen years ago, the only fairness cream I knew in India was Fair & Lovely, but now there seems to be a whole host of them on the market. It's a shame how the corporates exploit people's craze for a fair complexion, and it's no big surprise then that American and European companies have entered the fairness cream market as well in these days of globalization. The worst part is that parents and prospective grooms perpetuate the demand for fair-skinned girls, as can be seen in the matrimonial ads in a country where the majority of marriages are arranged ones. Most of the boys want a FAIR AND BEAUTIFUL girl! I personally know quite a few of those dark-complexioned girls who were rejected by potential grooms because of their color, even though the girls were highly qualified and were earning on par with the potential suitors, and also some dark-complexioned boys who got exceptionally fair girls as wives, just because the boys were software engineers working abroad, mostly in the U.S., a seemingly "good catch" in the marriage market!

Another friend Amelia wrote, "The best part is when guys who are really dark want fair girls ... When asked why, they say that way the children born will be fair ... to such guys I would say 'What if the child turns out to be exactly like you??' " It is deeply rooted in the Indian way of thinking that fair is beautiful ... how unfair is that?!? Krithika, another friend, responded that her personal theory is that if a guy is stupid enough to think that fair is beautiful, then he deserves what he gets. and the dusky beauty who was rejected by him is the real winner. "Imagine being tied to a guy for whom beauty is skin deep. I shudder imagining being married to a guy like that!!!! Lucky escape for all those dusky girls!!!!" Nizam, went a little further to reflect that the grass is always greener on the other side, that while the Indians want a fair skin, the Westerners want to tan their fair skin, because to them a tanned complexion is more preferable to a pale one.

And so the fairness war goes on. At the end of the day, beauty is only skin deep, and the sooner we realize that, the better for us!