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Is beauty truly skin deep? It would certainly seem so looking at the fact that in the past year, the market for fairness creams and skin-lightening face washes has notched up an incredible business of Rs. 2000 crore in India and is galloping towards even higher figures given the fact that fairness products, including soap, creams and face washes, made by some of the nation’s top MNCs as well as ‘ayurvedic’ brands are now popular in most South-East Asian countries and among the Asian diaspora in the West.
Having had their fill of fairness creams, consumers now even demand that their beauty products should do more than just whiten their skin tone superficially. Fairness cream makers now offer many products to woo more consumers by offering creams that remove spots, pimples, discolouration and clean up complexions. Buyers now want beauty products that give more than just a quick skin lightening or bleaching. They want their fairness cream to stay on their faces or bodies all day – and perhaps all night – to ‘nourish’ their complexions even as they whiten and ‘clean up’ them up. This is now surprisingly true of men, too. At this point of time, any visitors to India who care to watch top television channels, are surprised that fairness product ads occupy the highest screen time, with superstars like Shah Rukh Khan and Shahid Kapoor promoting fair and handsome creams for men also! To be fair, one reads that several top stars like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Ranbir Kapoor have refused ads for fairness creams. However, the Indian concepts of beauty in India traditionally veer towards fairness. The constant preference for fair skin has resulted in the market for fairness creams and bleaches touching Rs 2,000 crore. Of this, fairness creams account for approximately Rs 1,800 crore, while bleaches make up about Rs 200 crore of the annual sale figures. As the ads become cloying, copy writers and producers of the creams invent new ways to sell their products. They promise ‘health, better texture, tone and nourishment’ together with ‘instant glow’ and ‘lightening’. "Now, our aim is to attract dusky skinned people towards fairness creams even though they want only a healthy complexion," says Navin Mehta, marketing head of a fairness cream company, "Young people want to be trendy and look their best. So, when they read the names of ingredients like saffron, turmeric and nutmeg on the label, they are attracted to the product because these substances have been known to improve skin tones for generations. Many companies, therefore, use an ayurvedic ingredient to attract buyers." Sadly, the question that needs to be asked is: does a woman’s destiny depend on the colour of her skin? Regrettably, it would seem so, looking at storyboards of ads and Bollywood films that churn out sagas of love and romance every year. In most of these, dark complexioned women are shown to be somehow ‘inferior’ to those with fair skins. In ads, they long for boyfriends who look at them only after using fairness creams to turn them into ‘striking beauties’ within seven days! They get good jobs miraculously after they ‘clean up’ their complexions within 10 days of using a fairness product, including fairness soaps! Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Kareena Kapoor and Katrina Kaif are the quintessential ‘good and innocent’ women whereas Bipasha Basu, Mallika Sherawat and Malaika Arora Khan are the dark temptresses who often perform item numbers in seductive clothes but rarely get leading roles. However, unlike dark-skinned models who get little work, Bollywood stars are not short of opportunities because they are cast in roles which show them as sirens oozing with sensuality. The only exception to this rule perhaps is Kajol, who made her mark as a leading lady. Such images are a worrying commentary on the persona of a modern, educated Indian woman and the mindset of Indian society as well as the Indian diaspora the world over. The truth that fairness creams notch up a market of more than Rs.2000 crores annually – in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, in addition to Asian communities everywhere – is indicative of a tidal thirst for a fair skin and confirms the theory that a fair woman has a better life than a dark one. Market observers say that this obsession for fairness is a remnant of our colonial days. Gori chitti or gori gamti are words which have their roots in the western view that dark skins belong to ‘coloured’ people, who should have a lower status in world society. In India, the caste system also perpetrated fair skin as higher than dark skin. The fair among Indians were considered higher and closer to the ruling class than the dark people who were downmarket workers. Fairness thus has been an asset. However, the truth remains that Indians have always considered fairness as equal to beauty. This theory has had no support in Indian history or religion. Parvati, the Goddess of Power, has a coppery complexion which is indicative of feminine power and lustre. Draupadi, born of fire, has the golden complexion of fire and Sita, born of the earth, resembles the golden soil of India. This truth has been forgotten by present-day media. Their mindset could be harmless as long as it does not define or limit the life of a woman. But when an Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, a Kareena Kapoor or a Katrina Kaif is presented in film after film as a symbol of innocence, purity and, more important, an epitome of all cultural values, and a Bipasha Basu or a Mallika Sherawat is portrayed as lust-evoking, dark woman, then Indian society must put up a red light of warning and rethink about the whole business. Is white always right and bright? Is black always shady and suspicious? We have to find answers to these questions before we use them to define millions of women who are made to feel ‘less’ because of their dark complexions.
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