Posted on 06/30/2007 5:07:36 PM PDT by blam
India's hue and cry over paler skin
By Amrit Dhillon in Delhi, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:48pm BST 30/06/2007
As both an A-list Bollywood actor and the host of India's answer to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Shah Rukh Khan sets hearts aflutter for all manner of reasons. Now, however, he has been accused of peddling a dream too far - in an advertisement for skin cream.
Shah Rukh Khan has agreed to be the face of a skin lightening cream
Khan, 41, a heart-throb star likened to an Indian Tom Cruise, has agreed to promote Fair and Handsome, a skin-lightening cream which panders to a widespread Indian desire for fairer skin. While darker-hued Indians spend a total equivalent to £160 million a year on such products - despite doubts about their effectiveness - the sight of Khan's chiselled features endorsing the cream has angered campaigners, who say it is "racist" to promote lighter skin as superior.
"We are against the product," said Brinda Karat, the president of the All-India Democratic Women's Association. "It is downright racist to denigrate dark skin."
The row over Khan's deal with the Emami cosmetics company reflects growing embarrassment among modern Indians about the popularity of skin-lightening products, which stems from a centuries-old cultural belief that equates fair features with high caste status, good looks and eligibility for marriage.
Protests by Miss Karat's group recently forced another company - Hindustan Lever, the Indian arm of Unilever - to withdraw television advertisements for its women's fairness cream, Fair and Lovely. The advertisements depicted dejected, dark-skinned women, who had been snubbed by employers and men, suddenly acquiring new boyfriends and glamorous careers after the cream had lightened their skin.
Yet most of India's 800 million population are puzzled to hear such creams described as symptomatic of an unhealthy self-image. In the matrimonials, the classified newspaper advertisements through which brides and bridegrooms are sought, a potential bride's porcelain skin is ranked as a more desirable attribute than a university degree. Film stars who are not naturally light-skinned are touched up to look paler on screen.
In everyday conversation, the ultimate compliment on someone's looks is to say someone is gora (fair). "I have no problem with people wanting to be lighter," said a Delhi beauty parlour owner, Saroj Nath. "It doesn't make you racist, any more than trying to make yourself look younger makes you ageist."
The creams' effectiveness is widely disputed, however.
"My maid has been using Fair and Lovely for years and I still can't see her in the dark," said Anuradha Kapoor, owner of a public relations firm. "But she goes on using it. Hope springs eternal, I suppose."
Mr Khan's face will adorn a slick new tube bearing a "before-and-after" photo. "He's a role model for young Indians, and now he'll be telling them that dark skin is unattractive and must be changed," said Renoukha Khandekar, an author and columnist. "It's irresponsible and stupid. We have skin tones of all hues in this country, and they're all wonderful."
Is Michael Jackson one of the investors in this company?
LOL
The guy looks like Al Pacino in his heydey.
Bizarre, in the US we buy tanning cream, marketers rule the world.
Too funny /bad for words.
I use skin lightening cream when I remember to. Freckles...
India is one of the most color conscious societies in the world.
I have Indian relatives and not only are they color conscious, but the caste system and the biases associated with it are alive and well today.
Its unfortunate that that is the case in a democratic nation like that.
Maybe. After Venezuela.
Maybe. After Venezuela.
Maybe. After any other Latin American country in the world
There are really beautiful people of every color.
Unfortunately most of us should be covered in burlap, including your humble correspondent.
“I wonder which creme an american asian indian would use? The tan inducer, or the pasty face inducer?”
Man I don’t know, maybe we should call MJ?
I find this sort of thing very silly, and sadly a sign of the times that there are not very many people who are just happy with who they are and what they appear to be, straigthening creme, pasty creme, tan creme, plastic surgery to make eye lids smaller, it’s just nuts, maybe in India it’s the stigma of the caste system, but we do it in the West too, so I don’t know either way ya know?
LOL!
Not a damn thing wrong with dark skin. Be who you are. Character and ideals are what matters, not skin.
Black Americans sometimes used (or maybe still use, I don’t know) “lightening creams” in the past. There’s an unspoken caste system among blacks, too.
It would be my suspicion that much of the fashion industry, advertising, movies, etc. is designed to make us dissatisfied enough with ourselves that we are willing to spend loads of money. Until a few years ago, the women and men in most ads for clothing, fast food, cosmetics, etc. in Southeast Asia were European. Now they are unnaturally light skinned Asians.
Poor women working in the rice fields are covered up as much as Muslim women in burkas but not for religious reasons. They simply want to keep their skin from becoming darker!!! It has got to be terrifically uncomfortable. On the up side, it likely keeps the skin cancer rate low.
” Character and ideals are what matters, not skin.”
And lets not forget big hooters on the women. That matters. Unless, of course, she has a “good personality”.
American made hydroquinone is the active ingrediant. We export many container loads each month to the west African coca butter countries where the stuff is blended.
oh, no question pasty face inducer !!!!! My Celtic-origin daughter lives with a gal whose family is Indian .. she is light skinned, but after the two had gone to the pool was very worried about her dad coming to town the following week and noting her tan .. which, of course, he did. My kid would give anything to tan, just once in her life! Amazing cultural differences.
“If an asian indian woman in america did succeed in making herself pale, would she then join white american women in the tanning salons?”
Heavens no, not the tanning salons, she would buy my “just right creme” it goes on transparently and makes one skin whatever color they would like it to be with continued treatments*
300.00 a dispenser, but what is your skin tone worth to you?
* Creme must be used for 175 consecutive years before results are noticeable...
“In the rice fields...”
You know, one day all of the image shapers are going to answer to a higher Authority, I hope that they are made to work in 110’ rice paddies wearing head to toe covering....
Throughout Asia, poor people work in the fields and have dark tans. The rich live in pale leisure.
More traditional Chinese women are very particular about their skin and meticulously avoid the sun.
oh, my.
According to my grandfather, it was the wealthy newenglanders that started this suntanning nonsense. Or rather, it was the rest of america trying to imitate that appearance. The wealthy newenglanders always had a weathered look from sailing, snow skiing, golfing, tennis, etc. Hence the weathered look became prestigious.
ooo, scary vampires! THey sing and dance like micheal jackson! Except not as good. Yikes!
You’re right. I’m more scared. And confused.
What are they talking about???
The level of color-consciousness in several nations around the globe would make even the Grand Dragon of the Klan rush off to join the NAACP! In some cultures it is not even racism per se ....it is something totally different. Something simpler but at the same time so convoluted there is no simple way of comprehending it.
India is blue over their hue?
weight loss products discriminate against fat people
Ya I know.
But contrast that to the obsession of Arabs and East Asians with blonde/light skinned people... sickening.
The whole non-white world subconsciously emulates the western european standard of beauty because they spread their culture all over the world for 2 centuries during colonial times.
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