“Be careful, you will loose your color”, was the well meant advice of quite a few fellow Indian students during my first time in India. This cautioning I had to listen to whenever I set out for some sun bathing. Coming from a country where the concept of summer holidays is basically that of setting out to the beach for sun bathing and being born into a generation of people for many of whom getting a maximum tan is the ultimate completion of beauty this sounded rather alien to me.
Mostly, I would jokingly reply that I won’t be losing my color but was rather trying to gain some. But with the number of times I had to listen to this concern, the seriousness of the matter started to dawn on me and I rather became concerned. Slowly but surely I understood that the question of color and complexion was a predominant topic in Indian society.
After this initiation into the topic, I slowly started noticing the impact of color-obsession. Next to usual cosmetic and skin care products in the shelf I came across ‘Fair and Lovely’. I was rather shocked to learn that products to bleach the skin were readily available and widely used by different kinds of people. Since those initial discoveries the market has changed rapidly. Next to ordinary ‘Fair and Lovely’ http://www.fairandlovely.in/ there is now ‘Fair and Handsome’ (the product aiming at the male customer) http://www.fairandhandsome.net/ and ‘Fair and Lovely Ayurvedic Balance’ (to give it a more natural connotation), and numerous other companies have come up with their own brands in plenty.
The brands seem uncountable, and unfortunately there also does not seem to be a shortage of actors ready to be their brand ambassadors. Initially, I was disappointed to see John Abraham, the hero with Kerala roots who made it big in Bollywood, giving his face for a product like this. But by now, there is hardly an actor who does not have a tie up, Shah Rukh Khan himself, next to Deepika Padukone or Katrina Kaif, to name just the real big ones. And I don’t think they even ever thought of any ethical aspects involved in tying up with a fairness cream. It just seems to be so much part of everyday life.
As long as the matrimonials are still trying to euphemistically call the darker complexion of a girl wheatish, as long as the delegation who comes to negotiate a marriage proposal claims that the girl is “very, very fair”, this will not change. And the recent trend to sell fairness under the cover of sun protection and healthy skin is just another strategy to perpetuate this beauty concept. I wish obsession with skin protection would take the place of obsession with skin complexion. And the sales of cosmetic products would rise due to concern about skin cancer and other related diseases for people of all skin colors and tones.
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