Why some Asians see whiter skin as better than brown....

[tinkerbell]

Beyond the pale?

The skin-lightening industry is worth at least £100m in India

By Naresh Puri
BBC News

One of Bollywood's biggest film stars is being criticised by Asian campaigners for promoting a skin-lightening cream - a product that is now on the shelves of British shops.
The 40-second advertisement from India starts like so many others promoting razors or hair dye - but it's an ad with a very big difference.
There's a man who has no luck with the girls. He has markedly darker skin than his friends and the girl he is after. In a real song-and-dance Bollywood extravaganza, one of the biggest heart throbs of Indian cinema, Shahrukh Khan, hands over a cream to the hapless chap, along with some mild admonishment.

Within a few weeks, the young man has turned much lighter-skinned and confident. As he strides down the road like a modern-day answer to John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, the girls start flocking to him and chanting: "Hi handsome, hi handsome." Khan comes back into view with the product, Fair and Handsome.
The skin-lightening cream for men, along with its more feminine counterparts, has found its way into Asian supermarkets and stores in the UK.
While Khan's advert has not been shown yet in the UK, it too has made its way to British consumers via YouTube. And the product's success or failure in the British market place may say something about the nature of beauty and the politics of race.
Kiran Kaur - a Sikh human rights activist in west London, one of the epicentres of Asian cultural life in the UK - says the arrival of Fair and Handsome, with a Bollywood name in tow, is a step back in time.
'Age-old prejudices'
"The ad simply reinforces the idea that you've got to be fair to be anything in life," says Kiran. "It says that if you're fair and good looking, you'll be a wonderful daughter-in-law or husband, your skin colour determines how successful you'll be in life. The ad reinforces age-old prejudices."
The skin-lightening industry is worth at least £100m in India and the Fair-and-Handsome-for-Men range is the latest product from one of the market's big players.







Skin colour and Asian dating


Manufacturers say they are responding to a demand, but in recent years protests in India have seen at least one advert taken off air. Other lightening products targeted at black women have been on sale for years, some of them containing chemicals banned for years from British goods.
Actress Rani Moorthy knows first hand about the prejudice suffered by Asians with darker skin. She is currently touring the UK with her play that focuses on skin colour, Shades of Brown.
"When I was a child my grandmother took me to one side and said make sure you're good at something, no man will ever marry you for your looks," she says.
"I knew this was because I was dark skinned. It was treated as a disease and every Friday I had to have oil baths in an attempt to lighten my skin".
'A huge star'
She feels a major Bollywood star backing a skin-lightening cream will intensify the prejudice that already exists within the South Asian community, in which the darker skinned can find themselves looked down upon - just as it still happens in parts of India today.
"Deep within this 5,000-year-old culture is the thought that high ideals, nobility and high caste are associated with fair skin," she says. "Dark skin is regarded as low status and low caste."







Should stars endorse such creams?

But what chance do voices like Rani's stand against the screen presence of Shahrukh Khan? Perhaps the best measure of Khan's influence on British Asians is to look at the success of his films.
Dil Se, released in 1998, was the first Bollywood movie to make it into the British box office Top 10.
The film's key clips, including an exhilarating dance upon a moving train, have totted up more than one million hits on YouTube. Khan, a big enough brand to be known just as SRK, is the equivalent of Tom Cruise - and then some.
His Fair-and-Handsome advert won't be missed by British Asians as they follow every Bollywood move, says Sunny Hundal, the editor of Asians in Media, a website that charts the rise of British Asian culture.
'Immoral'
"Shahrukh Khan is a huge star in India and his endorsement will no doubt raise the profile of this product," he says. "Impressionable young men will get the idea that if they want to be attractive like him, they should also use it."
"The cult of media personality, especially cricket or Bollywood stars, is a much bigger phenomena in India and so brands are much more partial to celebrity endorsements.
Khan is Bollywood's 'Tom Cruise'

"But what SRK is essentially doing is confirming and promoting the condescending attitude that many Indians have towards dark-coloured skin. His endorsement is completely immoral."
Neither the manufacturers nor a spokesman for Khan would comment on his involvement in the campaign.
But Manish Shah, a distributor for Fair and Handsome says skin lightening creams are very important because "everybody wants to look really good". "They're not bad for the skin," he says. "If people have an inferiority complex because of their skin colour, then this product will really help. It does what it says. It makes you fair and handsome. There's a lot of interest in this product and quite simply it makes people look really good."

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Beyond the pale?
_____________________

wth?

[lol_lol]

yeah people in pakistan and india are obsessed with light skin... whats new?

[Sea_of_Roses]

That sucks

It really shouldnt matter

[roberto]

Originally Posted by lol_lol

yeah people in pakistan and india are obsessed with light skin... whats new?

Whilst white honkies use sun beds, some people are never satisfied

[IbnMardhiyah]

Originally Posted by lol_lol

yeah people in pakistan and india are obsessed with light skin... whats new?

Just like white people in North America are obsessed with getting darker skin.

Its just about people being tired with what they have, and believing the grass to be greener on the other side.

[Sea_of_Roses]

I know some people who tan but others who shy from the sun....it depends, Italians like tans, Chinese dont (according to my knowledge). Im light skin and I try to stay away from the sun too but mainly because it makes me red

[shsh]

when i was lil, i was really dark. when we were in pakistan, my mom's uncle always used to be like, "fair and lovely chahiyain?"

and then, when we went back to UAE, he used to call me up and be like, "fair and lovely lagayi?"


stupid strereotypes. being fair isnt necessarily beauty.

[Variable]

So does one just put that stuff on their face? Or is it an all-body kind of thing? I can see some pretty hilarious sort of 'reverse tan lines' going on.

[lol_lol]

Originally Posted by Variable

So does one just put that stuff on their face? Or is it an all-body kind of thing? I can see some pretty hilarious sort of 'reverse tan lines' going on.

when i was in pakistan alot of people use skin lightening creams and cause some people only use it on there face it looks odd as thre neck, arm, hands and ears look darker than there face.

[Variable]

Originally Posted by lol_lol

when i was in pakistan alot of people use skin lightening creams and cause some people only use it on there face it looks odd as thre neck, arm, hands and ears look darker than there face.

nahahah. That's like people here who use that fake tanning stuff turns them orange if they put it on un-evenly.

[shsh]

Originally Posted by Variable

nahahah. That's like people here who use that fake tanning stuff turns them orange if they put it on un-evenly.

exactly...people are weird.

[Aryan_]

Is wanting a tan racist?

Originally Posted by Sea_of_Roses

it depends, Italians like tans,

The ones in Italy don't

[albano]

In every race men can be handsome and women pretty
No matter what comor they ar. It's just obsession.

[GOTFIVEONIT]

i saw this news item tonite in bbc news. im putting a link from youtube of the actual tv commercial that you can view yourself. its absolutly racist and disgusting.

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Beyond the pale?

YouTube - Bollywood Superstar with Men's Fairness Cream





Bollywood Actor Shah Rukh Khan and actor in a Television Ad - The skin-lightening industry is worth at least £100m ($202 Million) in India





Men having face lightening cream applied



Skin Lightening Products



Khan is Bollywood's 'Tom Cruise'

Last Updated: Tuesday, 25 September 2007, 10:37 GMT 11:37 UK

Beyond the pale?

By Naresh Puri
BBC News

One of Bollywood's biggest film stars is being criticised by South Asian campaigners for promoting a skin-lightening cream - a product that is now on the shelves of British shops.

The 40-second advertisement from India starts like so many others promoting razors or hair dye - but it's an ad with a very big difference.

There's a man who has no luck with the girls. He has markedly darker skin than his friends and the girl he is after. In a real song-and-dance Bollywood extravaganza, one of the biggest heart throbs of Indian cinema, Shahrukh Khan, hands over a cream to the hapless chap, along with some mild admonishment.

Within a few weeks, the young man has turned much lighter-skinned and confident. As he strides down the road like a modern-day answer to John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, the girls start flocking to him and chanting: "Hi handsome, hi handsome." Khan comes back into view with the product, 'Fair and Handsome'.

The skin-lightening cream for men, along with its more feminine counterparts, has found its way into Asian supermarkets and stores in the UK.

While Khan's advert has not been shown yet in the UK, it too has made its way to British consumers via YouTube. And the product's success or failure in the British market place may say something about the nature of beauty and the politics of race.

Kiran Kaur - a Sikh human rights activist in west London, one of the epicentres of South Asian cultural life in the UK - says the arrival of Fair and Handsome, with a Bollywood name in tow, is a step back in time.

'Age-old prejudices'

"The ad simply reinforces the idea that you've got to be fair (light-skin) to be anything in life," says Kiran. "It says that if you're fair (light-skin) and good looking, you'll be a wonderful daughter-in-law or husband, your skin colour determines how successful you'll be in life. The ad reinforces age-old prejudices."

The skin-lightening industry is worth at least £100m ($202 Million) in India and the 'Fair-and-Handsome-for-Men' range is the latest product from one of the market's big players.

Manufacturers say they are responding to a demand, but in recent years protests in India have seen at least one advert taken off air. Other lightening products targeted at black women have been on sale for years, some of them containing chemicals banned for years from British goods.

Actress Rani Moorthy knows first hand about the prejudice suffered by South Asians with darker skin. She is currently touring the UK with her play that focuses on skin colour, Shades of Brown.

"When I was a child my grandmother took me to one side and said make sure you're good at something, no man will ever marry you for your looks," she says.

"I knew this was because I was dark skinned. It was treated as a disease and every Friday I had to have oil baths in an attempt to lighten my skin".

'A huge star'

She feels a major Bollywood star backing a skin-lightening cream will intensify the prejudice that already exists within the South Asian community, in which the darker skinned can find themselves looked down upon - just as it still happens in parts of India today.

"Deep within this 5,000-year-old culture is the thought that high ideals, nobility and high caste are associated with fair skin (light-skin)," she says. "Dark skin is regarded as low status and low caste."

But what chance do voices like Rani's stand against the screen presence of Shahrukh Khan? Perhaps the best measure of Khan's influence on British South Asians is to look at the success of his films.

Dil Se, released in 1998, was the first Bollywood movie to make it into the British box office Top 10.

The film's key clips, including an exhilarating dance upon a moving train, have totted up more than one million hits on YouTube. Khan, a big enough brand to be known just as SRK, is the equivalent of Tom Cruise - and then some.

His 'Fair-and-Handsome' advertisement won't be missed by British South Asians as they follow every Bollywood move, says Sunny Hundal, the editor of South Asians in Media, a website that charts the rise of British South Asian culture.

'Immoral'

"Shahrukh Khan is a huge star in India and his endorsement will no doubt raise the profile of this product," he says. "Impressionable young men will get the idea that if they want to be attractive like him, they should also use it."

"The cult of media personality, especially cricket or Bollywood stars, is a much bigger phenomena in India and so brands are much more partial to celebrity endorsements.

"But what SRK is essentially doing is confirming and promoting the condescending attitude that many Indians have towards dark-coloured skin. His endorsement is completely immoral."

Neither the manufacturers nor a spokesman for Khan would comment on his involvement in the campaign.

But Manish Shah, a distributor for 'Fair and Handsome' says skin lightening creams are very important because "everybody wants to look really good".

"They're not bad for the skin," he says. "If people have an inferiority complex because of their skin colour, then this product will really help. It does what it says. It makes you fair and handsome. There's a lot of interest in this product and quite simply it makes people look really good."

[zakk]

mmm. I have people tell me I shouldn't let my daughter play outside because she's getting dark. I'd rather have an athletic, healthy daughter than a fair one.

I caught her trying to make herself lighter last year by putting baby powder on her face. So we had a little talk about all the different colored beautiful people. And how it doesn't really matter what color you are.