Will South Asia’s obsession with fair skin ever end?

I would be surprised if you met a dark skinned south asian who has never felt or made to feel conscious of their skin, specifically the colour of their skin. Equating fair skin to beauty is ingrained in all of us from a very young age through society, media representation and worst of all even our families.

You learn very early on that your skin colour can dictate whether you’re in the first row of your dance performance or whether you’ll get a prom date. And it’s really unfortunate that a lot of this bias starts at home — with your relatives making snide comments about your skin colour, your cousins helping you bleach your skin or your mother not letting you play outside so you don’t get tanned.

For an area with predominantly dark-skinned people, our obsession with fair skin is ironic to say the least. There’s no doubt that this deep disgust for dark skin comes from years of British colonization, white supremacy and internalizing the fact that white is good and black is bad. Cosmetic brands immensely profit of this obsession which has now become a multi-billion dollar industry that promote creams and invasive procedures like skin bleaching, chemical peels and laser treatments.

This one sided version of beauty is only further enhanced by the media that uses dangerous storytelling to connect fair skin with attraction, desirability, career success and social status.

However the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement last year sparked outrage in India who are now actively calling for the disassociation of beauty with fairness in advertising. After almost 45 years, brands like Unilever, who own the notorious Fair and Lovely are playing catch up to revamp their identity. While their attempt to do so by changing their name to Glow and Lovely won’t stop the sale of these products, I believe this is a good first step in changing the conversation around beauty standards. You don’t have to be fair to be lovely, it’s really as simple as that.

But colourism in South Asia is complex and deep-rooted. It goes beyond melanin, it’s often connected to other common beliefs around caste and socio-economic status. And the ramifications of these inter-connected beliefs is loud and visceral. It requires years and years of unlearning and, strong awareness and accountability for us to live in a world where colourism doesn’t exist.

While I’m hopeful that small changes will occur, it’s hard to think of a reality in South Asia where skin colour doesn’t matter. Because there’s a lot of other things that need to fix in conjunction.