#REVEAL SPIRE DARK SKIN SKIN#
Skin colour, along with hair and eye colour, is genetically determined by the amount of melanin found in the top layers of skin. Undeterred, Dark is Beautiful is lobbying the Advertising Council of India to legislate against adverts that discriminate against dark skin. She recalls the words of Emami’s managing director: “There is a need in our society for fairness creams, so we are meeting that need.” He refused to withdraw the ad. In January, Emmanuel delivered a petition of 30,000 signatures to cosmetics company Emami, calling on them to withdraw a particularly discriminatory advert for Fair and Handsome. We thought, ‘Why are we keeping quiet about this? We should talk about this and see how people respond.’” And when it comes to marriage, we again find skin colour plays such a vital role. It affects how a child performs in school because their confidence level goes down: they feel they are not good enough. “Skin colour bias affects people psychologically. We saw how it makes young people - especially young girls - feel as if they’re not good enough. “The issue of skin colour kept coming up. The campaign’s director, Kavitha Emmanuel, says the project resulted from work with children and young people. Many global corporations are involved in this market, such as Unilever, which sells Fair and Lovely, Pond’s White Beauty and the Vaseline and Dove whitening ranges.Ĭhallenging this climate of discrimination is Women of Worth, an Indian non-governmental organisation (NGO) called that has founded the Dark is Beautiful campaign. In countries such as India and Thailand it is difficult to find beauty products that do not claim to have lightening or whitening properties, and a recently launched celebrity backed product in Nigeria sold out within 24 hours. Capitalising on this inequality, hundreds of products are peddled by corporations, among them armpit whitener, genital whitener and fairness baby oil.
With issues such as employment and relationships often resting on skin tone, people invest in skin-whitening creams in the hope of a better existence. In a country such as India, the dominance of fair skin has both a colonial and a caste legacy and the global narrative is that those at the top of society have fair skin. Yet, unlike make-up or fake tan, skin-whitening creams base beauty on a racial hierarchy, fuelling intolerance and causing serious social harm.
The cosmetics industry has traditionally relied on convincing people that they are incomplete without a particular product. SKIN-whitening cosmetics are a multi-billion dollar industry pushing the idea that beauty equates with white skin and that lightening dark skin is both achievable and preferable.
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