Skin-whitening, and color-struck in India

[kwassa]

I heard this on my way to work this morning on NPR, and was fascinated by some of the parallels to here. The story also said that there are 1 billion Indians!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120340646

"In India, Skin-Whitening Creams Reflect Old Biases"

For decades, the cosmetics industry in India has made millions selling skin-whitening products to women. Now, it's making more money by convincing Indian men that they should be lighter.
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N. Radhakrishnan, founding editor of Man's World — one of a half-dozen men's lifestyle magazines that have cropped up in India in recent years targeting the country's new class of affluent fashion-conscious males — says that in India, skin color is an issue from birth. "Well, Indians like white skin, that's it," he says. He adds: "Indian women also want their kids to be, you know, fair-skinned. That's one of the first things that they ask: Is he fair-skinned? And it's right across, it cuts across the country."
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Emmanuel says some Indian women are so concerned about pigmentation that during pregnancy they will eat saffron and powdered gold in the belief that this will make their babies lighter.

The scale of the pressure on Indian women to have paler skin can be seen in the matrimonial columns of India's newspapers. Advertisements, taken out by parents seeking brides for their sons, frequently specify that they are seeking "fair" or "very fair-skinnned" girls.

The desire for pale skin has roots that run deep in India's history. It's entwined with Hinduism's complex social hierarchy, or caste system. Those higher up the scale generally tend to have paler skins than people on the bottom rung.

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Prahlad Kakkar, a well-known director of television ads in Mumbai and a social commentator, says some Indian men have been using indigenous natural remedies to lighten themselves for centuries. He has an unusual theory about why: He says throughout history, India has repeatedly been invaded. These invaders — Persians, Moghuls, the British — tended to have lighter skin than Indians, so paler skin has become associated with power.

[firedupdem]

1. I worked with an Indian girl who was born and raised here and

she talked about these issues a lot. She told me how she was kept in during the summer months, but her brother was allowed to play outside because it was only HER skin darkening that worried her parents!

We lost touch over the years but she was truly catching hell. She only dated black guys, secretly of course and was no longer a virgin. Her parents were still working with other families to set her up with an Indian husband but that certainly wasn't going to work for her anymore. I would love to know how she's doing now. She was having such a hard time as an American with parents that still functioned with the old customs.