In all fairness…

BY RITAM MITRA

“Seeking a slim, homely and fair girl for our son”.

How often have we come across these words in the matrimonial section? Whether one is seeking a bride or a groom, the stress is always, invariably, on the word “fair”. While fairness is often perceived as a sign of “beauty”, having “fair” skin counts for a lot more than just attraction. This one word seems to exude connotations of bourgeoisie aristocracy, and even today a person’s career opportunities and matrimonial prospects often depend upon their skin tone.

So it is no surprise that modern social phenomena reflect these politically incorrect conventions. Only recently, Vaseline introduced a Facebook application that lets users lighten their profile pictures, in an effort to promote their latest skin-lightening product for men. The application has naturally resulted in controversy, and the fact that Shahid Kapoor is the face of the application only makes it more notorious. A quick scan of the application’s page reflects widespread anger towards Vaseline, with one Facebook user deeming it “Absolutely disgusting”, while another condemns it as “sooo backward [sic]”. The application had been rated 1/5 stars by over 23,000 users within just a week of the application’s release.

The skin-lightening industry is worth a staggering $500m in India and is showing no signs of slowing down. It will without a doubt continue to be a big market for opportunistic manufacturers until the stigma associated with darker skin is no longer present. But the question we must ask ourselves is: why is there a social stigma in the first place?

Skin tone is, after all, a purely scientific factor in a person’s appearance, and there is absolutely no evidence to suggest skin of any colour reflects one’s intelligence,