Fair…then Lovely…now Handsome

By Asha Divakaran

Bollywood icon, and personal heartthrob, Shah Rukh Khan recently received a media-flogging for appearing in a commercial for Fair and Handsome, the newly released fairness enhancing cream for Indian men. While practically nothing could dissuade my standing as a loyal SRK fan, this stunt has posed a serious threat. Endorsing a product that blatantly exploits a nation’s resigned acceptance of discrimination based on just how brown you are is criminal, and deserves the cyber stoning it received. 

Here is some history on the issue: Stigmatization of dark skin dates back several centuries in India. It is considered to be rooted in the caste system which, while not proven to have been based on color, exhibits a strong correlation to it: people of high castes – brahmins (priests) and kshatriyas (warriors) – are generally lighter skinned, while the lower caste traders and laborers (vaisyas and sudras) are typically darker. Significantly, one of the definitions for the sankskrit word for caste, varna, is color.

Indian women are the primary victims of stereotypes associated with skin tone. Indian society unabashedly covets the fair woman: Classifieds in newspapers are dotted with ads such as, “Wanted fair, beautiful, professionally qualified match for handsome, Canadian Immigrant.” Even the registration process on matrimonial websites includes a category to describe skin tone. The direct outcome of this national aestheticizing of fair skin is that women have for years sought means to lighten their complexion.

The cosmetic industry enthusiastically addressed the issue by introducing fairness-enhancing products to the female consumer. In 2003, Womens eNews claimed that India’s “fairness industry” brought in $140 million annually, a 60% share of skincare sales. The marketing of Fair and Lovely, the most famous of such creams, has become the basis of much debate over the years. The ad campaigns, as in the case of the Fair and Handsome ad, are styled around the ugly-duckling motif of children’s fairy tales, where only through transformation into the proverbial (and light-skinned) swan can a woman hope to find her perfect man. The All India Democratic Women's Congress convinced the Indian government to ban two such ads.

Fair and Lovely has been battling the negative press over the years, including recently restyling their ad campaigns to carry slogans like “He is lucky to have you.” While women have achieved a minor victory in this cosmetic war, what now of the men who are the new targets. Who will have them?

Asha Divakaran is a guest writer for The Brownbag Magazine.

Got a rebuttal? Email the editor! noel@brownscapeprod.com