Thursday, July 31, 2008

UnFair & Ugly

I've been meaning to write this for a long time. So what's this hype (and lots of it) about being fair - and beautiful and handsome? If this isn't an avid form of racism, what else is? I mean, it's natural for a person to want to look pleasant and avoid skin problems and all that. So I am all for marketing moisturizers and other skin nourishing products. But leave alone the invariable display of fair-skinned models, there is a blatant and insensitive propoganda against the dark hued skin. Dark skinned girl shunned by boys and vice versa. Dark people not confident in interviews, insulted by friends, so on and so forth. And it is done in the name of good intentions - "Don't worry if you are dark by birth! We can make you fair within weeks, within days, within hours!!!" To hell with them. This is really a passive apartheid that is going on. We should be ashamed to stand back and watch it happen. Why the hell should a person be ashamed of his skin tone and want to change it? We are all born the way we are destined to be. Who are these marketing giants to seed unwanted anxiety and complex in people's minds? Making religion out of fairness is absolutely unfair. But the society is to blame too. These corporates are just feeding on our long-resident affinity towards fair-skinned people. I say, haven't the Europeans left our land long ago? I donno how we can put a stop to this, and how many of us really want to!

7 comments:

Teshu said...

Wait a minute... I thought girls always liked "tall DARK and handsome" guys :D

Isn't that also apartheid? Anyways I won't complain about it... coz am dark ;-)

Deepa said...

:-) The "tall, dark, and handsome" phrase most certainly did not refer to the asian or african kind of darkness; at the most a sun-tanned version of a European skin! anyways, the post is not a reflection of my personal preferences of skin tones, though now that you mention it, I love the fact that my husband is dark-skinned.

Teshu said...

Lol.. African!! If you really want to blame the so called obsession towards 'fair' looks, you should blame the movies primarly. They are the ones who always plaster the actress with layers of makeup to make her look fair and over the years kind of made it the in-thing.

I was looking at some of the participants in the song shows that appear on tv. In real life they are so dark, but just for the camera they are coated with so much make up!

People should say, "look I am what I am.. so just let me be" whether its on tv or in movies.

Deepa said...

Hi Teshu, May I ask how you stumbled upon my blog. Just want to know. Thanks, Deepa

Teshu said...

From Chinmayi's blog. I reached her blog because of some kannada song which she had sung.

Been a blogger for last 6 yrs so I have a tendency to just surf blogs :)

Brindha Ranganathan said...

Hi Deepa...This is Brindha here...we used to study together in Vidyaniketan...Mukund, Mubarak, Karthik, SriVidya, You, and me etc etc with Lily Mme, Jaya Mme...gosh dont tell me how difficult it was for me to trace at least one of u...did it thru orkut...anyways would be lovely if v can touch base after soooooo many years.

Anonymous said...

I congratulate, the excellent message

Time for tea? Time for two!

Lone lunches have never been uncommon or unpleasant. Even when work has kept your nose to the grindstone all through the morn, if you just...