Fair and Lowely

The South Asian obsession with fair skin

Ayesha Patel
January 19, 2008

Not many people in the West have ever heard about skin bleaching, that is, unless they belong to the large South Asian Diaspora. Skin Bleaching is a practice by which individuals use chemicals either orally or topically to lighten the pigmentation of their skin. In South Asian countries like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh skin bleaching is a massive phenomenon, and big business. The fairness industry has exploded in the last five years, and according to statistics from Time Magazine, it has grown by two–thirds to an annual $250 million. An increasing number of women from all levels of society in these countries are buying and using these products.

However, the use of these products does not come without a cost. Many of the bleaching agents such as hydroquinone and mercuric derivatives can cause rosacea, burning sensations and hyper pigmentation. The presence of these chemicals can even become carcinogenic on the skin after long–term use. Despite the knowledge that these products can have major, even deadly, side effects, the increasing rate with which South Asian women continue to use them is alarmingly. It is often baffling for Western observers to understand why South Asians have this strong bias towards fairness, and what drives these women to take such drastic actions to attempt to reach this ideal. Pop culture has undoubtedly had a major influence on skin bleaching in South Asian society. With the advancement of technology, popular culture has become an all–encompassing form of information and representation. It has had an enormous affect on how individuals view themselves and others. At the very core of South Asian, popular culture is Bollywood. Bollywood, or the Hindi Film Industry, is a pervasive and deeply ingrained part of South Asian society that entertains and enigmatically unites people regardless of their economic and social standings, education and religion.

Bollywood celebrities play a vital role in South Asian popular culture and hold near god-like status. They are undoubtedly the most famous and sought after people, possessing a cult like following of literally hundreds of millions of devoted fans. Bollywood actresses are literally venerated in society for their physical appearances and they are portrayed as an ideal standard of beauty. The most noticeable features are quite alarming; the majority of these actresses are unusually fair, many shades lighter than the average South Asian woman. The industry has also started to use biracial (typically, East Indian and European) models to represent South Asian women in Bollywood movies and magazines. Incredibly successful and well received as India’s top two models are Katrina Kaif (who is half English) and Yana Gupta (who is part Czech). Kaif and Gupta look like Europeans with their exceptionally white skin and light colored hair and eyes. The appearance and triumph of these biracial women in South Asian popular culture has augmented the overrepresentation of fair skin and perilously set up impractical standards for South Asian women. Their success represents the elevation of European or ”white“ beauty over East Indian beauty.

According to Sonali Johnson, an expert on color prejudice in India, the dominance of fair women on billboards, in marriage columns and on television demonstrates how deeply entrenched these images are in popular culture and how they have become a standard measure of beauty. Bollywood, and popular culture in general, have always displayed an extremely unrealistic representation of South Asian women through actresses and models. One note of interest is that Bollywood starlets that are considered dark by industry standards, like Rani Mukerji and Kajol, are actually still a few shades lighter than typical South Asian women. This propagates the idea that only women with light skin can be considered beautiful and it places an incredible amount of social pressure on women to take actions to reach this ideal. Many women use bleaching products to become whiter and more like the images of the beautiful celebrity heroines they are continually indoctrinated with. The bleaching cream for the South Asian woman is like the magic diet pill for the North American woman. Like how the unhealthy 100 pound Western model’s physique is incorrectly seen as achievable and has caused young Western women to diet zealously, Johnson confirms that South Asian women believe that extremely fair skin color is attainable. The bleaching cream functions as the vehicle of false hope of offering a magically transformation of the normal South Asian women into the light Bollywood beauty that her society so ardently venerates.

Money talks, and unfortunately in this case, the high profits made from selling bleaching creams has driven the Fairness Industry to use racist advertising that blatantly proliferates racial biases by linking skin color (fairness), with beauty, success, happiness and ultimately self–worth.

Perfect examples of this are the commercials run by India’s largest producer of fairness products, super brand ’Fair and Lovely’. A recent commercial featured a young girl watching cricket games from the field pretending and dreaming of being a cricket announcer. Time passes and she is now shown as a young woman still obsessed with this fantasy. Her mother slips her a tube of Fair and Lovely and she magically becomes many shades lighter, which is demonstrated by images of her face in a literal spectrum from darkest to lightest. With her newfound beauty she has the confidence to submit her demo–tape to a broadcasting agency which is so impressed with her that they sign her as an announcer immediately.

The first half of the commercial, before the use of the fairness cream is shot in black and white and the second half done in glorious color. Her new light skin is associated with beauty, success and fortune. An additional message that could be derived from this specific commercial is the notion that only women who are fair and physically beautiful can have the courage to follow their dreams. Ironically, the Fair and Lovely website heralds this commercial as a step forward in promoting the rights and possibilities for Indian women. The website also states that Fair and Lovely ads ”Showcase stories where the woman challenges the unhealthy societal realities of status quo and discrimination and finds that she is empowered to carve out her own future.“ This statement is extraordinarily absurd as the commercial only intensifies the unhealthy societal realities of skin color biases, and devalues women into objects that are predominantly valued for their physical appearances.

It is also interesting to note that the parent company, which holds 51.55% of the equity of the producers of Fair and Lovely, is Unilever. Unilever has recently been celebrated in the West for Dove’s revolutionary campaign that implores women to love themselves and celebrate their natural beauty. Unilever states: ”As well as making products that help you feel more confident in your own beauty, Dove is actively trying to address the root of the problem of negative self-image.” Unfortunately, Unilever would not allow the same for Indian Women as there is a lot of money to be made selling them racist skin bleaching creams that promote self–hate. Fairness companies and cosmetic companies in general often attempt to portray themselves as supporters of feminist causes and liberators of women. In reality, cosmetic companies usually exploit women’s insecurities through their advertising and marketing campaigns, and then attempt to sell women back their self–esteem through purchase of their products. Ultimately Unilever and Fair and Lovely exist to make as much money as possible in their respective markets.

While nearly all advertisers are guilty of portraying their products as the solution to all problems, the Fairness Industry immorally uses a racist ideology to convey the message that light skin is superior to dark skin. They specifically lure women into using their skin bleaching products by promoting color hierarchies that privilege light skin. The literal color spectrum of faces from darkest to lightest in the Fair and Lovely advertisements highlights this concept. Advertisements for fairness products also encourage women to engage in skin bleaching by equating fairness to beauty, success and social acceptability. Companies that sell fairness products influence skin bleaching by ruthlessly exploiting this social stigma.

The dramatic proliferation of the Fairness Industry and the rise in the practice of skin bleaching can largely be attributed to the over representation, emphasis and veneration of extremely fair actresses and models in South Asian popular culture. Specific forms of media like racist advertisements by Fairness Companies heighten this major social problem and push many women to resort to this practice. Analysis of the growth of this issue highlights the tremendous influence that popular culture has over people in our technological age. It is an all-encompassing phenomenon that controls how people think, act and what they believe in. Pop culture messages and images are so powerful that they can drive people to engage in harmful practices that can create internal racism and destroy the very fabric of society.