Interesting article: Dark is beautiful

Dark is beautiful

Women, in a new campaign that's sweeping the city, are set to challenge stereotypes

Rehna Abdul Kareem

With society constantly hampering on messages about fair skin being beautiful and dark not so, here's a city campaign of a different kind that promises to break the age ol' perception. Kavitha Emmanuel, the director of Women of Worth and brain behind the 'Dark is beautiful' campaign, says, "To set 'fair' as the norm of beauty is so 'Un-Fair'. We want to pass on this message to at least a million people in the country. The issue of dark skin is deeply ingrained in the society that it is near to impossible to bring about a change overnight. But, that is what campaigns are for - to bring about awareness."
But with so many ads for fairness products are they to blame? "We cannot blame advertisements for it. We can only blame ourselves for believing blindly in a belief that has been passed on for ages. And the advertising industry just capitalized on that sentiment," she says. And to create awareness, an adrenaline-filled crowd of 70 danced away at a flash mob event at Elliot's Beach recently. The result — tremendous support from young women in the city for this campaign!

AMBASSADORS FOR FAIRNESS


The following actors have endorsed fairness products

• John Abraham

• Shah Rukh Khan

• Genelia

• Asin

• Katrina Kaif

• Deepika Padukone

• Priyanka Chopra

• Kareena Kapoor

• Shahid Kapoor

• Saif Ali Khan '

DIRECTORS TAKE

ARIVAZHAGAN

In my opinion, the first thing that attracts a man to a woman is her attitude and character in films. This is what directors look for when they are casting a heroine. The attitude is what matters, even when it is for a glamorous role. Whether she is fair or dark-skinned is secondary.

VASANTH

Beauty lies in how a person carries themselves. The tone of the skin has never been a priority for me when casting for my film. The grass will always be green on the other side. Since we are dark, psychologically, we tend to be attracted to fair skin.

KANNAN

Audience taste changes over time. There was a time when they accepted darker skin. But today, I think they expect their heroines to be fair and fit, but that's not what directors look forward to while casting for a lead.

Anu Hasan; (Inset) flash mob at Elliot's Beach

John Abraham

Bollywood cinema we can understand if the hero and heroine are fair because a lot of people from the North have fair skin tone but look at our South Indian industry instead of embracing the darker complexion that we have they import heroines like Tammannah, Kajal, Tapasee, Hansika etc and all the films that they are in they have this stupid dialogue...the girl is as white as milk 😡