And They Lived Duskily Ever After - pt II

But then marriage also becomes some sort of skin color goal. I remember reading a matrimonial ad from this well-educated guy, working in America whose marital ambitions lay in the direction of possessing a wife with the qualities “Fair and Slim”. It doesn’t matter how much she has studied, where she works, what her hobbies are etc. Everything else is “swalpa adjust maadi-ed", but we can never compromise on fair skin. Ayyo. 

But this is all so common, even today.  I have heard people call my friend good-looking and the wistfully hope that he might have been fairer. My nanny, when I was a child, would never leave the house, even to open the gate, without putting on skin whitening cream and every day, I see around fifty women  walking around with congealed turmeric on the side of their faces, miraculously hoping for a “cure” to dark skin. However, if one looks at this phenomenon, and studies it from a more macro perspective, it becomes evident that these ideas are being validated and encouraged, not to mention - built into our value systems by our media and other instruments of pop culture.

Cinema actresses are congratulated for being dusky and still bold, brave and beautiful and skin lightening creams are named things like Fair and Lovely. Fair and Lovely, for example, thrives on ad campaigns that equate fairness to being lovely, beautiful, happy and successful. A miserable dusky woman, after four weeks of diligent “Fair and Lovely” application is magically transformed into a successful billboard model. Now that she is fair, she can conquer the world – be happy, successful and beautiful.  In a few years, this woman, still fair of course, has given birth to two fair children - one boy and one girl and does miracles in the kitchen every morning, cooking one breakfast each for every individual in the household, not one strand of hair out of place while simultaneously running a successful business and making happy faces with Kissan ketchup on her children’s lunch.

 A recent ad film for a big jewellery brand was considered “groundbreaking” as it portrayed a bride who was not very fair. She was a beautiful woman, but the first thing that people picked up on was that she was not fair. The fact that in the 21^st century, in a brown skinned country, using a brown skinned woman in an ad is considered revolutionary, is an accurate statement about the extent to which ‘fair is good', as a notion, has infiltrated our systems. Marriage requirements and bio/profiles specifically state “fairness” as one of the virtues necessary for being a good spouse.  In movies, the darker characters are always the “ugly” best friend or the unattractive brother/sister-or the villain. Women like Nandita Das and Konkana Sen are called “unconventionally beautiful”, because they are beautiful, yes, but not fair or even worse, they are sometimes specifically addressed as “dusky beauty”, as opposed to having the privilege of being referred to as just “beauty”- a privilege reserved for fair women.

Everyday, numerous products flood our markets and eventually our houses, each promising lightening, whitening and beautifying and people lap these up as fast as is physically possible – soaps, lotions and gels. 

Then again, I can’t claim pious disdain for all these products. I’ve used these creams too, for removing tan lines and marks left by my numerous acne tragedies, but, I have never felt unhappy with the color of my skin. My complexion makes me miserable all the time since pimples take it upon themselves to visit regularly, but never my skin color. Even when dark and beautiful, all our famous actors and actresses, cake on makeup to look fairer, ensuring that - all that the audience saw for a long time is that famous people were fair, fair people were moneyed and moneyed people were happy.

Interestingly, Vedic literature as a scripture of the predominant Indian religion of Hinduism has always alluded to the fact that its most beautiful characters were always dark – Draupadi, Krishna, Rama etc. Despite worshipping dark skinned gods, who have always been described as dark skinned, it is odd that Hindus, especially still hold onto notions of skin and beauty. Aryans, when they ruled India, intermarried with the native Indians and there is not much evidence of  discrimination and a lust for fairness till the period of  colonialism . Perhaps, the allusion to the dark skinned natives as barbaric and savages, is a connotation that we culturally attached to our skin. Perhaps, at least in Hindu society, even  Goddesses like Sarasvati and Parvathi – the Goddesses of learning, music and knowledge are always depicted as fair whereas goddesses like Kali or Durga, who are considered more “aggressive” and more “bloodthirsty and rustic” are dark skinned.

 Even South Indian films, had and to a large extent still have qualms about using a dark skinned heroine. They may even go to the extent of bringing in a woman from another country - but! will not use a dark skinned heroine. Then again, its heroes are usually dark skinned. There is a huge double standard, especially for women to be fair possibly because, at least in South India, being fair is alluded to being more “cultured” and “feminine”. Now, however , Campaigns like “Dark is Beautiful” are gaining followers and more and more actors like Deepika Padukone and Vidya Balan – who are dusky- are making it big in the film industry. One can only hope that these campaigns help  our transitioning into a culture, which not only accepts the traits that are characteristic to, but embraces them. If brown skinned people cannot be brown skinned in a brown skinned country, where else can they be who they are and be who they are proudly? 

Till then, we must arm ourselves with Vicco Turmeric cream and fend off insults about our skin like we swat fruit flies away from our dining tables. Proudly and duskily. Till the very end.

Avani Konduri