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Aimee Ginsburg is the India correspondent for Yedioth Achronoth, Israel’s largest daily EMAIL AUTHOR |
“Arre!” exclaims the young woman working the checkout counter at Vijay’s Supermarket. She turns around to share the news with her colleagues, and they all gather round. One of them whispers something into the house phone. The rest take turns peering at the computer screen and back at me. What, what, I ask, searching my mind for some possible violation. But besides the grave eco-offence of buying pre-washed veggies in sealed plastic pouches, I’m pretty sure I’m innocent. After several long minutes, someone hands me a slim pink box. Suddenly, everyone is congratulating me: I have somehow won this free gift! I’m so happy! I breathe deeply, and give my thanks for what I am about to receive.
Gee. It’s a tube of fairness cream. Guaranteed to make me whiter within 7 days.
Ooh, ahh, exclaim one and all. “It’s the best brand!” says the lady of fine wheatish complexion behind me. “Lucky you,” adds one of the checkout ladies, a frown of envy on her duskily lovely face. “It’s just what I’ve always wished for,” I mumble, my freckles aflame. I try to joke around, but it seems fairness cream is no laughing matter. “You know, you have been getting darker lately,” the shop owner says. “Congrats,” say friendly customers, variously hued, as I walk out. At home, I put the box on my shelf and get back to my writing, a feature on ‘The Changing Face of the Indian Woman’ (no, not really, just some news story, but I couldn’t resist).
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But I did do a big story once, years ago, on the whole Fairness Cream trip—which really took me by surprise upon arrival in this great and heterogeneous land.
The first time I saw one of these commercials, I was flabbergasted, and honestly thought it was some kind of an ironic spoof. Where I came from, such blatant racial prejudice in advertising would not be allowed on air, and companies would be sued and boycotted for much less than suggesting that the whiter your skin the better you are in almost every way. (Racism very much exists, of course, but it is not flaunted in expensive advertising campaigns). Is India more transparent in its injustices and therefore more admirable somehow? In love with Shining India, I was willing to try and twist my mind around that.
The ad execs I interviewed all shook their head and agreed it was a terrible, terrible thing. Nevertheless, they could not imagine what could possibly be done about it.
How about just say no, I asked.
“Oh, that would be very wrong,” said one account executive, who was pushing a cream which could get just about any dark skinned maiden married to a certain famous movie star in seven days flat. “Do you know what would happen if we all started choosing our campaigns according to our moral beliefs and high ideals?” I waited for his answer, but it turned out to be a rhetorical question.
Another ad man had this to say: “I don’t think this is really any different than ads for conditioners that make your hair softer. Will you write that in India we discriminate on the basis of how soft their hair is? See,” he looked at me closely, and then asked, “Do you use an anti-ageing cream? Are you on a diet?” None of your damn business, I said. “Think about it,” he suggested.
I was invited to dinner that night, at the home of an editor. A few of her friends were there, all media employed. They all had correct, Arundhati Royesque opinions on the subject. But when I ask about starting a media campaign to boycott these products, they hem and haw and say, “Really, there are so many more important things to start campaigns about,” an answer I have since become used to, there are always more important and serious and urgent and original matters to take care of. Later, while washing my hands in my host’s bathroom, I notice a tub of mega luxe fairness cream. Should I ask her about it? Is it any of my business?
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A few days after my big win, while reaching for my anti-ageing cream, I see the pink box. I am about to throw it away, but instead, I offer it to my housekeeper. (Never mind the message it will give this young woman, it will earn me points for being kind and generous).
“No, thanks,” she says, dazzling me with her smile, “My colour is okay for me. But why don’t you keep it? You have been looking very dark lately.”
OLDER COMMENTS FIRST
23 COMMENTS
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I agree that the obsession with fairness is ridiculous - not to mention very unhealthy. Trying to be something you are not is always a sign of weakness. I can only confirm to everybody reading this, it is much healthier to accept yourself the way you are.
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i fully agree with the writer.the so called fair skin mantra has really set a discrimination against people based on one's skin colour. the ads are a case of racial offence.the way they are shown where you have to be fair to get success is simply not permissible.it is unfortunate that at a time when we are talking of india's position as a modern state, we are still promoting such a racial thing,they should be strictly banned.
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very interesting.
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Very nice read. And kuddos to your housekeeper.Unfortunately in India, advertising agencies have been able to sell nonsense about how a fair complexion is panacea to ALL problems. And what is even more despicable is educated and popular actors endorsing these products. What message are they sending out to their very impressionable audience especially children and youth ?
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Five thousand years of institutionalized apartheid! We need color discrimination laws in this country. Matrimonial columns mentioning skin color should be banned! Black is beautiful!
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Indeed very interesting. this fairness issue is a general one. I received a huge package for a whitening treatment from a Corean friend. She brought it all over from South Corea for me !!!
In the opposite way - isn't it crazy that although we all know the sun is so harmful Italian women still spend hours getting sun burned just to become darker and darker!
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You are joking, right? you come from the number one most racist country on the planet and you are teaching us some kind of a lesson? who are you to even say anything on this matter? start with your own country, where half of the population are second class citizens
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Dear Joe:
80% of YOUR country (assuming you are Indian) are second, third, fourth and fifth class citizens. So typical, pointing fingers somewhere else. Answer to the point, don;t blame the one who calls it like it is. But, Aimee, seriously: anti aging cream? woops
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I agree with your thoughts. It is unfortunate to see naturally beautiful women in our country fight hard to make it to the elite "fair club". Wonder when I can start seeing advertisement on bill boards with women who are not in this club.
To Joe: Aimee can make whatever comment she likes, we live in a free country where opinions matter.
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As the status of women rises in a society and she will be looked into her entire persona, a very conventional beautiful fair girl will not get even half of the attention that her confident, indepenedent, brown skin counterpart. Having said that, the change in mindset should be accelerated by banning these creams by law. And all those who cite the example of soft and hard hair, let us not cross the fine line of grace and dignity by comparing apple with oranges.
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And I am sure next there will be an article about how hairy women are also pretty. And we should be shocked by the wax strips and laser treatment and depilatory cream ads.
And how the maid who has some thick hair growth on the chin returned some gift.
"No, thanks. I like my facial hair and hairy legs and arms."
Nose surgery is racist? Hair color is against old people?
Maybe weight lifting is against weak people?
Please.
God made some really ugly looking people. And sorry, we don't accept it.
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Actually, It is true that all of the commercials about anti aging creams make me feel worse and worse about all of the wrinkles I have been getting, a kind of private sorrow that one is supposed to laugh off but actually it bothers me more than I like to admit--- and from the amount of botoxed foreheads I see around me, I guess ii is bothering others as well. Is this because of the ageist commercials and the campaigns or is the desire to look young ad natural as growing old? I don't know, I'm not sure.
But wanting to look FAIR-- that, I am SURE, is a result of racism. There is no natural, inbuilt desire to be white.
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And of course the girls/women/boys/men who model these creams in the ads are already fair and don't use or 'need' (sorry for implying anyone does) fairness creams - but the honesty of advertising is another subject.
These creams are also dangerous to skin, usually containing bleaches and often taking off the top layer of skin. They were banned in the UK a long time ago (over 20 years?) though perhaps some are safer now... cosmetic companies work for profits not for our well being and prey on our insecurities and fears (or create them) just as the other corporates do.
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I think it is too convenient to blame the advertising agencies for any of this. I dont think the ads would work or that the products would sell if the society itself did not hold these values.
Therefore, it would be much more interesting to ask the deeper questions i think the writer was hinting at (btw, I love this style, of folding within a deceptively simple story many possible lines of exploration). One thing Aimee seems to be saying is that beyond the "fault" of the society and advertisers lies personal choice, at the end of the day. True, not everyone has the courage or tools to choose their own way on every issue, but this is where we should be heading as individuals- each at our own pace and in our own way-- full responsibility for our own choices.
And before any of you chide me for forgetting all of the down trodden women who, unlike us enlightened privileged intellectuals, could not possibly choose for themselves:: ask yourself about your own bigoted point of view, ask yourself how free you yourself are in your choices, use fairness cream or don't use it but when you look at yourself in the mirror check for your own integrity--- as I will go and do right now.
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If fairness cream can make people fairer then there would have been any apartheid policies and racism in this world ...
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Talking bout Fairness Ad's...check this...
http://goldensilt.blogspot.com/2011/11/old-indian-advertisements.html
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With color, it is trickier and we all know it. Sure, it is difficult anyway to grow up with the pressures of beauty to conform to, and sure, every woman- at least 90%- knows that pain of being too fat/not pretty/too wrinkled/too hairy, etc. Whether that pain is frivolous or serious or rooted in natural impulses or is caused by societal pressure are questions we can, and should, ask, if not for our own sake than for the sake of our daughters- and sons, too. We might think it is just the way things are and always will be, but at least we can talk openly enough about it, jovially, kindly, ironically, so that it all finally loses its sting.
But color---- we all know this is a different matter. It is more heinous, because the issue of white supremacy has done more damage than the pain we carry around as individuals for not being as beautiful as we would wish. It has caused massacres, genocides, cultural death. India, as the third world leader, should publicly start a campaign, as public as the "two children is a good number" campaign, to say loudly and clearly that we come in all colors and all of these colors are fine for us.
Thanks Aimee for saying this out loud and not being afraid to stand up to those who think "outsiders" should shut up.
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I have a hard time convincing my daughter that " dusky is also beauty". She points out to the fairness advertisements and says " i also want to be like those girls fair & beautiful". These advertisements surely sends wrong messages, i am happy that someone like Aimee has voiced out about this. I hope and pray that change happens soon. And, i would also like to be a part of the change.
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I don't understand - since when did having whiter skin make someone look more beautiful! I don't understand where this concept stem's from.
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Prabha, I am very touched by your comment. Please continue to tell your daughter she is beautiful: this is the very best thing a parent can do for their daughter, (and son, of course)--- let them know they are beautiful (and smart, and kind) no matter what the society says. Maybe you can help her plan some campaign in school, maybe she and her friends can wear stickers that say "lovely in all shades" or something like that. Maybe the school teacher would play along. Be part of the change you want to see: tlak to people about this, make comments to the costumers in the shop, holding a tube in your hand, make fun of it. Anything is good. The world is ours, it belongs to us, it will be as we will make it. Much love to your daughter.
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"A Whiter Shade of Pale":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whkIW3vNltQ
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9X Fairness Cream commercial- hilarious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahdvo70fRhk
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I spent HOURS working on my tan as a younger woman. I was mortified by my fairness, sure everyone was laughing at me for being so very pale. I did everything I could to get color, burnt myself in the sun, sat under lamps, used bronzing creams. Well, my skin did not like it, and yes, my biopsy at age 35 came back positive. Thank God I am Ok now.
Please, please don't use these creams. Enjoy your lovely brown, or red or yellow or black or white color.
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