Feminism against colourism - Nandhini Bhupathi

"You'd look better,if you were fairer."
"Don't play in the sun,you will get tanned even more."
"You won't find a job,if you aren't fair."
"Alas, you are so dark and who will marry you?!"

    These are the words dark-skinned girls are tired of hearing.It is clear that fair skin is really an obsession with our society. Unfortunately, we always associate girl's beauty with lighter skin.Our society believes that skin colour determines women's worth.TV programmes, movies, advertisements, they all reinforce the idea that 'fair is beautiful'.We tend to ignore all the other qualities of a woman because we have been taught that for a woman everything else is secondary in the face of beauty.That's why we ask for a picture of the bride first.On the other hand we always ask what groom does for a living. Miserably, we have been internalised the idea that women need to be beautiful and that so called beauty comprises of a certain set of rules. The first and foremost is the fair complexion. Models and actress are particularly preferred to be light skinned and the modern advertisement imposes skin tone as a barrier and the lack of confidence in our own skin. They tend to connect women's self esteem with their skin tone. There is a long way to go, so that our society finally ends its obsession with fair skin.One day or the other, instead of looking for girls who are fair, our society will look for girls who treat people fairly.

 Perhaps,beauty and the skin colour as defined by the society will fade away,but the confidence and the courage of women will not fade with time.Women's character holds more value than her skin colour.Women are beautiful for the sparkle in their eyes to explore.

 Remember, only the smile and our self confidence compliments our face.Our skin colour cannot subdue our self- esteem,sense and success.It is more important to be our own first lovers. We don't need to be white to win.

Women can also be dark and lovely.