Comments on: Why do we obsess over fair skin?

By: Robredo

Robredo — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:26:47 +0000

So if we have South Indians in India and they are discriminated against or ridiculed, what about this:

Indians = stupid South Asians

LOL!

By: Robredo

Robredo — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:24:36 +0000

Bipasha, Malaika Arora, Priyanka Chopra, Malika, Rakhi Sawant as item girls…

Amrita Arora, Madhuri, Sridevi, Aishwarya (once) as very nice & homely actresses …

I think these Indians should be taught a lesson on how not be behave!

By: vlvl

vlvl — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:08:18 +0000

people with dark skin , be happy and enjoy yourselfs, i ve got a very fair skin and i m tanning it however i can.i cant understand what is so “beautiful” people talk about light skin, to me when i m not tanned i look as a ghoust.

By: Yumna

Yumna — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:26:49 +0000

I’m glad that you’re finding the discussions useful. The goal here is to get us thinking and discussing about these issues. Sometimes the problems become so embedded that we don’t even realize that there is something wrong. We just assume that’s the way things are, when they were not really that way to begin with.

By: bisma

bisma — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:10:18 +0000

yea dfntly there is a preference it always has been. And it might be the lack of education in our ppl or maybe our culture does not really contain the right rules or values when it comes to equality in terms of many things including fair skin over dark skin and men over women.I am with ur 8th post completely …the stereotype thing that light=innocent dark=evil.
but y is it that we wear black as we think it attracts…just occured to me.There r certain major problems part of our culture because we dont bother to think and always do as we r told.

And by the way i really like these discussions over here am 1st year student and this is kinda great guidance here.One can actually think that these problems do EXIST.Thank you.

By: Yumna

Yumna — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:14:45 +0000

Bisma: It is a matter of taste. But where did that taste come from? Culturally, the mindset is in favour of fair skin. Where did that preference come from? What are the origins of the preferential treatment given to people with fair skin?

By: bisma

bisma — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:03:32 +0000

in my opinion there r always 2 situations.

1.At first sight: i dont think skin colour can be attractive when one has no looks.I can always always like a dark guy with great looks its just the matter of one’s taste.

2.After spending time:u cant just be with beauty with no personality, but u can always be with personality with no FAIR SKIN.
i can hardly call it racism. it can be just a matter of taste.

By: Yumna

Yumna — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:50:08 +0000

Naseera: Dark skin is just as beautiful, you are right! The problem is though that the majority of people are so conditioned to automatically think that fair skin is an essential in beauty.

By: Yumna

Yumna — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:42:30 +0000

To answer (I’ll write more in a future post) the question that it is not only a south asian problem, look in the direction of the justification of slavery, colonization…it had a lot to do with skin colour & religion. The beginning of biology can be linked to the concept of race & racism. Biological explanations were used to justify the subordination of certain ‘races’.

But as a culture (south asian) why have we adopted these notions of fair skin being better than dark skin? why don’t we appreciate a beautiful dark skinned person, if we can appreciate a light skinned person without thinking?

By: Naseera Jaffer

Naseera Jaffer — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:34:26 +0000

I agree that fair skin is always so prominently
promoted. However, i have learnt, that its not the colour of your skin that gives you beauty, but its your feautres, that truly accentuate your beauty, and you may find that dark skin is just as radiant, and actually compliments some people quite well…