An obsession with light skin is not just a feature of Jamaican society. It is an issue in much of the Indian subcontinent. Hence the outrage in India when Bollywood superstar Aishwarya Rai Bachan appeared on the front cover of the Indian edition of multinational fashion magazine Elle, apparently with her skin whitened.
The actress has been a major celebrity in India for years. She is a former Miss World, who went on to become a film star. So her fans are perfectly aware what shade of brown her skin is and were outraged that the magazine chose to "bleach" her.
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The actress herself was furious and is apparently considering suing Elle for what has been deemed "racist airbrushing". A British newspaper, the Daily Mail, quoted one of her friends as saying "Aishwarya's first reaction was disbelief. She believed that these things don't happen anymore. Not in this day and age when women are recognised for their merit, and not for the colour of their skin."
Unfortunately for Elle, this is not the first time that it has been accused of whitening a well-known black woman's skin. In September of last year Black actress Gabourey Sidibe was featured on the front cover of the America edition of Elle, but with her skin several shades lighter. Fans were outraged. One posted online, "It's annoying because it seems like lighter skin is always in fashion, as if darker skin is something to be frowned upon".
Elle denied lightening the actress's skin. But she clearly looks lighter than in real life. Maybe these magazines are so used to retouching black models' skin to make them look lighter and more acceptable, that they just see it is part of the general retouching process and are blind to the cultural implications.
And it is not just Elle magazine. A couple of years ago, a number of American glossy magazines carried advertisements for the cosmetics giant L'Oreal, which featured American singing star Beyonc. But it was a Beyonc no one had ever seen before. She was as beautiful as ever. There was the flowing blonde hair which she often sports. But she was several shades lighter than anyone had ever seen her.
There was a backlash in the US over the images. US newspaper The New York Post, under the headline 'Beyonc The Pale', called the advert 'shocking' and accused the company of making the singer look like a 'weird, nearly white version of herself'. Celebrity website TMZ, calling the shot 'severely Photoshopped', added: "L'Oreal has some serious explaining to do about its bleached-out Beyonc ad!'
But, for every conscious black or Asian complaining about skin whitening in magazines, there seem to be many more who secretly admire lighter skin. Or at least they think that their men folk do. How else to explain the fact that the skin bleaching cream industry is a multi-million pound business in India, Africa and the Caribbean?
This is despite the fact that there is really no safe way to lighten your skin. And results can be bizarre. It is not uncommon on the streets in the district of East London, that I represent, to see African ladies who have painstakingly bleached the skin on their faces; however their hands are the original dusky colour.
Lakshmi Menon is a fabulously beautiful chocolate-skinned Indian supermodel who has worked with all fashion's big names and was recently chosen for a 12-page editorial spread in US Vogue. But she only became really successful when she left India. She believes that this was because she was seen as too dark. "Back home very few people wanted to hire me. It became clear to me that my skin colour was not in demand. I didn't have much of a career apart from the odd editorial or campaign. The fact is that fairer-skinned models have found more success in India," she says.
It is a good thing to campaign against Western magazines and companies lightening photographs of black celebrities. But black and brown people ourselves have to admit how much discrimination around skin shade there still is in our communities. Too many of us think like the old song: "If you are white you are alright, if you are brown stick around, but if you are black get back". And until we shake off this toxic legacy of slavery and colonialism, we will never be free.
Current Affairs
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