How much 'Fair-skinned' does Fair & Lovely makes us?

How much 'Fair-skinned' does Fair & Lovely makes us?

Fair & lovely, not sure since when we started hearing about it. It's a household name in India today. Let there be any day, we won't miss a 'Miss' nearby, who hasn't poured potion of fair n lovely or likewise fairness cream on her face. It's the most religiously used product by ladies in 16-32 age group in India. We don't need to go too far, it starts with ladies in our own homes, somewhere in our psyche, its set up that 'being Fair-skinned means being Beautiful'. One of the Marathi song that sisters sing to their brothers in childhood says 'Gori, Goripan, Fula Sarkhi Chhan, Dada mala ek Vahini aan' meaning - sister is asking her brother to wed with fair-skinned beautiful girl. Now, who cares even if her brother is a black guy. On the other hand, it's being considered as burdensome to have dark complexion skin among girls by their own parents, thinking if the girl would have been little more fair-skinned it would have been easier to get her married.

 How come its possible to have people with 'Fair-skin' in tropical region that engulfs half of India? Skin color is according to region you are living in, something as simple as that, you might have read this in Geography books in school as well. There is direct relation between skin color and ultra violet radiation (UVR) in the region that person lives in, the intense is the sunlight, more is the UVR and to protect from it, darker is the color of your skin. So with this fundamentals, we should actually be happy with whatever color of skin we have got, as it protects us.

But today, the urge of having fair skin is at such a crazy level that people with dark complexion skin are treated differently and this percentage is very high among females. People want to have fair skin at any cost, as its considered to have higher social status among others. Because of this, we see many product today saying 'use our product and get fair skin in weeks'. Their ads clearly show that being black is not good for your well being, no matter what you want to do in life, you have to have fair skin, whether its performing well in your job, getting selected for new job, getting girlfriend or boyfriend, getting married - ads are full of these situations.

In case if you don't know, this very belief of having fair skin was roped in by European masters during colonization of world. White skin of masters' was considered most superior than others. And among colonies they invaded, these masters considered- lighter dark skinned people among slaves to be more co-operative, intelligent and beautiful, so they gave them the chance of getting education and soft labor like house work. For the slaves with dark skin, came the hard labor and no education. Slavery went away with century but the belief of lighter is more beautiful is still there.

This belief got bigger society like India and due to impact, young girls get advice from their mothers and elder sisters alike - to use fairness creams since early childhood to have fair skin by the adult age. Why only females, even men use these creams. Brands were smarter to catch these needs and to capture Mens' fairness market, many fairness creams were launched. Big stars like Shah Rukh Khan advertise for one of it. Fair and Handsome. Ads clearly show a not so white boy wanting to achieve big in his life but he couldn't, so he uses this cream and gets more than what he desired. SRK in advertisement says 'If you want more fairness, use fair and handsome cream'.

Was SRK really black when he started in Fauji or Baazzigar and after using this cream, he became fair skinned and big movie star? At least, that doesn't look like from these pictures.

Craziness reached it height when these brands brought fairness meter - showing how darker they are and how much fairness they should target. Fallout of that is- people started calling their friends or enemies with their skin number per these meters. Use the product of 4 weeks and you will get fair skin. Really? Have you ever seen person with dark skin becoming fairer in their whole life? Is it really possible? I mean, You can really see the difference between color of face of person and his/her hands when they use these creams. Ladies, its just shows how fake your fairness cream is and whats the real color.

Why doesn't people like Ajay Devgn are used as experiment by these companies? He is a star with dark complexion and everybody knows it, so why don't they prove it with him? Answer is, its just not  possible. There are hardly complete dark skin actors or actresses in Bollywood. And even if there are, they don't get mainstream role. Height in South Indian movie industry is, they take North Indian girls just because those are fair-skinned than their own. Its long time that needs to pass, before we see actors like Will Smith and Halle Berry coming out of India, being recognized in India.

We can't blame these creams or actors for what they are doing, they get paid in crores for doing these advertisements. There is a complete industry, hundreds of jobs, based on these products. Total market size of 'Fair & Lovely' in India is around 1,100 crores/year, commanding 53% market share of fairness cream market in India. HUL, parent of Fair & Lovely, controls around 70% market of total fairness and skin complexion market.

What we need to change is the mentality of ours that the darker skin is curse, something which we should get rid of to have fair one. It has to start from our own homes, our own parents, and most importantly from us. We need to judge people from fairness of their hearts and not from fairness of their skin. Thats when the real change will start to begin.



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