Fair Enough???

Many a time, many a person might feel this world isn’t fair enough. Maybe that’s why people are trying to make themselves fairer instead. We are not talking about Mr/Ms. Right and Mr/Ms. Wrong here; it’s about the skin complexion that has clinched the front seat for a while now. They say we are defined by what we do, but it’s a sorry thing that we are looked upon by how we look; rather than by what we do.

The Indian mentality of preferring a fair toned individual might not be a mystery, but it’s not a solved puzzle either. Most bridal columns feature fair skin as a take away; movies, magazines and ads portray fair skin as the desirable tone, the number of fairness products available in the market and much more. All these situations pose us the question – Have we become colour-despotic? Racism has become a loose word nowadays and let’s not discuss that here.

Everyone would have affronted this bias at some point and we were made to accept it rather than ponder about it due to various internal and external repercussions. The country which, once, considered dark to be beautiful was wracked up by the British colonial rule of those who imposed themselves as the superior. They did leave but not their impact on the cultural setting. One can casually point that the idea of fair skin being the desirable superior dawned upon us then.

The learned Brahman was inherently fair skinned owing to the occupation he did under the shade. The other working classes tasked under the sun resulting in a darker complexion. The system based on occupation slowly turned into a senseless caste system. Later, in the last decade education was made available to all classes but the stereotype that a learned person will be fair skinned did not change, thanks to a warped society and self-prejudice. It was only a matter of time for the fair which was considered learned to become the fair which was deemed desirable and beautiful.

It was well played by the cosmetic companies in utilizing the stereotype that had been created and cash in on the people's insecurity. Fair & _____, the first child of Indian cosmetic market has a lot of siblings and cousins now and has grown immensely in the last decade. The sales figures are staggering and ‘poor’ India is soon to be a billion dollar market for cosmetics. The macho look is being forgotten and metrosexual look is preferred for the men. Indian men of today say, “Oh, we want to prettify ourselves too” and have jumped aboard the ship of fairness cosmetics. The galore of media campaigns lead by the big screen stars aggressively drills the idea deep into every individual.

The capitalist industry itself did not plot this scenario and cannot be blamed for doing business with it. Media 

only spreads an idea whereas the birth of a socialistic perception is from within a community. Likewise the fix should also come from within us. We were swimming with the tide so far and one need not be proclaimed guilty because they had this unfairness in them, but, it shall be a misdeed to have it even after realizing the fact that facial fairness is only a mask we are trying to wear which will make us performers and never even close to the true us.

It is an outright irony considering the fact that the white Westerners try to tan themselves and the brown South Asians try to whiten themselves. The human ‘never contend with anything mind’ could be responsible for this or it could be something else, but whatever it is, we have plunged ourselves into the depths of self-insecurity. We somehow managed to convince ourselves fair is desirable; we just need to dissuade ourselves now. Endeavoring to be fair can no longer be fair and unfair is fair enough.

Swasthika Sang