The homegrown fairness cult and an anti-cult destroying it

Fairness ads since an early childhood have made me believe that dark is ugly. But hell no! when we get to know that foreigners would kill for a tan, ideas started taking shape in a different way.

Crooning in the ear is the perpetual hegemony that the fairer excels in the market-be it a market for matrimony or employment. And the annoying run for India's 'fair' brand begins.

Consider this ad by a reputed coffee brand where the daughter toils for a job, but was unsuccessful because of her skin complexion and the father ruing if he had a son, he could have coffee at a five star hotel. And then the girl uses this fairness cream and lands a job and then she could treat her parents with a cup of coffee. And hello, we lost our favorite international pop singer Michael Jackson to the colour discrimination.

How insulting! if the complexion of a woman mattered a lot, there would have been no Kalpana Chawla exploring Mars or Nandita Das putting the screen on fire. We could name many more, but we won't because the society that goes gaga over skin complexion does not deserve to see a greater logic in refusing to do so.

So, let the society and the social stigma be at peace and we move on!

My 'Fair' lady

Reminding of Nandita Das, she started a popular campaign against Fairness creams online named as 'The Dark Is Beautiful'. And what pushed her to the brink? The people's attitude toward her skin tone.

It has become a daily affair in our lives these days-use this talcum powder and you would get the 'gora nikhar' (bright hue) that you have been dying for; how about the fairness cream that Yami Gautam promotes, isn't she radiant? or Christ's sake Yami already has a radiant skin and let the 'gora' nikhar be left for people who want it.

While we have hoards of advertisements by known celebrities endorsing 'Fair is beautiful', we cannot entirely blame them. They are just giving us what we like to take. In such a case, it is our responsibility to take the best and leave out the rest.

Kangana Ranaut, for instance, set an example when she turned down a 2 crore offer of a 'fairness' endorsing ad.

She said,"Ever since I was a kid, I have never understood the concept of fairness. Especially, in such a case, as a celebrity, what kind of an example would I be setting for younger people? I have no regrets about turning this offer down. As a public figure, I have responsibilities."[Read: Firstpost story]

We have responsibilities too for a generation of free thinkers in the future, who wish to live in a world free of superstition, dogmas and uncalculated, demeaning social stigmas. It is high time that we bring a change ourselves.

OneIndia News