A Bollywood star and one-time Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, appeared on the cover of January’s Elle India. Bachchan’s picture on this Elle edition portrayed her as a fair-skinned white woman; but being an Indian, that’s not Bachchan’s true hair or skin color – you can check her other pictures. Her skin and hair color is several shades darker than what the picture portrays. It appears that Elle embarked on certain aggressive liberties with the photos of Bachchan.
Too often, Indian culture tends to be trapped in the snare of associating beauty with whiteness. This constitutes a lot of concerns with this cover picture. Beauty product companies emphasize and dwell upon this color diffident – which is evidence in the selling and promotion of creams that bleach the skin. It is no surprise that harsh chemicals that sap human’s skin hue and appear to be harmful have been banned for use as cosmetics ingredients throughout European Union. Sadly, Indian market for beauty products produced with these harsh chemicals is still wide open.
Well known media such as the Elle play a significant role spelling out the beauty standard for a society. Thus, since the editors went ahead to publish a picture that misrepresents the true color of their cover woman, they are saying that complexion determines who is actually beautiful. The existing Indian culture that has already promoted light skin as a standard for beauty, plus the regular pro-lightening ad by beauty products companies have increased color insecurity among Indian girls and women. Thank goodness, Bachchan did not consent to this manipulation of her picture that portrays her white, tampering with her original beautiful color shades – of course, she’s threatening a lawsuit against Elle.
More than 40,000 Change.org members are supporting Bachchan, and are asking that Elle apologize to her for tampering with her picture disrespectfully and without her consent. These groups are also insisting that Elle must commit to shifting from the use of white as beauty standard. In essence, their models would not have to lighten their skin artificially any longer to be accepted.
This is not the first time that Elle is making headlines for severe skin lightening – there was also a similar case involving Elle back in October. It was Gabourey Didibe, precious African American actress who was involved then. But what’s wrong with Elle? Are they not aware that black is beautiful?
This emphasis on skin lightening is ingraining repeatedly the message that women and girls of other races can never be happy with their natural color, and that they are inferior to women with white skin. A renowned magazine like Elle should quit using their magazine to promote this unhealthy culture.
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About Calleigh
Hi Miss Umma! I am here. Before, I want to have a fair skin. I buy whitening lotions and soaps just to make my skin color fairer. They said, if you have a fair skin, you are beautiful. But they said, black is beauty! I am confused now. But I realized, this is who I am, what I am. I should love everything about me. Because it’s God-gift and my husband loves my skin color. Good day my dear!
Ay so hinde lang pala ang mga Pinay ang over gaga with having a fair skin ang mga Indian din pala? Diba mas darker skin sila sa atin? Pero dito sa mga kano na kapamilya ko, they like my skin, tan daw they like it very much, they don’t know lotion ko papaya whitening lotion hahahaha.
My husband told me ” be happy of what you have”. Sabi ko naman pwede naman siguro e-enhance, right? Hehehe
Hi tsang, suroy ko diri. sus sensya na tsang wala nku ka bloghop this past days ky na busy intawn sa panapi. nindot ug theme imung new blog tsang, kamao mn sd gd ka mo tweak tsang gd. Na off topic mn ko hehehe.
Sadly, that is also the case here in the Philippines. People associate beauty with a white velvety skin. The Indians are not the only ones guilty of manufacturing and selling beauty products with harmful ingredients in them. The Chinese in China and Taiwan have been doing that a long time ago. The insatiable and almost insane quest for white skin can be exemplified by the late Michael Jackson who was originally as black as any American blacks could be until he decided to whiten himself through skin pigmentation that reduced him to a whitish pale color reminiscent of zombies in horror movies. A person can be as beautiful and radiant as the color of his original skin because he was wonderfully made by God. Thanks for the intelligent post. God bless you all always.
halu tsang, suroy ko diri. Btw, imung badge dili mn ma copy mura imu gi disable siguro ang kopyamus mi amigas hehehe. ako unta butang sa akong top commenter. just give me the image code tsang, thanks mwahness
hello sistah..great to be here…been a long time…hope all is well…:) sensya na tawon karon lang nakarampa…busy ang life sa yaya man jud…hehhehe!
how can I follow your blog? agi lang ko kadali kay mag watch same ug stargate….au-au!
hello umma! how are you? miss you girl! thanks for visiting my site. and oo, big na si zoe, she’s already 7 1/2 months but big baby jd xa. maayo pagka alima sa iyang yaya na si yours truly, hehe. how’s YL? i bet he’s big now. hope all is well at your end. God bless and take care always. visit pd akong other blogs in here
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