Is Beauty Only Skin Deep?

Imagine a modern, educated, Indian family watching T.V. and an advertisement comes on- an aspiring air-hostess, who is well qualified, excitedly applies for a job. But, wait, twist in the story. She doesn’t get the job because she’s not of a “high caste”. Her best friend comes to her and tells her that if she wants to get somewhere in life she will need to somehow get rid of her background and change her caste and then proposes some brilliant solution as to how she can change her caste.
Can you imagine this without shock and disgust washing over you?
Can you imagine the audience watching this ad without getting enraged and protesting against it?
Why? Because one’s caste is something that one is born into. Because nobody has anything to do with which one you are. It has no effect on your value as a person. Because to portray some people as inferior or unqualified solely because of their work is unjust. It is an irrelevant scale to measure one’s merits by. Because we have woken up that it is an unfair practice.
Imagine another ad, similar, but rather than caste, the girl is denied the opportunity to fulfill her dream because she is too dark. Her well-wisher in this case, gives her the magical solution in the form of a tube of fairness cream. And what do you know? The girl who once didn’t qualify for the job, soon is the face of the airline because she is no longer held back by her colour.
You don’t have to bother imagining the second ad- just turn on the T.V.
Do you see the connection?
Your colour is something you are just born with. You have no choice, no option as to what shade of complexion you inherit. It has nothing to do with your value as a person. Now, is it not unjust to portray someone as unqualified for a job because of their skin colour? Is it not an irrelevant scale to measure someone’s merits by? Why haven’t we woken up the unfairness of the absurd prejudice that we as a society have against dark skin in India?
If we see the outright idiocy and shamelessness of the first ad, then why don’t we feel anything when the second one says that your success is determined by how fair you are?
The worst part is that it IS true. In our society, any achievement related to beauty requires a fair complexion. Take the Hindi film industry for example- how many actors represent the average skin colour of an Indian? Not more than a handful. How many times have you heard someone attempt to insult another by calling them “kaala”?
How did we let ourselves get so brainwashed? And what really is making us stay so? Why do we treat our own kind and colour with such contempt? Take a minute, think about it. Is it not an unfair ideal of beauty imposed by us on our own selves? The next time you buy a fairness cream, or think about how “dark” someone is, take a minute to think about whether your idea of beauty is really that shallow. Take pride in yourself. Fair or dark, you are lovely.
-A