Fair and lovely

Whenever we read fairy tales in our childhood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and all the other female protagonists were always portrayed as extremely beautiful females with skin like porcelain, lips like a red rose and hair like ebony. Subconsciously, we grew up with the notion that fair is beautiful and big eyes, long jet black hair and milky white skin were synonymous with beauty.

All around us, advertising campaigns starred statuesque, attractive females and tall, handsome men. As we were lapping up Mills & Boon and other romantic novels while growing up, fantasising about rich, tall, dark and handsome men sweeping us off our feet, female standards of beauty were also cementing themselves in our young, impressionable minds.

These ideals were buttressed when we entered the marriage market and were exposed to its dynamics and undercurrents.  Tall, fair and conventionally beautiful females were in great demand while their duskier versions had a harder time finding a potential suitor. What is beauty and how do we define beauty? What we had been taught since childhood was that fair was beautiful and the fairer a female was; the more desirable that made her.

That obsession and fixation with fair skin continues. Most of the actresses we see on television and in films are fair-skinned with sharp features. Skin-whitening products and injections as well as skin-whitening treatments at beauty salons are proliferating due to the overwhelming demand for fair skin.

The beauty industry cashing in on this obsession with fair skin and deep-rooted insecurities of darker women is a multi-million dollar industry. The more insecure the duskier females are made to feel about their skin colour; the more the market for skin-whitening products will thrive and flourish.

Is this a post-colonial hangover? Why were all the female protagonists in the fairy tales we read in our childhood tall, fair, blonde and blue-eyed? Why couldn’t they be dusky, brown-eyed and attractive? What significance did the colour of their skin have? Maybe the underlying message was that fair was superior and fair-skinned women were more attractive and desirable to the opposite sex than their duskier counterparts.

The darker girls in the marriage market also have to contend with a variety of prejudices and preconceived notions. Some of them are psychologically and emotionally scarred for life by the traumatic experiences they go through in their search for a potential suitor. A number of them develop deep-seated insecurities and complexes as they are repeatedly rejected over the colour of their skin, among other things.

Paraded and exhibited like mannequins in a shop window, most are scrutinised from head to toe by families of potential suitors. The darker the skin tone, the harder it becomes to find a suitable match. Many turn to skin-whitening products, serums, injections and treatments in a desperate bid to find somebody suitable.

Fair and lovely creams were the rage at one point in time and had a huge market share and fan following both here and across the border. For darker-skinned women, they were marketed as the solution to all their problems, magically resolving all their issues and making them desirable and attractive overnight. While some resisted, quite a few were willing to try anything to lighten the colour of their skins and for a long time, these fair and lovely creams, essentially bleach creams, ruled the roost.

As we enter the twenty-first century, with the advancement of science and technology and all the debate around women empowerment, standards of beauty should be redefined also. However, the obsession with fair skin continues and judging by the proliferation of skin-whitening products in the market, shows no sign of abating.

Is the colour of our skin really as important as it is made out to be? What about emotional intelligence and intellectual maturity? Is society really that superficial or have we been brainwashed by the constant influx of predefined beauty standards being thrust in our faces all the time? Is this part of a carefully chalked out plan by the beauty industry to make us believe that being darker makes a woman less desirable? How can the colour of your skin determine your fate or standing in life?

As long as gullible women keep on lapping up these ridiculous theories and ideas being floated around about skin colour, this fixation will continue. We have to rise above these superficial beauty standards prevalent in society and work on redefining those by rejecting them outright and refusing to buy into those.

For that, women have to become assertive, empowered and confident and start believing in themselves. No skin-whitening cream, serum or injection can change your fate; in fact, instead of viewing you as an individual in your own right, if these superficial and frivolous standards are used to judge your suitability as a life partner, then you might just need to think this through once again. Believe in yourselves and hold your head high.

Start shunning these unrealistic beauty standards and change the mindset that all that is fair is beautiful. Beauty, like happiness, radiates from within and a pleasant, amicable and wholesome personality is far more attractive and appealing than a beautiful exterior.

However, we need to open our minds and be confident in our own skins before we can expect this society to change. Work, be financially independent and focus on educating the mind and broadening your horizons. Focus on building wholesome, attractive personalities and most importantly, believe in yourselves and remember, our imperfections and idiosyncrasies are what make us unique!

The writer is an educationist and can be reached at gaiteeara@hotmail.com.