Search for the lighter skin
The other day I was at the local pharmacy shop, looking for a moisturiser. The easily available tubes or small jars of cream meant for your face and were used on hands as well. I saw rows and rows of brightly packaged small boxes, jars and bottles. There were creams, serums, oils, lotions. Numerous concoctions of magic potions that held the promise of brightening, lightening, illuminating, revitalising and uplifting my skin and different parts of my face during different times of the day!
The one that screamed the loudest, was lightning and brightening formulas.
I was not surprised, just saddened.
We are celebrating International Women’s Day. There are numerous messages on social media. Multiple offers on clothes, accessories and jewellery. Ideas to pamper ourselves, advertisements to boost morale, quotes, songs, flowers, cakes and gym memberships! You name it!
And there are batches of fairness creams and brightening serums manufactured, stored, sold, bought, used!
I am not even going to the other deeper issues of violence against women. The more ‘visible’ acts of being killed, silenced, abused and tortured. They are a visible plague which we are battling with. I want to ponder on the surreptitious miasma that is pervading our existence. The obsession with lighter skin is far more than just being skin deep.
In the song , “Yashomati maiya se…” young Krishna confides his confusion about the different skin tones of himself and his beloved Radha. Imposition of the lighter skin has been on our mind from much before the advent od the fair skinned ‘invaders’. The various settlers, rulers, invaders and colonialists who came to India from as early as 1400’s were relatively lighter skinned than the ‘adivasi’ inhabitants of our land. Our inherent caste system provided much needed fuel to reiterate this deep divide which continues till date. It has been a part of the Indian psyche for a very long time. Too long perhaps. Fair or lighter skin colour was associated with upper castes, affluence and now urbanites and questionably educated elites. On the other hand, darker skin colour was associated with manual labour, poverty, lowers class and caste, villagers and ignorance. The distinction between good and evil represented by black and white, its depiction on light and darkness, doesn’t help the cause at all. A fair bride is still a favoured choice for a suitable match in
the matrimonial columns. The skin colour of the groom might have big room for improvement along with various other aspects!
Mainstream cinema has long perpetuated this ‘dark’ and ‘fair’ divide. Implicitly and most often explicitly. The characters that were the most unsavoury or mundane were dominantly of darker skin tone. That would include all domestic help and those engaged in manual labour. The association of ‘dark skin’ with acts of violence and aggression has been perpetuated over years. This prejudice knows no gender bias. The unconscious tightening of a bag and moving to one side, when a darker skinned ‘poor looking’ person happens to be the co-passenger in a bus, is all but too obviously visible. Though this is not particularly true for Indian societies alone, it need not be used as a justification. It is wrong. It is violence. It is inhuman. The contexts are irrelevant. The prejudice towards women with darker shades of skin tone is stark embedded within our psyche and skin. The ‘very plain looking women’ who work behind the lead actor in a dance sequence in popular cinema, is not a thing of the past! Neither is their obvious difference, in terms of attire and projection. The onus of this appropriation of ‘beauty’ is on film makers and the industry. However, it is often pushed under the blanket of ‘viewer discretion’. The disclaimer at the beginning of the screening hardly washes out the irresponsibility towards a huge section of the fanbase, who make these very projects run! Many would argue that it is ‘cinema’. Unreal. Fictitious. Mere entertainment. The cost and the brunt of it is however very real. Cinemas are a mirror of the social unconscious as societies are a reflection of the cinemas that are being created and watched.
However, one can choose not to look! We, the ‘educated elite’ living in gated communities have mastered this skill. The irresponsibility with which sexism, casteism, gender divide, classism is used to perpetuate this violent divide is immense. The sense of responsibility towards their viewers is not of great concern for the ‘creative creators’ of these content. Creativity has such limited scope at times. They are in the business of entertainment! However, in a country like ours where the ‘screen idols’ are revered and seated on pedestals, complete inaction and irresponsibility is nothing short of compliance to this act of violence on many of the people who have raised them on that very pedestal. Obsession with lighter skin is not a thing of the past. The recent episode titled “Mirror, mirror on the Wall” of the series Made in Heaven, addressed this very concern. The clients were the rich elite of Delhi. The Bluest Eye written in 1970, reflected the desire to have ‘blue eyes’ in a young African American girl, who was deemed ‘ugly’ for her dark skin. Our belief in the beauty of ‘snow white’ reigns in the heart and mind of men, women and society at large. It is a result of many factors like colourism, patriarchy, classism, casteism and residual colonialism Our quest for ‘fairness’ unites us across, gender, race, religion, class, caste, education, societal hierarchy, language and political ideologies!
“Fairness”, could very much become a reason to be seen as one! What a paradox. Being of lighter complexion of two siblings, I recall many instances of our relatives, making comments on the darker skin colour of my younger sister with perfect normalcy and nonchalant attitude! My mother used to be furious, and she made no bones about saying it! She would refuse to take us to the houses of these ‘close and extended family.’
I have two beautiful daughters. The younger one is very fair, and the elder one is a few shades dark. When they were both very young, the comments, “Oh your baby is so fair! Indian?” were the most unnecessary and irrelevant, and they were plenty from passersby. People I did not know and did not have any inclination to know either. My elder one would always reply with her characteristic wit and spunk, “she is half Chinese!” She was about 4 or 5. Little did she know what she was saying. However, the looks on the faces of the people who commented, were priceless!
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