Image courtesy of Jezebel.com

Scenario 1: A friend of mine called me out of frustration last week. He owns a South Asian bridal boutique. Shopping season for South Asian brides takes place now for weddings that will happen in the summer of 2017 and beyond. He told me that too many times he sees the following scene unfold:

Glowing brides-to-be peruse through racks of hand embroidered wedding sarees and lenghas, their eyes light up as they envision walking into the reception hall as Mr and Mrs for the first time. As these future brides pick out their colour and hold the outfits against their bodies, the bride's Indian friend, sister, cousin, mother or mother-in-law would comment with; "are you sure about that colour, it'll make you look dark." These soon-to-be brides now become half hearted and are back to square one.

Scenario 2: In the documentary Shadeism, we are introduced to a four year old Tamil girl who already feels the need not to be dark. She recognizes that society perceives light skin as beautiful and dark as the opposite. The little girl admits she doesn't like her skin colour because it's brown and she needs to become white.

Scenario 3: I lived in Shanghai a decade ago, I clearly remember the day I went into a pharmacy looking for over-the-counter drugs to nurse my hangover. The second I walked in, two sales associates approached me and assumed I was looking for a skin whitening mask. Before I could respond, they proceeded to point me to the aisle where I would find it. It's not only a South Asian issue; it's a Chinese, Latin America, African and Caribbean one.

This post could go in many directions, however I want to explore the issue of shadeism and India's fetish with fairness.

Shadeism is the discrimination that exists between the lighter-skinned and darker-skinned members of the same community. Lighter skin tones are considered more beautiful, desirable and are rank higher within the community.

India is obsessed with skin colour. India's skin bleaching business racks in over 450 million a year! Fair & Lovely, a skin whitening brand that launched in the seventies is still one of the more profitable brands under Unilever's portfolio. In fact, it's the largest skin whitening cream in the world.

Skin whitening creams have always been marketed towards women. According to India Ink by The New York Times "India has 37 million more men than women," and they too want in on this fairness craze.

Not only are men jumping on the bleaching bandwagon, so are other beauty product giants like Garnier, Neutrogena, L'Oreal, even Vaseline got in on the action, launching a skin whitening app on Facebook in India. The app promotes whitening Facebook profile pictures to boost men's dating life. "A poll of nearly 12,000 people by online dating site Shaadi.com, revealed that skin tone was considered the most important criteria when choosing a partner in three northern Indian states." (Anna North, jezebel.com)

Image courtesy of democraticunderground.com

The most outrageous example of skin bleaching comes from the company Clean and Dry. This commercial supports bleaching a brown skinned vagina, so her lover will find her attractive and will have sex with her.