On the dark side of things

A new campaign on social media championed by three students from the University of Texas has become a talking point around the world. Called #UnfairAndLovely, it invites women of colour to share selfies and photos on social media. The aim is to challenge the notion that fair is beautiful — something that is especially prevalent in South Asian countries. Women around the world have been joining in the movement, posting selfies and messages under the hashtag #UnfairAndLovely. Nandita Das who initiated the Dark Is Beautiful campaign two years ago was lauded for criticising beauty product manufacturers for cementing the ‘fair and lovely’ stereotype. Now it’s the #UnfairAndLovely campaign that continues to gain steam. But the question remains if protests like these have a limited shelf life.

“I cannot speak from a global context, but in India, the bias towards fair skin is overbearing,” says Chetna Mehrotra, image consultant who has also worked in a number of beauty pageants. “People have always been making a noise about this and it is very important that there are more campaigns to underline the existing bias,” she adds. However, she thinks that these voices need to have a larger reach and for that the Internet is not enough, especially in a country like India that has a large rural population. “The only way such campaigns will have any effect is when they get to the villages and tier II and tier III towns where the bias is more deep-rooted than they are in big cities,” she says.

Former Miss America Nina Davuluri has been one of the strongest voices in the fight against racism in the US. During a recent visit to the city, Nina shared the kind of comments she has heard in India. “I too have been subjected to ‘Oh Nina! You would have been so much more beautiful if you were fairer!’ I think it is more about ignorance than malice. We need to change and redefine the standard of beauty. Why do we favour these ideals and send negative messages to young girls?” But in the US, her experiences have been different — she has had people walk up to her and say how they loved her skin tone. A fair amount of support for this campaign is coming from the men folk too. Actor Harshvardhan Rane, who has long been associated with the Dark Is Beautiful campaign, says that’s it’s a cause he deeply believes in. Speaking of the #Unfairandlovely campaign, the actor says, “I love the pictures that have been posted of those two girls. That’s the way to live life and be proud of what ever you do or are.”

The fight is not against fair skin, points out Kalki Koechlin. Addressing the topic in an online interaction, the actress said, “I don’t think there is anything wrong with being fair, but when an entire nation bases its idea of beauty on being fair it’s sad, because there are such beautiful people who are dusky.”