Every morning I see one gora nikhaar advertisement..some product gives 7 layers of improvement .Nowadays this gora nikhar promise has come down to days and that too on a scale of 1-10.
The color has a big connotation here.
“We live in a country where skin color is used as the parameter to judge beauty”
The other day I was watching one radio fm activity of helping someone which showed our thinking in helping someone also based on the color of the person. ( Baisedness in helping owing to color) . What society are we building…the moment we see one pretty girl the society comes to help..the side changes once we see the other color..that’s the reason marketers have been able to build big brands
GORA NIKHAAR Is like GORA BUKHAAR amongst the beauty conscious or beaty craving women of our country
Matrimony advertisements usually have this particular line:
Looking for a slim and fair girl for our son” – the emphasis is on the word “fair”. Does I reflect our obsession with skin color .
So our markets are loaded with fairness creams that promises to turn your complexion fair which has led to creation of one the biggest categories into beauty and cosmetics space.
“An Obsessions well capitalized churning revenues for the companies”
We Indians have equated fair skin with beauty, confidence, success and happiness.
That is why this craze for white skin has been aggressively marketed. If you have white skin you are shown to be successful, likes, appreciated, rewarded in the cameo and that becomes a part of idealizing one self. Fair & Lovely ( now Glow & lovely) is one of the biggest brands in the cosmetics segment which is one of the highest advertised brands in the segment.
For 3-4 decades Fair & Lovely has depicted it as the girl’s best recourse to better her prospects in life and career making it one of the biggest brands in the segment ( approx 1500 crore ).
Considering only the women in the age group of 20-54( 25 crore population) we can have a rough estimate of its usage( every women in this age group spends 5 rupee per month on fair and lovely).
We must appreciate one of the actress in bollywood who denied the endorsement for one of the beauty product which claimed to be the beauty product on the same line of fairness. The endorsement which would have again strongly forced us to believe the power of fair color….
Is it a Gora Nikhaar ??
Or
Is it a attack on our minds…
We ourselves have created a divide amongst us in being fair or being not fair. Dusky Vs fair…Its synonyms to Africans Vs Rest of the world..And then we say we do not do racism.
Same company sells a soap whose brand essence truly communicates real beauty ..the campaign which has won world accolades..
Is it an another side….but does real beauty gets faded once gora nikhaar comes into picture….
Is 5 rupee enough to change the color provided by the Almighty…
Or 5 rupee is a cheap synonym of our cheap mentality…the thoughts are many but conclusion is
Real beauty or gora nikhaar?
Gora Nikhaar or Gora Bukhaar!!!!
Brands have ever since capitalized on the color love of Indians….which gets percolated down to people selection or onto the roles for the cameo..
Why don’t, we hire a real dusky women to promote a beauty brands..Are Africans not beautiful..are we undermining a complete race which perennially exists.. Are we doubting the whole prodigy..or are we over obsessed with the fairness..
The Work Beauty is very subjective has its own meaning for individuals. Women in every country have different perspective for beauty. Some see it as a symbol of confidence, other consider it as an anchor of superiority while other sees it as a Mass Vs class divider.
The word beautiful has gained importance whereas the word SUNDAR has lost its meaning….
Satyam Shivam Sundaram…
By : Kumud Kandpal
