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Fair skin is an obsession. How about being unfair? Let's welcome the beauty of 'mocha' skin, as the author puts it and let's witness a new dimension to beauty.
Fair skin is an obsession. How about being unfair? Let’s welcome the beauty of ‘mocha’ skin, as the author puts it and let’s witness a new dimension to beauty.
‘Oh, your children haven’t turned out like you, have they?’ a common remark I have heard over the years on each of our annual trips to India with my mother.
My mother, a pale woman, white as milk and a hairless body. Days when opulent silk sarees would adorn her hairless body, the pale glimpse of her porcelain waist was enough to make anyone envious. And for the longest time, even me, her only daughter.
My father is a chocolate contrast to her. A very handsome couple they made, like vanilla-chocolate swirl ice-cream. Of course, it was no surprise and hardly a botheration to them that their daughter and son took shades of their father. However, society didn’t let us feel comfortable with that.
While my parents said “Alhamdulilah, we are blessed with healthy children”, everyone else would crowd around us and croon, “ So dark, like their father. May be the girl, when she grows up, will become fair.”
May be not. And that’s exactly what happened.
Imagine being constantly compared with your mother and her evergreen beauty. We are two extremely different people, yet this difference was not welcomed politely. Growing up carefree in a vain world can hit your self-esteem like a tuning fork on a rubber pad. Always unsettled. You scrutinize the shade of your exposed arm to the parts covered by your school uniform.
Of course, I did what every tongue-clicking relative suggested in my teen years; drown myself in an ocean of lotions and whitening potions. I tried everything under the sun. Besan, lime juice, turmeric, tube creams and even bleached my tender skin. Could you blame me? Paranoia had seeped in from before I could even understand what fairness meant.
Thankfully, good sense prevailed soon after I turned 20. This crucial age where everyone was scurrying to get their skin lightened for prospects of suitors, I realized that being anything but myself was making me unhappy. Accepting myself for exactly the way I am meant that people would see me for who I was and trust me when I say, it felt very liberating. Most of this new found confidence came from knowing that as pretentious as the beauty industry was, a good amount of top models are actually women of colour. Naomi Campbell, Lisa Haydon, Padma Lakshmi, Ujjwala Raut, Lakshmi Menon and many more made it their identity. Breaking the ‘fair is beautiful’ barrier, furthermore, proving it completely unnecessary.
Now that I’ve established myself as ‘mocha’ since that is what my colleagues describe me as, you would think my scouting for my monthly beauty supplies would be easy, right? Wrong.
It completely slipped out of my mind that the spectrum of colours in foundations and concealers can be limited. I asked the lady to match me and she swatches me shades much lighter to what I am. I stare at the back of my hand thinking, is this hint being given or is it just the forced limitation in variety? When I look around it doesn’t surprise me to see an array of women with miss-matched foundation caked on their faces. The demand for paleness that had leaked into the beauty industry is no secret, but I didn’t realize that all my options had now been narrowed down for me. I ponder again, that what if I was a woman of an intense chocolate shade? Would I still be offered a shade of ‘true beige’ that would leave a white cast on my face or would I honestly be told “No ma’am, we don’t have anything that would suit you.” Either way, there’s no way of putting it nicely.
The sales representative tries her best to get me on board with this unnerving shade saying things like it’s long lasting, you’ll be glowing all day and what not. I smile meekly, decline and walk away. I don’t blame her, I assume scores of women have requested for this as a reference. However, it’s not for me.
For a while, I’ve been very proud of my mocha skin that now I eagerly await for opportunities to show it off a bit. I love how I can play with colours and enhance it further. That’s all I want! Something that will compliment me as I am, not completely alter it.
I know there are women out there, just like me who don’t want to change a thing about themselves. Don’t you think that once the variety offered to us is considerable genuine or a little more extensive, it could bring about a much needed slack in the paleness obsession? Aren’t we all beautiful?
Image of a woman via Shutterstock
A rebellious 20-something Indian girl living in the Middle East, documenting my experiences and observations growing up in a patriarchal society, hoping to strike a cord with women who have experienced similarly. Rabid reader, read more...
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People say that women are the greatest enemies of women. I vehemently disagree. It is the patriarchal mindset that makes women believe in the wrong ideology.
The entire world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024. It should be a joyful day, but unfortunately, not all women are entitled to this privilege, as violence against women is at its peak. The experience of oppression pushes many women to choose freedom. As far as patriotism is concerned, feminism is not a cup of tea in this society.
What happens when a woman decides to stand up for herself? Does this world easily accept the decisions of women in this society? What inspires them to be free of the clutches of the oppression that women have faced for ages? Most of the time, women do not get the chance to decide for themselves. Their lives are always at the mercy of someone, which can be their parents, siblings, husband, or children.
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14 years after her last feature film Dhobi Ghat, storyteller extraordinaire comes up with her new film, Laapataa Ladies, a must watch.
*Some spoilers alert*
Every religion around the world dictates terms to women. The onus is always on women to be ‘modest’ and cover their faces and bodies so men can’t be “tempted”, rather than on men to keep their eyes where they belong and behave like civilized beings. So much so that even rape has been excused on the grounds of women eating chowmein or ‘men will be men’. I think the best Hindi movie retort to this unwanted advice on ‘akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ (an alone woman is like an open jewellery box) came from Geet in Jab We Met – Kya aap gyan dene ke paise lete hain kyonki chillar nahin hain mere paas.
The premise of Laapataa Ladies is beautifully simple – two brides clad in the ghunghat that covers their identity get mixed up on a train. Within this Russian Doll, you get a comedy of errors, a story of getting lost, a commentary on patriarchy’s attitude towards women, a mystery, and a tale of finding oneself, all in one. Done with a mostly light touch that has you laughing and nodding along.
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