All’s Fair In Love And…

By Nimisha Mittal 5 July 2008 390 views One Comment

What is it about fair skin and the South Asian population? What tanning is to the lighter, Western world, fairness is to the lands of a single splendid sun which hammers down on its masses, raising melanin levels to new highs.

For a good reason too. Melanin is the free sunscreen most S outh- A sians come equipped with, which allows them to walk around in the open, scream and shout for hours at sunny cricket games, wait for buses in unsheltered areas, without the fear of turning bright red or itchy like their whiter counterparts.

But Nature’s bountiful asset is more than often viewed as a liability - people are always trying to rid themselves of their dark skin, by using SPF* 4568907 sunscreens, bleaching their skin, staying indoors, or spending their hard-earned money on the zillions of products littering the market. The media preys on the insecurities of people, promises them better lives, better jobs, an end to unemployment, world peace, etc. etc. . . if only they would try so-and-so product, and thereby get lighter skin. Lighter skin is the weapon that will give you the superpowers to take on the world. It will make you a better commentator in a cricket match, land you a job as an air-hostess, make a prospective bridegroom fall flat on the ground before you.

It all comes down to what the public perception of attractiveness is. To most it is a skeleton with just enough skin to mask the outlines of the bones, or an Incredible-Hulk-like physique (minus the green color). Depending on which part of the world you’re in, the shade of the skin would matter too. Hindi songs sing glorious odes to girls who are ‘gori’ (fair), matrimonial advertisements always always (yes - I said that twice) look for grooms for beautiful, ‘fair’ girls, mothers prize their daughters’ fair skin and stop them from wandering around in the sun, and people from other countries are amazed when they meet real Indians, and find that they are considerably darker than their Bollywood representatives.

Men, who until a few years ago, had the privilege of being whatever color they wanted to be, recently lost it to Emami’s newest venture (in collaboration with USA’s Activor Corp) - an expansion from the ‘Fair and Lovely’ fairness cream brand for women (a Hindustan Unilever brand) to the ‘Fair and Handsome’ brand - for men. The cream claims to give men firmer and fairer skin in just four weeks. And with Shahrukh Khan** and pretty girls endorsing the product, it would be hard to blame the average male from being tempted. Speechlessness just found a new dimension altogether.

I sometimes wonder where we are heading…with the light people trying to get darker, the darker people trying to get lighter… if they succeed, we can expect them to meet in the middle somewhere, someday. In comedian Russell Peter’s words, racism will no longer be a problem years from now, when the whole world will be beige.

I know - trying to be happy the way we are goes against human nature. It’s the one arena where the animal kingdom wins hands down. Did you ever hear about a water-buffalo having a personal crisis because of the color of its skin? Or an alligator complaining about the size of its teeth? They seem to get by in life just fine - except possibly during the mating season, when several males are usually fighting over one female. Perhaps this was God’s little joke - to make all living species compete amongst each other, and to die trying to achieve that unachievable vision of perfection.

I think I’ll go get a facial.

Footnotes:

*SPF - Sun Protection Factor

**Shahrukh Khan - possibly the most famous actor in the Indian film industry

Photo Courtesy: Larrabeiti