Fairness Madness

It all started with "Fair and Lovely" over two decades back and today there is a whole plethora of fairness products for men and women alike. More and more brands are emerging with their range of fairness creams, face washes, scrubs and what not. Each day we see fair an models, Indian and foreigners, complaining about their complexion and then picking one of these products to get fairer and thus successful.

But, is this really fair? Discrimination against the not so fair beings of the human race, dusky models being shown using fairness products on-screen or a fair girl aspiring to get fairer to win the man of her dreams, is it really fair?

I watched plenty of "Fair and Lovely" advertisements during my growing years and was always under the impression that the target audience of these products is the not so well educated class which considers fairness as the only parameter of judging beauty.

It’s an eye-opener to see that the ad-break slots of television channels today are flooded with advertisements of fairness products. These products have caught hold of the psychology of us Indians. It is the inferiority complex of the Indian masses which draws them to buy these fairness products. Why else would such racist products sell like hot cakes in this country?

Why can’t a dusky or dark complexioned girl get a man of her dreams? Why can’t a dusky guy become and actor or model? It is your capability, hard-work and confidence guys, which leads you to success. No fairness product can help you achieve those.

All that these products are achieving is a whole generation of boys and girls who are more conscious about their appearance (read fairness) than their report-cards or mark-sheets. And the best part, the consumers of fairness products are already fair, they just don’t think it’s enough.

You can look good irrespective of your complexion, brand of clothes or shoes and other items that are considered the parameter of good appearance if you are neat and confident about your capabilities. 30 minutes of yoga or meditation would do you better than wasting infinite amount of resources to get fairer.