{"id":16138,"date":"2013-09-24T04:09:37","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T04:09:37","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-15T00:46:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:46:59","slug":"the-darker-side-of-indian-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=16138","title":{"rendered":"The darker side of Indian beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indians are keen followers of global beauty pageants such as Miss World and Miss Universe, which were the first platforms for some of Bollywood\u2019s biggest contemporary stars.<\/strong> Yet the more parochial Miss America contest has been of little interest \u2013 until now.<\/p>\n

Last week, the crown was placed on the head of Nina Davuluri, the 24-year-old New York-born daughter of immigrants from southern India. She was the first Indian-American<\/strong> \u2013 and only the second Asian-American<\/strong> \u2013 to have won the competition.<\/p>\n

Her victory provoked spiteful tweets from some Americans unable to stomach the country\u2019s increasing ethnic diversity.<\/strong> These, in turn, sparked indignation in India, where they were held up as evidence of American racism.<\/p>\n

Yet India\u2019s public debate has since shifted away from the prejudice in America to the more sensitive issue of entrenched biases at home, where \u2013 as a sharp editorial in The Hindu newspaper noted \u2013 Ms Davuluri probably wouldn\u2019t have got past the first round of a beauty contest because of her colour.<\/p>\n

India has an obsession with fair skin, which is traditionally seen as an essential element of beauty.<\/strong> That cultural message is now reinforced by media worship of fair-skinned celebrities and slick television commercials.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s market for skin-lightening cream<\/strong> \u2013 such as Unilever\u2019s almost 40-year-old brand Fair & Lovely, and newer rivals such as L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s White Perfect \u2013 is booming, estimated at about $638m last year, up from $397m in 2008, according to market research agency Euromonitor.<\/p>\n

The quest for fair skin \u2013 once focused on the face and hands \u2013 is also moving into extreme territory. Germany\u2019s Beiersdorf offers Indian women a Nivea deodorant claiming to lighten the underarms. Other companies have begun peddling \u201cfairness\u201d products for teenagers, shower gels and even vaginal whitening creams. Shops are filled with new lines for men, once immune from the pressure to be fair.<\/p>\n

The new Miss America is giving fresh momentum to the fight.<\/strong> Her victory has inspired many Indian girls on the darker end of the spectrum. She now says she wants to visit her ancestral land to work with the Dark is Beautiful campaign.<\/p>\n

Source Financial Times<\/a>
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