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Fair & Lovely

In recent years, India has seen more and more women accepting their natural skin color,

but during the years prior to this movement, there was a strong desire by both men and women

alike to lighten their skin due to deep seated colorism. One of the more popular ads ‘Fair &

Lovely,’ shows a woman with her face split into two where each side has a different skin tone,

the darker side is the international cream and the lighter side is the ‘Fair & Lovely’ side. The

caption to the ‘Fair & Lovely’ cream is that is has “unbeatable fairness even against some

international creams,” the underlying meaning is that if you use this cream, you will become

“fair” and “lovely,” implying that any other skin tone is not so beautiful. The major premise is

that the face on the “Fair & Lovely” side is more attractive and the conclusion is that if you use

this cream, you will become more attractive. What they leave out is that the woman on the

‘international cream’ side would be considered unattractive, however beauty is subjective and it

is up to the audience to decide whether or not they think the ‘international cream’ side is truly

unattractive.

There are many more ads in India where men are shamed for not having lighter skin as

well. The ‘Fair & Lovely – Menz Active’ skin cream ad showed men as undesirable, not only by

women, but also by Bollywood if their skin is dark. For example, at the beginning of the ‘Menz

Active’ ad, even though you see the main character doing amazing stunts, he was replaced by the

other actor because of his lighter skin and ignored by the leading lady. After he used the ‘Menz

Active’ skin lightening cream, he became desirable to the masses and his fame boosted tenfold.

Another underlying message is that it does not matter how talented you are at something, if you

are not fair/light then you are going to have a difficult life. Essentially, the message of these two

ads are that if you use ‘Fair & Lovely’ you will have lighter skin and if you have lighter skin,
then you will get your love interest and the job. The minor premise however, is that if you have

dark skin you are considered unattractive and unworthy.

The reason why so many Indians are not supporting this type of beauty standard anymore

is because it is an extremely dangerous one. There is a billion-dollar industry in India where

dangerous chemicals are used in skin-lightening creams, injections, and pills that are being

swallowed. The long-term use of mercury and hydroquinone are “linked to poisoning, skin

damage and liver and kidney malfunction… Misuse of corticosteroid creams is associated with

thinning of the skin, an increased chance of skin cancer and counterintuitively, darkening of the

skin” (Khan). The implications that lighter skin is better, is just as dangerous as tanning into a

drastically darker skin color. This is where the hashtag, ‘ #UnfairandLovely’ came about. Pax

Jones created this hashtag to show that dark skin is also beautiful and it ended up becoming a

viral campaign that showed how dangerous skin-lightening procedures are (Khan). The younger

community is now starting to be more aware of how dangerous this beauty standard and practice

is and are fighting back with help from the actress, Nandita Sen, who endorses the Dark is

Beautiful campaign.

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