For too long now, the unspoken racism in the South-Asian community has gone unaddressed. According to The Guardian, a WHO study discovered 61% of women in India regularly use skin lightening products. The skin lightening industry was valued at £3.4bn in 2017, and it is only expected to grow. The British colonial idea that white is right and that light skin is superior has been deeply ingrained into people’s minds. Even today, we make fun of those darker than us and dark-skinned people will face prejudice for their whole life. There is colourism within families. Some parents tell their kids not to go in the sun too much or no one will want to marry them. My cousin was tanning at the beach and was worried she was going to become ‘too dark’.
In Bollywood movies, mainly light-skinned actors are cast. As stated by The Times of India, the highest-paid Bollywood stars include Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. These are all light-skinned actors! Even a quick google search of Bollywood would show you the same thing. The same Bollywood stars that have been speaking out about racism have done ads for skin lightening products. This kind of hypocrisy sends mixed messages. When ‘beautiful’ celebrities advertise products that will make your skin lighter- that will make you look like them, you will start to believe that lighter is better.
Representation matters. Female love interests especially in these movies are always fair, embedding into young watchers minds that light is beautiful and desirable. The impacts of this can be detrimental to young girls’ self-esteem as they grow up in a world where their skin colour is not deemed beautiful. Not only can this cause physical harm, as women use dangerous skin bleaching products, but the feeling of being undesired and being treated as such by society can cause great emotional distress. We need to start having difficult conversations in our own communities and address this prejudice. We need to teach young girls that they are beautiful, no matter what skin colour they are. We need to make a change.
Written by Anoushka Joshi
Media by Ben Hyland
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