Thursday, August 1, 2013

Fair and Lovely !! Really ?

Fair and Lovely !! Really ? 
 
I just read a week back that the skin whitening cream market size in India is now Rs 5000 cr … and that’s an enormous waste.

Where do we Indians get this fascination for fair / white skin ? From our supposed Aryan links ? From The British raj ? I really do not know… but I am just not able to understand this fixation. While I do not dislike fair skin, I definitely prefer the “original” wheatish/ dusky shades. Remember Smita Patil ? and Rekha ?

Fair and Lovely and similar products are actually creating a division in society.. fair Vs not fair.. and through clever advertising suggesting that the use of their fairness products leads to enhanced confidence, success, etc. All this complete nonsense but the irony is that they depend on the ingrained attitudes to skin colour in India.

Now what is galling is some of the most respected corporate names are doing this. Reputed MNCs and Indian companies are milking gullible young women. And this is also happening in Africa, Latin America, China, Pakistan and South East Asia

And the last nail in the coffin is fairness creams for men. !! Come on guys ..Rama, Krishna and Shiva ..were all dark.

Just for the record, the active chemical in all skin whitening creams removes skin pigmentation by bleaching and peeling. The worst of the lot can leave behind burn marks and cause skin cancer..

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