Colorism, like any other social evil in India, is deeply rooted in the Indian culture. The concept, which is very similar to racism, states that lighter skin tends to be better than darker skin. A person with a fair complexion is considered prettier than a darker person. Colorism affects both men and women, but along with prevalent sexism and misogyny in India, it makes the status of women even worse than it already is.
This prejudice against darker complexion makes people believe that having darker skin makes them somehow inferior compared to others. Even in the 21st century, being dark-skinned is a taboo. At a very young age, girls are taught to sit like ladies and to look pretty to be eligible for marriage in India. Looking pretty typically means being fair. Simple beauty products which aim to lighten skin destroy these girls’ self-confidence starting from an insanely young age. They grew up believing in these stereotypes and due to those wrong misconceptions, more generations of women began to believe them.
Colorism is a very relevant men's issue as well, as according to society consider factors like dark-skinned, fat, or passionate not being traits of a strong man. On a general basis, colorism also causes a lot of mental distress, which is portrayed well by the effort that people put in to lighten their skin. While it gradually affects both genders, women feel more compelled to have lighter skin. This concept is known as gendered colorism. Women tend to go beyond reality by lightening their skin color and somehow try to fit the perfect image of a woman that society has portrayed to be. While huge companies change their names to make darker people feel more accepted, there is still a long way to go to make everyone feel inclusive as well.
Changing titles doesn't defeat the purpose of these brands, which is to equalize fairness and loveliness. Mainstream patriarchal media in India continue to have very little representation of trans women, dark-skinned women, and bigger women. It ultimately feeds into the social ideologies. Young girls feel that male validation is crucial and often fail to understand the difference between consented appreciation and the male gaze.
It's also important to understand that colorism in India is more than just beauty standards. Deep-rooted seeds of colonial colorism have now grown into forests of discrimination. In everyday things like movies, the villains are often dark-skinned, which is considered a negative character trait. These movies that aim at normalizing dark complexions use makeup to darken actors' skin instead of hiring actual dark-skinned actors.
People have no control over what skin color they are born with, and thus we must understand that color has nothing to do with its beauty or ability. Instead of continuously trying to fix things we have no control over, we should try to embrace them by moving ahead from this outdated notion.
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