Omigod! Maths is confusing again!

I know I haven't been blogging much lately because I was on a holiday. During my trip, I got to see a series of racist advertisements. I wanted to blog about this in my feminist blog, but I felt that this is related to fashion and beauty more than it is related to feminism. Just watch these pointless and fake advertisements, before reading more:


No boyfriends for dark girls




In the first video, Actress Priyanka Chopra who is left at some airport/railway station by boyfriend played by Saif Ali Khan. He takes a necklace with a semi-heart pendant leaving behind another necklace which looks the same. Guess what he had symbolically indicated?

Years later, Priyanka comes to know the Saif Ali Khan is now with Neha Dhupia. She is either delibrately shown darker than Neha Dhupia or Priyanka Chopra was naturally dusky. But as a matter of fact, Priyanka Chopra is dusky. I have a question for Miss.Piggy Chops(her nickname) after I see how episode 2- Has she subjected herself to racism for the sake of money?

After seeing Saif Ali Khan with his new girlfriend, Priyanka happens to watch this video about the 'wonderful' POND'S White Beauty cream and then the video stops with a - to be continued.

This video also happens to be a promotional video of upcoming Bollywood movie Kabhi Kabhi Pyaar Mein.

Dark, black, white, brown, yellow or fair-skinned, a girl shouldn't be surprised if her boyfriend dumps her and finds someone else. I don't think it depends on skin colour or looks. There are many men who just don't look at faces.

The next video actually was sent to me by a ymib sister. She asked me to blog about it. Well, Fair & Lovely ads aren't new to me. I have been watching them since I had started watching TV. All Fair & Lovely ads are totally fake, pointless, extremely racist and sexist too.

Pointless because:

*Fairness creams don't work for people who have naturally a really dark complexion.

*You can always make out that the colour of our face and the colour of our body differ slightly. Because our face is the only part of the body which we hardly cover. It's constantly exposed to the environment. There are chances that exposure to sun may darken our faces for which we have sunscreen lotions. Why the hell do we need fairness creams?

Fake because:

*The guy or girl in the ad is actually a naturally fair or a White person. He/she is given such a kind of make-up so that they look dark. THEY ARE NOT.
Racist because:

*The person who is shown as a reject, as I said before are naturally fair, therefore, fairness creams are just for fair people only and not for Blacks or dark-skinned people.

*All the advertisements show that a person with a dark skin colour is a reject, who lacks confidence and practically a loser. So they are suggesting all Black people and other people who are dark-skinned have personality disorders and are not/must not be accepted in this world.

Sexist because:

*Even though now men's fairness creams(the last video) are introduced now, for decades, women are shown as the dark-skinned person is all fairness creams' ads. Girls have/are under the impression that fairness matters, not the features. In matrimonial columns, everyone asks for a tall, fair, beautiful, smart, well-behaved bride. No one wants a dark-skinned girl.

Months ago, I was with a friend in a restaurant when she saw a very fair woman in a nearby table. My friend tells me,"Look at her! She's got such good complexion. She's so fair!"
I had no intention of giving her a lecture about racism, because I knew she won't understand. I told her that looks depend on features and not just colour of skin. She replies with a sigh,"But still, it depends, yaar."

Well, she's right. It does, in India and Indians must be shameful enough to subject themselves to racism like this. As a matter of fact, I'm myself fair according to the Indian standards of fairness and seriously, I have nothing to be proud of. I have pimples all over my face. I would advice certain people with dark-skin who look at fair people with envy: You people are actually lucky because dark-skinned people hardly suffer from skin diseases, allergies or acne peoblems. Moreover, there is nothing to be envious of.

Right from my childhood, I have seen many of dark-skinned classmates or friends being teased and ill-treated. I didn't have an idea of racism since I was a kid but I used to think,"Is it their fault that they have a dark skin colour?"

I have a particular friend who is the perfect example of dusky and beautiful girl. I had once called her a black beauty as a compliment and she found it offensive! But that is the condition in India. People aren't proud of their own colour.

On the whole, I find the whole craving-to-be-fair thing quite silly and sick. I feel that most of my fellow Indians are ignorant about racism and stuff. They don't even what they are going through. As I have started this topic, I would also like give more examples about racism in the fashion industry. Take a look at this Vogue India Cover, the first issue: Seeing the doll-faced Australian model Gemma Ward between Bollywood actresses Bipasha Basu(left) and Priyanka Chopra(who look much older that Gemma Ward) was quite weird. I didn't understand why they wanted to put an Australian in a Indian cover, but the photo isn't really that bad. But what do the mean by putting the fair one in the center? In the same way Preity Zinta is made to stand between models Monikangana Sen and Laxmi Menon. If you think this is quite a petty of example of racism, take a look at these Vanity Fair covers. Isn't this a remarkable coincidence that quite a number of Annie Leibovitz covers show that people of colour get repeatedly pushed to the right side of the picture?









Imported from Glamme Grrl Fashion.