brown and beautiful

                                       Brown and beautiful

  

Does your daughter have fair complexion?? This is what every Indian parents ask before asking someone daughter hand for marraige. If any girl have fair complexion people appreciate her beauty and raise a common question to her, Which cream or beauty products do you apply to look fair?

These are the questions with which every Indian girl is familiar with. For sometime we get speechless as what to reply or how to react? We get confused as was is this a compliment or not? Should we thank for that comment or react to it negatively on such a racist comment and that too in public.?

Since a long time I am seeing fairness advertisements on television, I remember one of them in which a college girl lost her confidence because she only has dark complexion in her class then her friend suggested her to use fairness cream of that brand.

We as a consumers usually get influenced so easily from this types of advertisements and mainly who is suffering from the same problem. What are these brands trying to prove? I mean like how one's complexion related to her self-confidence? The main issue is that if a person have all the talents to achieve his/her goal,desires but lack of having fair complexion that person can not achieve the goal. Does it make sense?

 The ultimate trial by this brand is that ''fair'' is better than ''dark''? These are just skin colours on which our calibre or talent is not depended even this seems to be absolute nonsense.

 In a country like india where the majority of people have dark skin, there is a widely misconceptions of people that dark complexions are inferior to fair ones. This prejudice shows everywhere from hiring process where people with fair-complexion is hired for ads especially for matrimonial ads where fairness is considered  the sole motive of future bride or groom. Is the groom is fair or not but they want the bride to be fair, groom wants his wife to be light skinned, even there are many cases related to it where this issue turned into crime. Women are harrased on the ground of her colour, husband feel shame to walk with her, she continues fighting for her acceptance then suddenly on one day she just lose.

Film industry is the dream of many people, it seems to be very happening from outside or from miles but in reality it is not. On one hand where some movie teaches us to treat everyone equal and on the other hand directors prefer light skinned actress, while we have very few dark- skinned performers which are rarely seen on screen. The message is clear: fair skin represents beauty and success and as a result Indians are keen consumers of products that promise to lighten skin colour.  Infact in foreign countries if there is such sort of ad shown or anysort of products sold which does not give appropriate result as mentioned then there will be a strict action taken towards the company. 

Racism is present deep in India's history in caste system and colonialism. Skin colour is a sensitive topic because, historically, paler skin signified higher status in India's intricate caste system. However in today's India it can be found totally stuck in the trap of this type of advertising company vicious circle. From which they trust blindly on their fake promises and become fool.  Whereas fairness evolved as response of consumer demand. For centuries Indians used natural ingredients, such as lemon, turmeric to lighten their skin.

In 1975,unliver launched a commercial skin lightening cream called ''fair and lovelu'', and other companies quickly followed the trends. Women section of the society are the main target of this company as they are mainly concerned about their colour and all. But over time products emerged for men as well. In 2005, Emami launched the '' fair and handsome'' cream whose brand ambassador is Shahrukh khan and who turns to be a market leader. The most succesful person of the film industry only mileading his fans and followers. I remember an ad. In which Shahrukh khan gave a tube of fairness cream to a young fan, telling him that fairness is the secret of sucess in life. Gorgeous girls can be impressed by having fair skin only. In the eager to impress girls, boys try this cream which does not give them any change but only fake hope. 

Fairness products are sold at every price point, from inexpensive lotions to high end luxury creams , making them accessible to people belonging to different classes. Supermarket shelves are stocked with creams for lightning, whitening, brightening , anti-aging, claening and so on.

 Moreover these types of industries are appreciated by the public ony, we people only demand fair looking skin which creates a flow in Indian market, in turn this type of cream circulates in large amount of quantity. This means perpetuating the belief that fair skin is desirable and that dark skin is problem to be corrected, a message the advertising industry has effectively been able to broadcast. Cosmetic companies also amplify this by hiring India's most popular actors as brand ambassadors for their fairness products.

 The ads targeting the following pattern - the dark complexion actress after getting rejected feels disgust and demand for a fairness cream which is shown by a fair looking actress. 

 Have the people of the country forgotten that the colour is hereditary. We people talk about black liberation movement which takes place in foriegn countries and criticised it by giving various reasons. But no one sees what exactly we are doing, we called it as racism. 

Almost everyone in india is awre about the incidnet when mahatma Gandhi pushed out of the first class train compartment in south africa by English beacuse he is black. All these lessons are teached starting from childhood so that they walk on right path.

Then why these types of ads are not banned yet?

Because they are filling pockets of company,ambassadors and also civilians heart with fake hope. We must not forget that a person's calibre is not to be judged on the basis of his skin colour.  A country ruled by lord shiva and lord Krishna, mahatma gandhi and at last not the least superstars of all the times Rajnikanth are dark skinned, it's hard to believe people still favour the light skinned ones. Still there are some Indian who resist the stereotype that fair is beautiful.“My skin absorbs the suns rays and my hair defies gravity. You can’t tell me I’m not magical , I am brown and beautiful''