The blacker the berry

Posted on by

Turnabout’s fair play: Now the Indian cosmetics industry is targeting mattar-sexuals with a skin lightener for men.

The advert for the male cream shows a dark-skinned college boy relegated to the back seat and ignored by the girls until he uses the product. Soon enough, his complexion lightens and girls flock to him like moths to a flame…

Until now, skin-lightening creams have been aimed almost exclusively at women. This is the first launched nationally for men… Called Fair and Handsome, the advertisement for the product gives the message: be fair or remain in dark oblivion…

“A look at the matrimonial section… there’s not one guy who admits to being dark and attractive, they just say we are wheatish and fair. So there is just not one dark-skinned person in this country, they are all rolling wheat fields of masculinity.” [Link]

<

p>Naomi Wolf penned an interesting polemic on this subject in The Beauty Myth. She says many cosmetics companies fund women’s mags which are largely designed to make girls feel insecure about their looks. The industry appropriates the sheen of science (white lab coats in department stores, medicalized vocabulary like ‘invisible damage to your skin’) when many of them are really peddling snake oil. The more successful they are at creating a culture of hypochondria and medicalized insecurity, the more product they move.

<

p>Many industries besides cosmetics use fear in advertising. However, it’s far more damaging when it hits women’s self-confidence instead of something more neutral like their feelings about, say, consumer appliances.

<

p>

<

p>In India, there’s a big class divide between those tanned from being out in the sun all day vs. those who work indoors. That’s in addition to the obvious association between caste and intrinsic skin shade.

In contrast, in the U.S., tan once again became a wealth marker after agriculture was mechanized. And dark skin has historically been associated with masculinity in the U.S. because of the eroticization of African slaves.

Besides, why mess with the perfection of a fellow mutineer?

‘Ladies, allow me to introduce myself’

Related posts: Bollywood delusions; Fair = Lovely and Bitiya meri gori gori by Vikrum Sequeira

220 thoughts on “The blacker the berry”

  1. fuerza,

    why not go all the way black?

    all,

    interesting that in 100 comments this thread hasn’t brought up desi/black relationships. (if it did, my bad. it’s a long-ass thread).

    and, i can’t be arsed to search, but has there been a conversation here in recent weeks or months on that topic? i’d love to have it.

    o admins, i humbly beseech you.

    peace

  2. colorism in the desi community is a problem even among those who are liberal/enlightened

    i’ll let it slip i’m on the fair side and yeah, i’m anti-colorism like a mofo. colorism is a pretty bad thing

    we should like who we are. everyone should, no matter what their ethnicity

    i agree, brown-skin lady is a pretty good song

    sometimes i listen to that song and it makes me feel so good. instead of trying to pass, we should help each other create feelings like that song. create art, music, literature, just talk with each other in a way that makes us feel good to be who we are

  4. Siddhartha M, my friend:

    I have already, as you suggested, “gone all the way black”. The topic was specifically discussing South Asian men, so that’s what I limited my comment to. I guess I should have specified that my comments were generally based on experiences within the South Asian community but also applied to experiences with friends and acquaintances from other ethnic backgrounds. The same issues with standards of beauty based on how dark/light someone’s skin is exist in the African-American and Latino-American communities as well.

    Not looking to faith and other things, if we’re speaking strictly superficially, I don’t discriminate, I regulate every shade of that @$$.

  5. in general i don’t think that just because a woman makes a comment about relationships does not mean we can ask her what her standards for relationships are. it just leads to a double standard by which we (as men) become too invested in the choices women are making, when its not our business in the first place. if a woman wants to be against or for anything, maybe lets not go the next step and ask her what that means in terms of who is prefers to have relationships with

    also, i just don’t want to be knowing where anyone has “gone”…it just ain’t my business and i’d like to just not know!

  6. don’t discriminate, I regulate every shade of that @$$.

    Gee Golly! I mean Oochie Wally!

  8. I mean, I think I’m a cutie

    I assume it must be based on certain attributes?

    but I found something seriously disturbing in the aunties thinking that my fair skin was what made me attractive.

    Okay, so the aunties believe one of the attribute is skin color.

    I don’t see what’s the difference. Attractiveness must be based on something. Skin color happens to be one of them. Different people assign different weights to different attributes, molded by cultural/sociological expectations.

    It is just that the aunties are perhaps less of a hypocrite than we are.

  9. interesting that in 100 comments this thread hasn’t brought up desi/black relationships.

    Besharam badmash! That sort of Mississippi Masala thing does not happen to children who were brought up in good households! It is only those who are confused or watch too many movies or televisions!

  10. hey now, isn’t there is a difference between brownland and american browns on this topic??? i knew a girl who blackened herself regularly by playing field hockey and tanning just to spite her old-skool mamma. it was her “shit filter” for dumbass brown dudes who cared about color…i’m just saying, the older generations might preoccupy with color, but i don’t necessarily think that people in american generation brown are hypocritical, i to to some extent it really does seem kind of ridiculous to make distinctions based on brown shades when you see pale shit like this walking around.

  11. fuerza,

    i hear you, and i am 100% in support of both your theory and your method. i’m an every-shader too. (or i was before i retired from the game. but one can still appreciate.)

    i’m just trying to throw a little something into the mix. i’d like to see a black/desi relationship thread here, and am humbly suggesting our fearless leaders find an excuse to start one.

    peace

  12. although to be fair, that chick dated all sorts, black to white. so mebee brown americans dude make distinctions, i don’t know. anything between milanese and mbuti is the same to me. if it ain’t flax….

  13. Fuerza Dulce: Wow, I can’t believe those girls are being force fed so they will be fat. I guess the same amount of pain happens here in the states when people starve themselves.

    argus_nj: Skin color is a huge attribute, aunties are definately conscious about it where as I feel 2nd gen desi are more subconscious about it

  14. It is just that the aunties are perhaps less of a hypocrite than we are.

    said the fatalist in his ivory tower. Yeah, they’re being true to their low-brow cultural expectations. Who can blame them? How often do you have to sanitize your detachment argus_nj?

  15. in my experience american browns have their own reasons for liking fair skin, those that do. its a mix between old school indian and new school american factors

  16. Different people have different tastes and different things that they find attractive. No problem. But when an aunty looks to someone like me and says, “well at least she’s fair” – they’re basically saying that I am, or whoever they’re talking about is, otherwise unattractive and my fair skin is my one “saving grace”. They’re discounting any other pros, or cons, for that matter, that a person might have. Someone in an earlier post put up all different kinds of combinations that we’re classified as – short, slim, fair, for ex. What I’ve personally seen is that fairness tends to be the trump card. I still find it disturbing.

  17. razib,

    flax needs love too.

    ennis,

    that’s what i’m talking about! 🙂

    i’m reminded of a story. we used to live in france when i was growing up. my grandmother visited from calcutta, and rode the metro. there was an african brother sitting near her, and she was mesmerized and nervous. finally she turned to us and whispered “boro boro haath!” (big big hands!)

    i attended a black/desi wedding in an orange county backyard some years ago, it was priceless.

    peace

  18. What I’ve personally seen is that fairness tends to be the trump card.

    … Among the aunties. And they still believe in dowries, so how is it relevant to the 2nd gen?

  19. All this talk about “fairness” reminds me a of a friend whos parents tried to arrange him. One of thier criteria was fairness, and they obessed over it. What funny is my friend started dating some white girl and when his parents flipped, he said “At least she is very fair” hahaha.

    Funny, but interesting right? There must be an optimal level of fairness then right?

  20. flax needs love too.

    hey i represent.

    There must be an optimal level of fairness then right?

    someone whip about the modal american brown utility function please with various traits. i’m skeptical color will be a big component among american browns.

  21. “Brown Skin Lady” by Blackstar (Talib Kweli and Mos Def) is lyrically among the best verses dedicated to darker-skinned women.
    i agree, brown-skin lady is a pretty good song

    Lets not forget Ms. India.Aire’s ode to brown skin:

    Brown skin, you know I love your brown skin I cant tell where yours begins, I cant tell where mine ends Brown skin, up against my brown skin…

  22. razib,

    i’m not so sure that among american browns color is not important

    for example if you look at the woman desi guys really go crazy for, a lot of times that woman is pretty fair-skinned

  23. … Among the aunties. And they still believe in dowries, so how is it relevant to the 2nd gen?

    Even though it may not be a part of my specific belief system or yours, those aunties are still a part of a community that many of us still have some sort of connection with. Some of those aunties are just aunties and some of those aunties are our mummies. We still end up coming across those viewpoints, and it doesn’t hurt to discuss them and try to understand them, if nothing else, so we know how to combat them if we so wish.

  24. to bridge backwards, off Ovaltine’s comment:

    a dear friend always dated non-desi girls, much to auntie & uncle’s dismay. When he did settle down to get lowe-married it was with a desi girl, but she was desi in ethnicity and not so much of the “seedhi homely” variety. (smoked, drank, didn’t study B-com, dropped out of college, etc)And he told his parents, “hey, at least she’s Indian…” 😉

  25. Hmm, so ‘craftily letting it slip’ that you are fair is somehow a negative thing, while letting slip that you are not fair (in this dumb fair-non-fair spectrum) is amusing to some, eh? How do you know being fair as designated by some old-skool type is such a dominant and wonderful experience, eh? I’m fair by old-skool Indian standards, and as a kid, I hated it. Old aunties (not my parents, who are cool about that thing and don’t care and raised me the same way) would mention it, but to my American friends I was plenty brown. So, growing up in the 70/80s in the midwest I got it both ways – brown around the whites, not-too brown around the browns. I have thin, fine hair that breaks easily and I wear it short. I used to crave the thick, dark, long hair I saw on most other desi girls I knew. I always felt uncomfortable about my looks – I didn’t think I looked ‘right’ in either the dominant or minority culture. I’m older and hopefully more mature, but it’s odd that it still hurts to hear comments like that 🙂

    It happened again yesterday, like it always happens. Someone asks me my name, I tell it, and they say: you don’t look Indian. I have never not gotten this comment from non-desis (my grammar stinks, deal with it). I know they don’t mean anything by it, but I get tired of constantly explaining – there are a wide variety of ‘types’ from India, etc, etc.

    And the real news is this: more than 100 comments and nothing about Vinod’s pictures? I’m disappointed. Cicatrix or ANNA post a picture and it’s non-stop objectification. Get moving, ladies.

  30. More crucial lyrics:

    Watch these rap niggaz get all up in your guts French-vanilla, butter-pecan, chocolate-deluxe Even caramel sundaes is gettin touched And scooped in my ice cream truck, Wu tears it up (…) One love to my chocolate deluxes, keep your nails done and your wigs tight, word up One love to my butter-pecan Ricans for calling me papi That’s for real One love to caramel sundaes, with the cherries on top Yeah And big up to my french vanillas

    Raekwon, “Ice Cream,” off the classic “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx” album.

    peace

  31. Haven’t studies shown that facial and structural symmetry is what people are attracted to, rather than skin color?

    Mom: You have put some weight on, it doesn’t look good.

    3 months later after beer gut melts away.

    Mom: Your sister and aunt say you’ve become darker, it doesn’t look good.

    GujuDude: First you tell me to lose weight, so I started working out on the beach. So I got a little more tan.

    Mom: Start working out indoors.

    GujuDude: I like doing beach bootcamp workouts, it’s very effective.

    Mom: But you are darker now.

    GujuDude: I can’t win.

  32. And the real news is this: more than 100 comments and nothing about Vinod’s pictures? I’m disappointed. Cicatrix or ANNA post a picture and it’s non-stop objectification. Get moving, ladies.

    IÂ’ll break the ice and get it startedÂ…I think thatÂ’s a great oh-so-proper-but-with-undertones-of-edginess picture. Where can I get me some of that!

  33. siddhartha m

    As a woman, these sorts of lyrics always make me uncomfortable. Oh, I’m fine with it, and there’s nothing wrong with expressing feelings this way. It is colorful, and even poetic. But somehow, I just can’t get my mind around it. I still feel uncomfortable. But I can barely read Henry Miller, so I guess I’m just prudish.

  34. oh, and by colorful, of course, I mean the language is colorful! I give up 🙂 When the culture politicizes everything, nothing feels natural, anymore….

  36. md,

    sure, it’s only one of the various seduction models out there, and perhaps not the most elegant (or sound from a gender perspective). it’s not what i’d say if i were trying to get with you.

    (btw, i still owe you a reply on that other note. i’ve been crunched w/ deadlines and distracted, but i’ve not forgotten.)

    but i’m posting it as further text about the appreciation, or otherwise, of different skin tones.

    peace

  37. I officially protest the ugly stereotyping of “aunties” on this site as fat, shrill, overbearing backward-thinking yentas. Did you all grow up in one of those groan-inducing 3rd rate “desi” flicks? For shame!

  40. Ms Fuerza Dulce,

    But when an aunty looks to someone like me and says, “well at least she’s fair” – they’re basically saying that I am, or whoever they’re talking about is, otherwise unattractive and my fair skin is my one “saving grace”.

    Let’s take another example – a darkish brown woman with average facial features but with a killer body. Now, a lot of american dude’s here would find her attractive. So, her killer figure becomes a savings grace too. That’s precisely my point – different people attach different weights to the various atributes of attractiveness. But none of them is any more despicable than the other.

    I think among american browns, the anti-colorism sentiments stem from a rejection of racism. People from brownland do not have to appear PC as they do not have the danger of appearing racist since racism against blacks is not a prominent topic in India.

    There are a lot of things the brown aunties are prejudiced about which is questionable but I will give them some latitude for preference for fair skin.

    There are some other dudes that made some insinuations. I will address them later.

  41. Also…The following is from this article.

    Health Concerns Over Lightening Grow The awareness that whitening products can damage the skin is growing…. Even Gupta, a steadfast bleacher for over 15 years, admits the danger. “Two years back it was quite popular,” she said. “But now I think they’re focusing on less bleaching. It could harm the skin if it’s strong.” Battling for Public Opinion Betting that the fairness craze in India will continue, American and European companies are fighting for their market share. Popular western brands Avon, L’Oreal, Lancome, Yves Saint-Laurent, Clinique, Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder, and Revlon, offer whitening products.

    As for what Manish noted:

    What I’ve personally seen is that fairness tends to be the trump card. … Among the aunties. And they still believe in dowries, so how is it relevant to the 2nd gen?

    True. It generally gets a shrug or eye-roll from the second gen women that I know, including myself. But its certainly still there, and not just among the aunty set. When we were in grade 1 we used to put our hands together and order ourselves according to lightness…its in our heads even as kids.

    Also, just wanted to mention that Europe (esp. historically) is still a site of ‘fairness’ cultural obsession; The most striking example of this cultural obsession being the porcelain skinned Snow White and her ‘evil stepmother’ obsessed with “who’s the fairest of them all”.

    Also,there’s this book: Fair Women, Dark Men: The Forgotten Roots of Racial Prejudice

    I’ve yet to read it and I’m weary about the biological predisposition part of the analysis…but this part of it looks interesting: In Fair Women, Dark Men, Peter Frost presents the evidence that there has been a cultural preference in virtually all human societies for fair complexions, especially in women, long before black slavery, European colonialism , and what we now call “color prejudice.”

    Hmmm.

  42. There you go again, Fuerza. I speak for the voiceless. I will soon pen an unironic ode to all unfairly maligned aunties out there…It will feature not only the freshest lyrics but also the choicest beats (and not MIA-type CollecoVision junior varsity beats). Keep ya’ head up ladiez..this one’s going out to you!

  44. Sigh, I’ve always found dark-skinned Southie girls attractive. And Chinese girls too.

    Unfortunately, my short hairy balding (and…um…wheatish) Bong physique is quite unhelpful.

    I shall continue crying into my pillow :'(

  45. I’m fair by old-skool Indian standards,

    An example of a crafty splip.

    and as a kid, I hated it

    I believe you but I don’t have to.

  46. Who said fat and shrill? And yentas can be fun too. Except when they’re telling you not to play sports outside so you don’t get dark.

    Sirc:

    I was joking. I love the aunties, and the aunties love me. But that doesn’t mean that we all have to agree with each other all the time. The fair skin thing is something me and the aunties always butt heads on.

  48. How to get 100+ comments on SM in under 24 hours:

    1. Start with a brown complexion related topic
    2. Go on a highly entertaining tangent about hairiness, wheatish tones, and big booties
    3. Throw in some rap lyrics
    4. Compare aunties to yentas

    Maybe add some choice pics of SM bloggers. Then go back to (1) and repeat.

    140+ posts and counting… (to the tune of NWA’s ‘100 Miles and Running’)

  49. argus_nj I

    t’s not a crafty slip if it’s the whole point of a comment. I’m sorry, but are we supposed to be honest here, or not? Or were you there in small town Iowa in the 70s and 80s with me to know what it was like?

    Never mind. I have to take one of my periodic breaks from Sepia Mutiny now. Thanks for being so understanding.

  50. Haven’t studies shown that facial and structural symmetry is what people are attracted to, rather than skin color?

    Gujudude- i have heard this comment before, and am genuinely curious about this thing they call facial symmetry. i havent found anyone whose face was assymetric- unless you mean symm. along the x-axis too- which would make laloo a sex god? can you point me to the study, wld like to know if they take other things into account.thanks!