{"id":10479,"date":"2011-09-25T03:09:25","date_gmt":"2011-09-25T03:09:25","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-09-24T22:09:53","modified_gmt":"2011-09-24T22:09:53","slug":"Indian-Girls-Being-Pursuaded-to-Bleach-or-Lighten-Skin-Tone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=10479","title":{"rendered":"Indian Girls Being Pursuaded to Bleach or Lighten Skin Tone"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am Indian \u2013 but after more than 15 years of living abroad, some aspects of Indian life feel fresh, if not new or altogether welcome. Three months ago, I wandered into a salon in Kolkata with my mother and came face-to-face with a prejudice I hadn\u2019t had to deal with in all the years abroad. The beautician insisted she could remove my \u201cdeep tan.\u201d But my dark skin was not the result of a tanning bed disaster \u2013 I was born with it. <\/p>\n

Lady with pink talons and bright pink lipstick: I can lighten you up by several shades. <\/p>\n

Me: No.<\/p>\n

Lady: You are roaming in the sun too much.<\/p>\n

Me: Don\u2019t touch my face.<\/p>\n

No one in India seems to think it unusual to try to slap some bleach, or a herbal equivalent, on my skin to reveal a whiter me. It is mildly irritating when it comes from my beloved aunts, and maddening when strangers suggest my dark skin is something to be \u201cfixed.\u201d Being dark made me feel self-conscious. As a kid I had several nicknames that stung. Darkie, Blackie and Kaalia (pinched from the title of a Bollywood film, about someone with dark skin). My color defined me and it stuck. A friend from school sent me a message on Facebook recently. It read: Kaalia, remember me? When I pointed out that it was insulting, I was called out for being \u201ctoo sensitive.\u201d \u201cWe called you that with love,\u201d he said. Like that should justify the hurt. In Bengali, the word phorsha (fair) is used interchangeably with beautiful, and with family it was no different. Well-meaning aunts and their neighbors worried about my marriage prospects. Perhaps, they suggested, a little less sun exposure, or maybe a few extra layers of sandalwood paste or a homemade concoction that the neighborhood swore by?<\/p>\n

But I was a problem child. You couldn\u2019t drag me home from playing outside and even back then, I wouldn\u2019t let anyone touch my face. The aunts sighed but never really gave up. To be dark in India is not necessarily to be invisible. Instead, in this country, it is everyone\u2019s business to correct it or cover it up. The personal is open to public opinion, whether it makes you squirm or not. Few Indians seem to be comfortable in their dark skin. The matrimonial classifieds every weekend ask for or offer prospective brides who are never described as dark; at best (or worst) they are \u201cwheatish.\u201d So it is no surprise that a multi-billion rupee market in fairness products thrives in India. Bollywood superstars such as Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra are complicit in the act, appearing in airbrushed, whitened versions of themselves, urging you to pick up a tube or two of the latest product. From lotions and soaps to whitening underarm deodorant; every body part it seems is could be a few shades lighter.<\/strong> In a moment of adolescent weakness, I too was convinced to go on a regimen of drinking milk with crushed turmeric. Urban legends abound of how turmeric and milk, with their blood cleansing properties, had turned someone\u2019s friend\u2019s sister into a fair maiden \u2013 so I gulped down this vile concoction, gagged and never touched it ever again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an adult I\u2019ve become much more comfortable with the color of my skin. Over a decade of living in North America \u2013 where tans are pursued and Halle Berry is a beauty icon \u2013 helped that. Far away from the subcontinent, obsessed with Victorian ideas of beauty, it was refreshing to be part of a society that embraced a wider spectrum of skin tone. So when I moved back to India, I was surprised and offended all over again, as I confronted people who still think porcelain skin is the epitome of beauty. The last time I visited my parents in West Bengal, I paid a visit to the hairdresser. As I instructed the hairdresser on how to blow-dry my hair, the lady in the chair next to me seemed intrigued by my conversation. After several furtive glances she could no longer help herself and asked: \u201cDo you do tanning?\u201d I was dumbstruck and could barely stammer out a surprised \u201cno.\u201d In retrospect, her assumption says a lot about how Indians equate skin tone with beauty, confidence and social standing. To her, my dark skin was incommensurate with me \u2013 a confident professional in a fancy salon. I do not compute.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SOURCE<\/a>
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