Unfair & Decidedly Lovely

In a society that worships white, it has proven to be quite torturous to exist as a 16-

year- old brown girl. Homemade concoctions and tubes of bleaching cream are

regularly thrusted to you along with a piece of unwanted advice from a judgmental

“aunty”. The tattered mindset preaching the correlation between being fair and

beautiful is outdated yet continues to be believed by the majority of the Indian

population praying to give birth to a baby with Caucasian complexion,

It is heartbreaking to watch young girls and boys self-destruct as they struggle to

conform to the norms set by the society. Renowned brown personalities regularly

advertise the use of the popular “fair and lovely,” yet forget to mention the amount of

Photoshop used to lighten their skin for the commercial.

I wonder why our models are much too often whitewashed as they grace the cover of

so called progressive magazines such as Vogue and Filmfare, forcing darker girls and

boys to believe their skin tone is comeuppance, bludgeoning them into seeking

acceptance in our prejudiced society through fairness creams and instagram filters.

Rather than spreading positivity and teaching us to love ourselves, we are reduced to

believing our self worth lies in the colour of our skin.

I wonder why melanin is spat upon and looked at in disdain, yet, millions are spent on

tanning salons to sport the caramel richness we brown girls are restricted to flaunt. I

wonder why girls on matrimonial sites emphasize the colour of their skin rather than

their accomplishments and I wonder why melanin is not considered magic like it

should be.

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Written by Samira Jha

Edited by Nandini Nalam