No, I'm not going to ask why every Indian on the planet is obsessed with fair skin.

Is there any Desi on here that DOESN'T agree with the pre-conceived notion that all Indians worship white skin?


Being a brown-skinned Indian girl and having been to India, nobody ever told me that I would be prettier if I had a whiter complexion, or any of those comments that are supposed to be encountered by Indian women of color.

The only time I received rude comments about my skin color was from a couple of light-skinned Indian-Americans (who I later found out were actually jealous of me).


I noticed that people also say that light skin automatically makes you gorgeous in Indian culture, but how come dark-skinned Kajol is more liked than her light-skinned sister? How come light-skinned Mumta Kulkarni and Diya Mirza didn't rise up the popularity charts quickly?


I honestly can't relate to all of these articles and forums that I stumble upon, regarding discussions of the "fair skin obsession," and am usually the only one that disagrees with people. Am I just too lucky?

Indians aren't obsessed with white skin, but they are kinda prefer fair skin. The thing this is partly because of those "fair and lovely" ads that make ppl think that fair skin is beautiful. But being fair is seen as beautiful in India, but is reserved for women. Being fair isn't applied for men as far as I know but for women they do. I think this obsession is more in India than indians living in America. I would say the fair skin is seen as beautiful mostly because of those ads that make ppl think dark skin is unattractive. If you see "fair and lovely" ads u will see why.

I won't deny that fair skin might be a preference, but people have to realize that it's different from an obsession or a form of worship. If you type "fair skin" on a search engine, you will easily find articles blowing the fairness thing out of proportion.

Fair skin might be viewed as an attractive feature in general, but that doesn't mean that beautiful tanned/dark Indians will be immediately deemed ugly in South Asian culture. If you're good-looking, you're good-looking.

If a tanned girl and fair girl are just as beautiful, ppl in india would pick the fair girl to be more beautiful.

I think pale skin is kinda gross, fair in India means more like olive, not the pale you see in northern euros. But anyway screw all the fairies and brownies in India. Black is best. I think the whole fair skin thing is retarded especially in South India where most of the people have dark skin.

I prefer fair skin,too black is gross and too white is disgusting.

Same here, pale skin is GROSS. But, I think in chinese and japanese they like pale skin. I guess, skin color depends on a nation.



I don't like either extremes. I would want skin to glow whether dark or light. But I don't prefer the extremes.

I read about that, but I do know a few Chinese-Americans that dig the "dusky" (like Rani Mukherjee or Bipasha) Indian tone, which still is considered dark to some people I know. My Chinese friends didn't like pitch-black skin though.

I personally like the various shades of brown that are in between the two extremes, whether it be caramel/honey or deep mahogany.


In the end, skin tone is not a big deal though.

Uh-huh same here
I think that fair skin is more of a big issue in India than with Indians living abroad.

And since when is Kajol considered dark?

Indian men go tall, fair and handsome
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?...topic=51639&hl=

There are plenty of people in my family who have all-natural fair skin. Mostly the women in my family, but also some of the males (myself included). I have a farmer's tan (from playing tennis out in the sun), so my lower arms and face and legs are tan, but if I roll up my sleeve people are shocked to see my skin in almost as light as theirs. White people just can't comprehend a fair Indian Male.......Lol

Some Bollywood articles also describe Kajol, Rani, Priyanka and all of the other bronzy actresses as being "dark-skinned."


To some people, brown and tanned is the same thing as dark. The definition of "dark" can vary within each Indian community. NorthWestern Indians tell me I'm dark, North Central Indians think I'm medium, and South Indians think I'm light.


I grew up around mostly NorthWestern Indians and white people, so I was raised to think that "dark" is anybody that's darker than Hrithik Roshan.

Fair is lovely, but dusky is sultry


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/article...2,prtpage-1.cms


It’s all in the mind. And the mindset is a-changing. The dusky complexion is now a very inherent part of skin-deep beauty. If Halle Berry and Naomi Campbell spell haute property in the West, back home, ‘fair’ is lovely, but so too is the sultry look.

Dusky girls rule the fashion runway -- this impressive line-up includes Nina Manuel, Sheetal Mallar, Carol Gracias, Nethra Raghuraman, Laxmi Menon, Diandra Soares.

‘‘Ever since I started out, I have never faced any problems at fashion shows because of the colour of my skin,’’ says Nina Manuel, ‘‘But yes, TV commercials and print ads always seem to favour fair-skinned girls! Anyway, even if there is discrimination -- real or perceived -- let it be. I am successful and happy!’’

According to Sheetal Mallar, ‘‘Initially, it was tough for me, but things have changed. I believe that ads have always preferred fair-skinned girls. If they have light eyes, that’s even better! But the dusky complexion is just fabulous for runway shows and designer shoots.’’

Carol Gracias is another model who believes that the dusky look has slowly, but surely, come to be accepted. ‘‘Many a time, I went home disappointed because of the general perception about dark skin. Just imagine, I have done all of two commercials!’’

Beauty, they say, is skin-deep. Perceptions, however, seem to go deeper than the skin. And this makes Carol feel sore. ‘‘A majority of people in our country are dark-skinned. And most products are targeted at them. So, why do people want to use only fair girls in ads?’’ It’s a question of answers. And desi models are certainly not in the dark.

Another cool article...


Dusky girls are also sexy


Model-turned-actress Dipannita Sharma, who will be seen with Aftaab Shivdasani in Koi Aapsa, says fairness cream ads are doing enormous harm to the image of the dark-skinned Indian woman.

Do you think fair-skinned girls are preferred over dusky models in beauty pageants?
In India the fair skin syndrome affects both beauty pageant organisers and judges. But for the common man, dusky girls are just as sexy. Even in Europe and America there's a newfound respect for dark-skinned Indian models. Ujjwala Raut for example is a rage in the West.

Should the parameters of judging beauty contests be revised?Certainly. Complexion alone cannot be the deciding criteria. A dusky girl is as much of a femme fatale as someone who is fair-skinned.

Does that mean ads for fairness creams and other cosmetic products should be banned?
Look, a ban of any kind is against the spirit of democracy. But I do believe that ads for fairness creams project a wrong image of the Indian woman. It is absurd to show that dark complexion stops someone from being successful at a beauty pageant or in day-to-day life.

Personally I would never agree to model for fairness cream because I think it's wrong to denigrate dark-skinned women.

Fair skin is more beautiful than dark skin....

If that was the case, the tanning industry wouldn't be making millions off of white people.


Ever seen a white person darker than yourself? Freaky!

I've seen brown-skinned "whites" but none of them were quite as brown as me... but those whites sure have an obsession with tanning. I think they're probably trying to look Mexican or Mediterranean.

I also don't like skin that's too white or too black. Pale skin doesn't look too smooth, so I'm not sure why there are people obsessed with it. I prefer skin tones in-between these extremes, usually from yellow to brown.

Well, i can understand that they would call Rani and Bipasha
dusky. But Kajol?



I think she is light skinned

no one in my family is obsessed over light skin either. Its just not something that we talk about but my grandma's always praising my nephews/nieces' blue-green eyes if that counts.

I still think they are obsessed over it in India. I remember when we were visiting India one time, I felt like b!tch-slapping someone, because they commented how my parents were fair-skinned and I was dark like it was a bad thing.

i thought it was impossible for people with light skin to have darker kids.

There's like 60 genes that control pigmentation, I'm pretty sure my parents got some dark ones stashed somewhere.

Haha yeah i know what you mean! If someone has green
eyes or blue then they are always seen as special or something.

My friends brother got green eye.

I had one Paki friend that would always put his jacket over his face after school so he wouldn't get darker from the sun

The Sun, it burnz!!

Look at her arms and her shoulders. A lot of brown people's faces can come out looking light-skinned in pictures. The camera flash reflects off of the face, and makes the face look whiter than the rest of the body. Pictures can be VERY deceiving, especially when it comes to somebody's skin color.

She looks browner in these pics.

It's possible. I know a lot of darker people that have a fair-skinned sibling or parent, including myself.

ya i know about that but if both parents are light skinned or if both parents are blue eyed, the kid is not likely to turn out darker skinned or brown eyed.

The reverse if possible though. Two brown eyed parents can have green or blue eyed kids or two dark parents can have light skinned kids.

I exagerate my darkness, mostly to piss of agni. But yeah skin pigmentation is more complex than simple mendelian genetics.

a lot of the time they put body makeup on the actresses to make them look lighter. for example, i've seen bipasha with and without make up, and she's actually a lot darker without make up, and off camera.

it's so ridiculous that they consider actresses like bipasha, rani and kajol dark...what does that make ppl with really brown skin then?

Okay her arms and shoulders do look "darker", but my face
is also lighter than my arms and legs. Oh well, at least she aint that spookish
pale as Kareena lol.

Easy-They'll just put the word "really" or "pitch" in the front of the word dark.

Whether we are fair-skinned or dark-skinned, we are all the same in the God's eye.
This is so cliche.

I think dark skin is a taboo for ALL race and nationalities. Even a darker black person is frowned upon lighter black people. It's like this with every Asian nationalities too.

I'm dark skin for a Hmong person and I was always told to stay away from the sun. It used to bother me but now I love it...don't be jealous cause I have a natural tan, lol

Rani is medium toned and kajols a bit lighter than her but Bipasha IS dark. You dont have to have black skin to be considered dark or maybe it depends on regions cuz in Punjab rani mukherjee would be considered dark too.

the ramp models in India are almost all very dark and even though there's different levels of darkness all of them fall under the term dusky. I've seen that word applied to people from Kajol to supermodels Sheetal malaar and vedesha pavate.

I thought dusky was some fashionista/bollywood term to describe people that are so-called "in between?" (for those that aren't light, but can't deal with labeling themselves dark either. )

i thought so too...dusky and wheatish

I think they use that term for everyone now cuz no one in India wants to be labelled dark even if they are as black as coal

From what I've seen, I just think different places are more anal about it than others.

You know what, I take back what I said in my first post. The fact that they're making up all of these terms like "dusky, sanwali, wheatish, wheatish-medium, " probably is a sign of some inferiority complex..... Pssh...I'll just keep it simple with dark and brown...

But in India, the terms "light" and "dark" are very vague when it comes to describing skin colour in India, since Indians can have any skin colour, so there is a point to all the terms "dusky, sanwali, wheatish, wheatish-medium" as they describe a whole spectrum of colours.

Kajol and Rani have an average skin colour for Bengali girls, while Bipasha is slightly darker than the average Indian. I have noticed that most Indian celebs are generally light though.


What are the odds of both the parents being dark and ALL their 4 kids being fair?

I know a Bengali family exactly like that.

that can happen. i've seen it happen a few times but the reverse can't happen supposedly.