Via the News Tab, mutineer Dari points us at FT coverage of Shah Rukh Khan’s ad for Fair and Handsome skin cream –
Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood’s biggest star and corporate India’s most ubiquitous brand ambassador, is coming under pressure to abandon his controversial endorsement of a men’s skin-lightening cream.
Strong enough for a wheatish woman but made for a man…
Television commercials for Fair and Handsome, airing in August, show Mr Khan (or “SRK”) lauding a product that many see as entrenching discrimination based on skin colour by encouraging people to bleach themselves a lighter hue.
…Mr Khan urges a dark-complexioned and depressed-looking young man, struggling to attract female attention, to stop using skin-lightening products designed for women.
“Why are you secretly using a cream for girls?” Mr Khan asks. “Their skin is soft. Yours is rough and tough.” Several shades whiter and visibly more self-confident by the end of the 40-second commercial, the young man duly snares the girl of his dreams.
The commercial, of course, is up for all to see on YouTube –
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Now is it me or does the pseudo-blackfaced dude in the commercial remind anyone of the lead in that paragon of awful 80s movies, Soul Man?
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A few weeks of Fair & Handsome away from… Alex P Keaton? |
As with the rapidly-becoming-infamous 1000+ comments “Is Dating White Right?” post a few weeks ago, a topic like this is a veritable lightning rod… So, perhaps I should just step out of the way and let the bullets fly.
I will however, point mutineer’s at Manish’s nearly-as-infamous original post on Fair & Handsome from a few years ago. At 200+ comments, it was one of the most trafficked posts of its time. However, many of us remember it more for its, dare I say, eyebrow-raising concluding note. 
nah, people compliment me that “my face is so nice” cause im pale. but, i get knocked cause im short. oh well.
Every avalanche starts out as a small snowball…
And this is how it ends…
M. Nam
My experience tells me that complexion plays a bigger role in picking brides than it does in picking grooms, where education/employment seems to take precedence.
Also, in my mid-morning research into today’s matrimonials, I found my new pet-peeve:
Why would a divorcee be, or atleast admit to being, anything but innocent??
Skep Mod,
Innocent = No fault in matrimonial speak
oh yeah, what exactly does ‘wheatish’ entail?
me, i’m more the color of barley myself.
did anyone else notice the “american double strength peptides and jaDi bootee” (0:12) referred to as the distinguishing feature of this product? i didn’t know peptides had nationality! 😉
Runa,
Is the implication that a divorce is always someone’s fault?
You’re right, we should definitely all keep our mouths shut from now on. That’ll put an end to silly laws for sure!
My bet is that movies like Danny Boyle’s planned “Slum Dog Millionaire” will introduce a new set of more typically complexioned actors/actresses that would never get anything more than a cursory examination of headshot photos from brain dead Indian film producers/directors.
Just saying “wheatish” isn’t enough.
I myself am the color of golden 76.
just sayin.
hee. word to post #61
muralimannered on August 22, 2007 11:57 AM said:
Funny you mention that. There’s an extended sequence in Sivaji: The Boss, where an America-returned Rajni (whose signature phrase time time is ‘Cooool!’ — how lame!) is trying to woo a starlet young enough to be his great-granddaughter. She likes him s3kr1tly but cannot marry him for astrological reasons, so she says she can’t marry someone who is so dark.
Rajni then proceeds to undergo comically absurd ways of lightening his skin, including vats of Fair & Lovely, only to resort to a digitally lightened skin a few shots later. The starlet is touched that he went through so much for her and proceeds to tell him the real reason they can’t be together.
Oh, if only I too could get Rs. 16 crores (US$4m) for such drivel.
I looked for a YouTube clip but couldn’t find one :*(
SkepMod says:
My best guess is that innocent here means that the divorce was not her fault (whether by law or as perceived by society). For instance, by this measure, I expect Aniston would be seen the ‘innocent’ one in the Aniston-Pitt split, seeing as how Brad hooked up with Angelina fairly soon after.
Other ways of becoming lighter: Dont step out in the Sun without cover. Stop drinking Indian tea. Dont eat any spicy food. Hang out with friends who are significantly darker so you look lighter.
I am never sure what I think about the complexion issue. There’s certainly a bias towards fair skin (both for guys and girls) in the dating game back in the desh, but I don’t see how you can police other people’s sexual preferences. What I dislike is the blatantly un-PC way in which these biases are expressed.
btw, anyone else here run across aunties dabbling in amateur eugenics (‘my son is too dark, I need a fair-complexioned girl for him.’).
one of my professors told me that people try to intimate with ‘innocent’ that the girl is still a virgin – i.e. sexually innocent. i don’t know that that is true, or that people even buy it, but this seems to be at least one meaning.
thanks for the tips ACfD – but for the chai, i’ll be trying everything else 😉
When asked (repeatedly)why Bollywood actors are so much lighter than most Indians, I usually ask if Hollywood actors are representative of Americans. Nope! The majority of Americans are not orangey-brown and anorexic, they are pale and fat.
One of the blogs that Manish’s post linked to:http://vsequeira.blogspot.com/2005/07/fair-lovely.html Replace all skin color comments with fatness comments, and it works in the U.S., no? Ex:
1- Jennifer Anniston, Paris Hilton, all those girls of MTV reality shows… not particularly attractive, but are thin and tan. Naturally, we throw lots of money at them.
well, american is used like a marketing catch line there. all sorts of vague stuff is marketed as american in india. guess that liek “foreign chic” same as french being cool in the US.
aww…thanks.
i love matrimonial speak. i speak it better than i speak english. next time some grl says she is “a blend of east and west values” and has spent her whole life in the east, or west i will say “im sorry. i prefer an amalgamation of east and west values. this just wont work.” I still havent figured out why eastern values are easter, and western values are western. if i analyse each value that is claimed is eastern, or westerm, it turns out that there is no historical or logical reason for that value to be assigned a point on the compas.
I think for a grl, pretty + light skin = golden. for a guy, money + height = golden. if either gender is missing one of its 2 key ingredients, its bye bye birdie for them in the marriage market.
s!eg h@il!
Several Telugu movies have Hindi/North Indian actresses, and just dub Telugu voice overs for them. The idea being that Telugu women are not fair enough, therefore not worthy of acting in movies for their own peeps.
Does the advent of F&H mean that pretty soon Telugu actors will also need to be replaced by Hindi/North Indian actors? In that case, they could just drop all of Tollywood and just dub every Bollywood movie…that would be even more cost effective!
“Mary gave birth to CHRIST without having known a man’s touch, that’s true. But she did have a husband. And do you really think he’d have stayed married to her all those years if he wasn’t getting laid? The nature of God and the Virgin Mary, those are leaps of faith. But to believe a married couple never got down? Well, that’s just plain gullibility. “
or…they could hire a bunch of italians. dub them in hindi, and everyone will be REALLY fair. (and besides, i have a weakness for the italians)
Isn’t the problem that there is a market for these types of creams and has been for absolutely years?
SRK is just endorsing a product that is considered by many in India as perfectly just like our US anti -wrinkle creams or anti cellulite crap and these lightening creams are all over Asia has even filtered to the UK etc.
im not sure it is a problem. people everywhere have body issues of some knid of another. there is therefore a demand for products to aleviate some of these issues and build confidence. if people want to buy them, and F+L wants to sell them, what the problem?
I always though these types of “whitening” creams had something in them (hydroquinone I think) that actually does whiten the skin, but with long term use it is a dangerous carcinogen.
Can anyone confirm this?
If that is the case then I think the levity of the discourse evaporates and it becomes a very serious matter of public health within our community.
Whats the problem with a skin lightning cream?? Just because its out there does not mean every man or woman has to go get it!!1 If someone is not happy with their skin color so be it….this is a great way for them to make themselves feel better about the way they look…..as far as no body is forcing them…i don’t see any issue with this. Its like saying oh my god there’s another weight loss pill coming out in USA…..gosh there is so much pressure to be thin…now I have to go get it! Every culture has stereotypical conceptions of beauty…..you do whatever makes you look and feel good
well…if it causes cancer, then the stuff should be banned. if not, who cares?
Puliogre, your idea of “really fair” is Italian? I’ve heard even fairer ethnicities exist, in the mysterious lands to the north.
but, its a bit easier for an itlaian to pass as a really fair desi. much harder for some sweedish dude.
Could it be because Italians are part-Scythian?
Though I personally think that tendency to equate fairness with beauty is loathsome, the civil libertarian in me agrees with the gist of Moornam’s comment (so condemn, but don’t force); also i don’t think it is quite accurate to equate these tendencies with “racism” or something like that. That would be distorting the cultural context in which these kinds of things happen. The more accurate american analogy would be things like breast augmentations, nose jobs , liposuctions etc. all of which are undertaken to try to conform to a certain ideal of beauty (that being said, these things sicken me too).
Umm..most of us understand there is no compulsion to purchase this.
Who again is calling for a ban ?
Obesisty is a racial characteristic ? You don’t see anything pathological about a whole nation of people wanting to change a primary racial characteristic, but many of us do. Vive la difference I guess
god, no…you didnt just say that.
Here’s an old one, would be appropriate here:
A black man walks into a cafe one early morning and noticed that he was the only black man there. As he sat down, he noticed a white man behind him.
The white man said, “Colored people are not allowed here.”
The black man turned around and stood up. He then said:
“When I was born I was black,” “When I grew up I was black,” “When I’m sick I’m black,” “When I go in the sun I’m black,” “When I’m cold I’m black,” “When I die I’ll be black.”
“But you sir…” “When you’re born you’re pink,” “When you’re sick, you’re green,” “When you go in the sun you turn red,” “When you’re cold you turn blue,” “And when you die you turn purple.” “And you have the nerve to call me colored!”
Yeah, they say ‘rangu vocchindhi’, but for the later one its mostly ‘nalla paddavu’.
I’ve heard that too, from my mother and aunts. There could be some truth to it. I became tad light skinned while living in Hyderabad, but gained back my dark skin while living in Scotland.
interesting. maybe your just a bit healthier without dust/pollution/6 kinds of the runs etc? because of that the color copes back to your skin?
Let’s put aside complexion. What’s an acceptable basis of beauty?
May have been because of more UV. Generally you don’t venture out much in India unless the temperature is cool enough. At northern latitudes you can wander out more often, catching more UV without much discomfort from heat or humidity.
Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder.
for a grl: symetetry. clear skin. healthy hair. good abs, good chest, tight bottom, defined legs, pleasant smile.
for a guy: tall, broad shoulders, muscular, in shape, good eyes, squarish jaw. (im not gy, so grls, or gy guys would need to chime in on this one).
Or maybe it just proves that Roman medical science was much advanced during the times of Mary and Joseph. 😉
I solved the ‘fairness problem’ by hiring 2 guys to train spotlights on me wherever I walk.
The problem is that I keep tripping on the extension cords. Life ain’t fair!
But everyone agrees on ugliness. Alfred E.
a lot of the studio pics on s.com have exactly that happening. the grl is standing in a blindling light. makes her look lighter.
The one thing that continues to surprise me about these “Fair and Lovely” discussions (both online and off), is how often it fails to place its arguments within an Indian context (Admittedly, I haven’t read all the comments above). From the last post,
As desis the world over know, skin color simply does not carry the same significance in India. While the above is indisputably true, it also plays itself out in very different ways than one might imagine. There is always the argument that discusses India-as-colonized land that doesn’t realize it’s internalized-self-hatred perpetuated by the evil British. I am personally bored to death of this line of argument. It’s old, tired, not to mention nauseatingly condescending. I would love to hear more Fair-and-Lovely controversies that are placed squarely in India. Skin color is first and foremost, a cosmetic concern for the vast majority. But maybe I am wrong. Maybe it is simply so, for the vast majority of the Indians I know.
I think it means the pink tones that are more visible with lighter skin. Tho a few fair-skinned Indians (including myself) have to slather on blush and tan shades because they look really pale without it.
im not gy, so grls, or gy guys would need to chime in on this one
any reason you censured the word gay?
am i the only guy that doesnt find makeup attractive?
not sure if the word somehow gets picked out of corporate filters.
“My bet is that movies like Danny Boyle’s planned “Slum Dog Millionaire” “
This guy is good. Millions was fantastic.