Markets in Everything- Fairness

Fair and lovely is big business in India;

Surveys carried out by cosmetics companies suggest growing numbers of Indian men are using the creams

Emami Industries, which launched Fair and Handsome, said its research showed that figure was 29%, which some might find unlikely.

The domestic skin-lightening cream industry is valued at over $190m - a strong indicator of the great Indian obsession with fair skin...

Editor of men's magazine, Man's World, Jerry Pinto, says most dark-skinned men are as insecure as women and go to equal lengths, albeit secretly, to achieve lighter skin.

"I don't think men share this notion of tall dark and handsome," he says.
"In India, it's tall, fair and handsome. A look at the matrimonial section, which is a very good way of seeing how men look at themselves, there's not one guy who admits to being dark and attractive, they just say we are wheatish and fair.
"So there is just not one dark-skinned person in this country, they are all rolling wheat fields of masculinity."

Prof Shallini Bharat, a socio-psychologist with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, believes this complex is a result of the country's history.

"India's rulers have always been fair, be it the Aryans in the early centuries or Europeans in later years. Fairness is equated with superiority, power and influence, therefore the preference for lighter skin."

Via Sepia Mutiny
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