Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

All of us who have read Snow White are familiar with the queen who would ask “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” The magic mirror would respond “You are.” The day came when the magic mirror responded that Snow White is the most beautiful girl in the land. The queen who was consumed by vanity became enraged at the mere notion that another could bear more fairness than Her Highness.

Back in the day, women who were of fair skin were seen as being more affluent, from lineage that did not require them to labor in the sun and darken their porcelain, white-as–a-pearl skin. Indians value this same trait within our own culture. We view women with lighter skin tones as being more beautiful. Bollywood posters glamorize women with fair skin who often end up getting contracts with Western cosmetic companies like Revlon.

Within my own family, whenever I or any of my siblings would meet another Indian love-interest, one of the first questions from our elders would be “Is he fair?” or “Does she have fair skin?” I would sometimes be a little irritated answering the question because many times, the man they were asking about was fair-skinned and I really did not want to reinforce fair skin validating the value of the person that I am with.

In perusing matrimonials, my elders would often reference a handful of ads and single them out as men I would most likely not be interested in. Based on the geographical identity, there is a perception on the skin tone of the suitor, and based on that skin tone, it was concluded that the suitor was unsuitable.

At the end of Snow White, the vain queen dies and Snow White reigns as the new queen. Luckily the real world does not have to be reflective of the values in Snow White. An old episode of 20/20 detailed a study where 20 individuals were shown pictures of people and they had to assess, based on the picture alone, the level of intelligence that the person possessed. It was concluded that based on this group’s responses, fairer-skinned individuals are perceived to be more intelligent, more attractive and more successful. Vanderbilt University also conducted a study on color-consciousness; however they focused on the African American community. According to their findings, lighter-skinned African Americans made significantly more money and go further in education than darker-skinned African Americans. Do social perceptions affect access to jobs and education? If so, we are supporting a very dangerous notion by obsessing over fairness.

It leads to the question as to why a dark-skinned South Asian woman can’t be a glamorous Bollywood actress and share the same level of success as her fair-skinned counterparts? It is up to us, the viewers and consumers, to decide who is glamorized and who is not. It’s the basic business principles that are so ingrained in all of us. Supply and demand. If we impact the demand of any particular hero or heroine, the supply will inevitably follow.

If anyone looks up pictures of Bollywood heroines in public places signing autographs for their Indian fans, the differences in skin tone will be very evident. Many independent filmmakers have cast darker skinned heroines, and that is something that I have been pleased to see. It may take some time for Bollywood to follow suit since beauty pageant winners are predominantly light-skinned, and it is the pageant winners who move on to success in Bollywood. Who influences the pageant decisions? Typically a select few.

Another study that I read by the University of Michigan connected skin tones with self-esteem and their findings indicated that those with lighter skin tones have higher self esteem. Though I have fairly light skin, when I was in grade school, I used to look in the mirror and wish that I had the skin tone of some of my classmates who had more friends and did not have to worry about class mates making fun of them. I basically wanted to be white. As an adult, I am very happy with my skin tone, however according to the findings of the University of Michigan study, those with lighter skin tones generally are happy with their tone. It was the darker skinned women who indicated that they were unhappy with their skin tone, and those were the women that were identified with lower self-esteem.

I hope that as a community the way we view beauty adjusts over time because the last thing I would want is my child feeling bad about herself because her skin is darker than mine.