Having Dark Skin is Actually Better

Nina Davuluri the first Indian American who won the Title of Miss America

Our Skin colour has nothing to do with beauty. Nina Davuluri an Indian American and the First Indian American who won the title of Miss America had proved it back in 2014. She didn't applied any sort of make up to make her look light skinned, she embraced her skin colour, that is her identity and she decided not to hide it.

On the other hand, in our country we are obsessed with having fair skin, as much as so that we have a wide range of fairness related beauty products for Men and Women. The lighter the skin tone, the better looking you are, that is what the masses believe and the products also wants us to believe the same. Their ads are highly stereotypical where one person having dark is shown as a loser only to use their products and get fair. The second they turned fair their life turned around, they are getting job offers, marriage proposals, people started to take them seriously and what not. Fair Skin equals to Sucesss according to these ads.

These ads are problematic not just because it's stereotyping dark skin people but it's also reinforcing the masses to believe that if you have dark skin then you are not beautiful, thus you can't have success in your life. It's not just about India, many countries in this entire Continent of Asia has such products, beliefs and ads. Some ads had crossed their limits. Some of the ads would also promote Racism. In the west it was quite prevalent in past, not anymore though. Yet, in 2016 one ad from a well known company ended up promoting racism. They apologized and explained that it was not their intension and removed the ad.

Now that we have established the problems with ads let's dive into our society and determine why do we think fairness is better? Some say it has something to do, well a lot to do with British Raj. As we all know we have been ruled by British Empire for a long time. During these periods our society had faced Racism due to our skin colour by the whites. Whites are known to be racist against people of colour. If we look into history of all the nations where whites have colonized we will find extream amount of Racist activities. They would regard anyone who isn't white as lesser being, inferior to them. For them being white meant superior. That may have made our society believe the same. Also, during ancient times elites would rarely go out in Sun which kept their skin tone light. The working class would work hard in Sun and it would make their skin go dark. Thus, it's possible that people may have connected having fair skin with being elite. Possibily the discrimination began from there and British Raj only expanded it more. Hindustan Times on their portal wrote a piece on "Let’s talk about racism" where they claim Colour bias in India is colonial, not traditional, based on the writings of Sociologist Dipankar Gupta.

So, is white superior? The simple answer is No! No skin colour is superior than other. Our skin colour depends upon our day to day activities, geography & whether. Residing in colder places will give us a lighter skin tone but residing in warm places will do the opposite. But why? It's because of Melanin. Melanin is a type of pigment that gives color to the hair, skin, and our eyes. In our skin Melanin protects us from Sun's UV Rays. The more the Melanin you have the darker your skin will be. The darker your skin is, the more protection you have against Sun's UV Rays. Moreover Melanin slows the aging process. So, having more Melanin may make your skin dark but it will protect you from aging for a long time. That means you won't be having wrinkles as soon as the fair skin people might.

Aging has 2 factors Chronological Ageing and Photoageing. The first one is impossible to avoid for anyone. We can not avoid Chronological Aging. Whether we like it or not, we can't stop the passing years from leaving their mark. The second one Photoageing is different. It actually depends upon our skin tone, a result of the varying degrees of pigment that we produce, in this case it's Melanin as mentioned earlier. This is why compared to people who have Fair Skin, Dark Skinned people age slowly as dark skin people have more Melanin in them. So what's better? Looking fair? Or looking Young? I am gonna vote for young. But it's still doesn't change the fact that people are obsessed with fairness. As I had already mentioned about the wide range of fairness products we have, these products had recently changed their name from "Fair" to "Glow" which according to them somehow suppose to change where they stand.

After last year's Black Lives Matter movement in US which sort of became a global movement against color based discrimination and it actually lead Indian fairness cream industry to change the names of their products. They may have changed the name but the implications are still same. For that to change we the Citizens have to change our mindset. By the way the headline was just a click bait to get your attention! the actual piece is all about our obsession with fairness and how bad it is. But, the headline isn't false either. I have already mentioned one of the many reasons why Dark Skin is better. Our body has its own security system. Whatever our body does, it does to protect us. It makes us Dark or Light depending upon what we need. This doesn't make us superior or inferior. It just helps us to survive at a certain condition.

Comment below and let me know what do you think about the obsession we have over fairness? Have you ever been subjected to bullying because of your skin colour? Who ever you are, do know your skin color doesn't define you. Anyone who judges based on your physical appearance they are Ugly, not you. Thank You for reading. Do read my other entries.

I suggest "Rakhi Made Better" and "What would my Mother think?"