SNOW WHITE SYNDROME

Scene 1: A girl sits on a chair crying for being rejected for a job that she hoped for,

Scene 2: Her aunt comes and gives her a cream to apply,

Scene 3: She applies the cream and in four weeks her brown skin gets lighter,

Scene 4: she goes for the same job interview confidently and gets selected…

This is the same obscure story that is being portrayed through the various fairness cream advertisements that is being aired on TV throughout the day. These ads rake up some fundamental questions in my mind;

•  Why is ‘fair’ better than ‘dark’?
•  What is fair and what is dark?
• How can confidence and success be attributed to skin color?

Although it may sound a shock to westerners, the phenomenal growth in fairness creams indicate that the adoration for fair skin and disdain for dark or brown skin is very common in this part of the world making people obsessed with getting a fairer complexion in order to be considered pretty or attractive. Thus the demand to lighten the color of the skin is high and manufacturers of beauty and cosmetic products are merrily disseminating the myth of white skin and further exploiting this trend.

Discrimination

Fair or light skin color is being promoted as virtuous and desirable. How often do we come across advertisements that promote fair skin as being superior, and one that fetches you your dream job that makes you attractive? Sadly, these ads are getting more frequent and bolder in their message and continue to corrupt and stray young minds.

Skin color discrimination is a feeling that is deeply entrenched in the society that fair people are preferred by the entertainment and other allied industries and in comparison a darker complexion is a disadvantage in the matrimonial market, which is the root cause for these mindless ads. We live In a society where most people are genetically brown-skinned yet the growing antipathy for dark skin, have started an inferiority complex, which is now termed by cosmetologists as the “snow white syndrome”.

In a society where bulk of the people are predominantly either dark or brown skinned, there is an unhealthy obsession for fair skin and the question is how to dispel this obsession.

How fairness creams work:     

It is an undeniable fact that most advertisements for fairness creams are not truthful. Most advertisements claim that the continued use of their fairness creams will change the skin color of the user with seven days or so. The naïve public falls a prey to these misleading facts; not knowing such magic cannot and will not happen. The lightness or darkness of the skin is caused by a pigment called “Melanin”, which has great positive effects on health such as its ability to block cancer causing rays of the sun. The more melanin the darker the skin gets.

What the fairness creams do is they block the Secretion of the melanin in the skin thus making it less colored. 
It also stops sunrays to tan your skin so the skin looks fairer. It has been estimated that you can look up to 20% fairer then you are. But the natural color of the skin will not change. One cannot change their genetics and thus the natural color of your skin would remain the same. Fairness creams can only help you a little but that help comes with its own costs.

What can be done?

It is rather discouraging to know that when remarkable social transformation is taking place high profile celebrities are endorsing fairness creams thoroughly to the public leaving some of them questioning about their professionalism and influencing the vast majority by giving them the wrong impression about beauty.  It is shocking to see the ads portraying the girls landing in good jobs, succeeding in acting careers and securing the love of handsome men– because of using their fairness creams. It is the duty of advertisement regulatory bodies of the society to scan and take necessary action about offensive advertisements and only encourage morally acceptable messages to be publicized.

In the glamour industry, fair skinned is considered a big asset and it isn’t unusual to find fair skinned actors and models in the overwhelming majority. People who wish to be modes or interested in an acting career have this misconception that they will be rejected if their complexion is not fair. It should be the responsibility of leading fashion magazines to educate these aspirants that having a fair skin is not crucial for becoming an actor or a model. It is also the responsibility of advertisement professionals, models recruiting agencies, beauticians and people involved in similar professions to educate the masses and bring about a transformation in the social outlook.

Dark skinned people should also introspect and become confident enough to accept their skin color and learn to cherish what nature has given. We mustn't forget that caliber and capability of an individual is measured not by appearance or the skin color instead confidence and hard work are the only antidotes for continuous success personally and professionally.