Exposing the unfairness in fairness ads

How often have you switched on your television set to find a fairness cream commercial playing? Almost every cosmetic product offers the guarantee or possibility to its users of growing fair. Most people simply shove these advertisements as any other company hankering for publicity and money. What we miss out on by neglecting these commercials is the inherent flawed nature that they seem to propagate. Have you ever wondered what the flip side of promoting fairness is? Have you ever questioned why one should even aspire to be fair? What is so catastrophically wrong with one’s natural self?

Such ad campaigns are able to mask their hypocrisy by virtue of their popularity. But why are they so popular? Simply because people desire to be fair-skinned. And why is that? Well, beauty is fairness in the conventional sense. And this is precisely where we go wrong. Racial inequality has been a primarily agony-inducing issue, as is the case with all kinds of inequalities, the world has been grappling with. When being fair is encouraged in such a massy manner, it inevitably has to raise concerns about the definition of terms such as beauty. Are all white people necessarily beautiful? Is beauty restricted to being the racially superior? Are other races not fit to be called beautiful?

Now the history of this debate dates back to the colonial period when the European powers labeled the blacks as uncivilized, uncouth and brash beings to be forever engaged in manual labour. The colonial discourse deployed to colonize their minds was race. By placing the whites on a pedestal and degrading the Africans the colonial regime flourished and consequently the notion of beauty came under scrutiny.

So what is the real message that these fairness commercials are sending out? In simple terms, they are saying “It’s good to be fair. It’s what you must be. You are beautiful if you are fair. Being dark-skinned is ugly.” How hypocritical can you get? What they are actually doing is overtly suppressing the already oppressed! Why does a lady need to become fair in order to get the man of her dreams or to land a job she always wanted or to just be confident?

The intense politics of the ad does not end here. It highlights the existing insecurities of women who simply do not feel comfortable in their own skin. But the blame shifts to the society which views beauty in highly limited terms. Moreover, even if one is using these beauty products, they must comprehend the fact that it is artificial! It is something that is not your own. Its effect will wear off as soon as its consumption is stopped. It is fake simply because it’s not who you are. What is the need to go such lengths in order to achieve what you think beauty enables you to? There is nothing that cannot be accomplished if you are not within the bounds of conventional beauty.

Never allow the society to pass comments on your physicality. Be true to who you are. Beauty is not a commodity, it is a virtue.

• About the Author

About Manleen Bawa

It is a very daunting task for me to describe myself. I feel that there isn’t any one particular kind of thing that can truly define me. So, I am the kind of person who will very blatantly speak her mind, shoving away all signs of coming across as rude. I am also the kind who might tell you that you look quite pretty today just because I know how good that will make you feel about yourself. I am the kind of person who will often lose herself in the beauty of a book while completely oblivious to the world around me. I am also the kind of person who will try to devote as much time to others (people I love and care about) as I possibly can. What makes us human are our complexities. So, rather than being a strict prototype of a certain way of life, be complex. Be human.