chinni, i am with you! of course, if one has to hear all her life about being dark and so not up to "general" standards, it is understandable he/she will form their own standards and rate others :thumbsup obviously, this fairness cream issue is going to be huge in india.... i recently got to know they have advertisements for MEN (fair and handsome!! i believe and also fair and lovely for men!) i remember when aishwarya rai came on oprah, she was asked about fairness cream (obviously it was reflected in a different light to african americans.....looking down on dark skin :crazy) all ash came up with is " i don't endorse them".
Hi Chinni, fantastic thread completely agree with. As a race we should stop this obsession with fairness. It makes me mad seeing the adverts for fairness cream in the Indian tv channels. Every time the advert is showing, I make it a point to tell my daughters what a rubbish thing to say that fair skin is better than dark. These adverts (eg fair & lovely) could do real damage to people, hence should be banned. Another thing that make me mad is the propotion of fair skinned heroines in Indian movies. I think there should be more darker coloured actresses in Indian cinema.
There is very little we can do to change the mindset of the entire population. At best, we can teach our children that color & external beauty (added now so that I don't receive flak for doing what the other's did, judge people) is of no importance. And warn our near and dear one's of the long term usage consequences.
When I went back home after 3 yrs abroad, the first thing one of my aunts said to me was "Areh ? You lived in phoren for 3 years & you are still the same ? how come you didnt become fairer? everyone in phoren is so fair !" !!:bonk.I really let my aunts down :rotfl. Its really unfortunate one of my cousin sis-in-law is much darker than anyone else in the family & she was so illtreated by her MIL. SIL told me there was only one thing she prayed for thruout her pregnancy and that was to let her child be fairer in color so that he/she doesnt have to go thru this trauma. She rubbed her face with milk/saffron/whatnot every morning & used all types of fairness creams all the time.
One could but in that case we are no better than the rest..they have their set definitions of beauty based on color and u have urs based on looks..not much difference. I personally don't think any woman deserves to be called ugly and isn't it ironic that the thread is supposed to be about condemning attaching importance to external beauty.
Chinni, even i was compared to my mom n cousins who r fairer than me. I heard comments like "she will not find a groom easily" etc. Now, my hubby is very fair. So people expected that my kid would be Fair or at least as fair as me. But to their "disappointment" he is on a bit darker side. But to me he is precious no matter what. But now i have to endure remarks about his complexion. Why don't they see how active and cheerful person that he is? When i went to india after he was born, people who came to visit wud talk only abt his color and i fought with some but my mom told just to ignore them. So i kept quite. I think we shud stop calling australians racist.
Vennella I dont quite understand what the ":thumbsup" is for. I can understand environment has an influence on a person, and can beget anger. But once the person goes through adolescence and then adulthood - their own independent thinking can guide their thoughts to overcome the societal nuisance so they dont repeat the same mistake done unto them. That only perpetuates the problem with varying shades (shades - pun not intended). Otherwise all that happens is - You point one finger at someone, and three fingers point back at you. And just so the main point is clear - There have been many threads on this Fairness issue in the past and many of us have strongly supported what you and chinni have been saying. Color is no way to judge a person.
Beauty is beyond Colour,Skin ,Size or whatever ???).. I would like to stress on one point that the Grass is always on the other side. If we pin point at ladies who are so much obsessed about Fairness then we should definitly include those westeners who spend a Fortune on getting tanned/Dusky. So its just not fair to accuse only we Indians for the colour obsession..Even the westeners too have this (Only the difference is the colour).So in a nut shell even if we get a face of Aishwarya rai, we may feel Angelina is better(and the vice versa too)
