Does anyone else out there find the "Fair & Lovely" ads ridiculously insulting to women? I mean, we're all supposed to buy that if a woman isn't possessed of a flawless, clear, peaches-n-cream, FAIR complexion, she is to be denied everything good in life, like a career and marriage and dates? On the other hand, if said woman is actually fair, of course she will bump into a famous movie director who will offer her the lead in his next movie. Or, well, the fair photographer will have to outshine the model at a shoot. It's the law, dahling. These ads work on the premise that unless a woman is fair, she is worth nothing - not worthy to be a wife, or a career woman, or an actress, or a model, or, hell, even a woman. I mean, the "Fair & Lovely" for men came out only recently...I guess up until now it's been acceptable if men are dark-skinned, swarthy brutes...the women simply must be angelically fair (and, if possible, light-eyed). I, for one, am rather glad that the men are facing that particular prejudice now!! Rather evens the scales...but here's the thing: why does that prejudice exist in the first place?

I think what most people in this country tend to forget is that we are from this country, and along with that we get all the trappings - for the women it's the child-bearing hips and the always-problematic love handles around the waist; for the men...well, men's greatest problem is that they are men! No, on a serious note - we’re Indians, and the majority of us are bound to be darker than the whiter-shade-of-pale that is considered beautiful. Sure you'll have your Kashmiris and Punjabis and Sindhis and the odd Bengali and Maharashtrian who's white-as-snow, but the majority of us range from cafe-au-lait to espresso on the colour scale. And from the time we're born, it seems, we're trying to rid ourselves of any trace of colour that will lead to us being remotely tagged as "dusky” or "tanned" or just plain "dark." Even "wheatish" is barely acceptable these days! Honestly, when did one start equating skin colour with beauty? And since when was beauty the only thing that mattered?

Every where we look now, we see more evidence of just how shallow our society is becoming. It's not fair to villify just the "Fair & Lovely" commercials...I've heard of a TV series on Zee TV called "Saat Phere" that deals with one woman's anxieties over whether or not she'll find marital bliss, simply because she's dark skinned. Is she good-natured? Is she fun? Is she a good human being? Who cares? She's dark! That cancels out any possible good in her, doesn't it? Look at all the other Indian soap operas...the women are primped, pancaked and pasted to look like blue/green/violet/hazel/grey-eyed vixens with fair skin, when in reality, they're at least seven shades darker. But hey, they're gorgeous as long as they're white on-screen. Stepping off the silver screen and a little closer to real life, I have friends (and sometimes I wonder about calling them "friends") who refuse to ask out women, no matter how attractive, if they're not fair. Dark women just aren't beautiful, according to them. Once, I innocently asked whether they were then saying that Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks were not beautiful, to which their prompt reply was that they'd be more beautiful if they were fair! There's no arguing with people who can't see beyond colour. While the situation isn't, of course, of the same magnitude as the racism and Apartheid in America and Africa was, the underlying prejudice is still the same - differentiating, discriminating and judging based on something that one is born with and cannot change. And, indeed, should not want to change. All the bleach and cream and wax and paint in the world isn't going to change the fact that underneath it all, you're still a human being with major issues, and a great deal of insecurity, if you need a fairness cream to get yourself a job and a spouse and a life!

All these commercials and billboards and TV serials do is capitalise on your insecurities. And, with 99% of the masses being tuned into the media the way they are, everyone seems to buy into the idea that fair skin is the way to a better world. Forget morals and decency and a sense of humour and education and ambition. Fair skin is the way to the future! No wonder India is entering the future with one of the highest crime rates in the world. In the future, we'll probably be housing the largest number of theives, rapists, dacoits, embezzlers and terrorists in the world. But I'm sure the ads will say it doesn't matter. Just as long as they have fair skin.