It is a common theme in life that people want what they don't have. If one has naturally curly hair, one would wish it was straight. If one wants a different hair color, one changes it. Things such as these can be changed without affecting anyone severely, however, what if the issue is skin color? In the following video the black doll white doll experiment was conducted.
According to the kids in the video, the experiment shows that they will almost always choose the white doll over the black doll because there is a preconceived notion that black means bad. Sadly, this preconceived notion doesn't just exist in Africa, but in Asia as well. For example, South Korea has the highest rate of plastic surgery in the world, and it is not just face lifts and boob jobs, but surgeries that make the skin "whiter." In my opinion, these surgeries make the person look like a a pale dead body, but that is none of my business now is it?
These surgeries can be costly so the people who cannot afford it do the next best thing, they bleach their skin. South Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh have an unnatural obsession of fair skin because for generations, women in these countries have been raised to believe that fair skin equals beauty. Men in these countries also are led by this belief and will almost always be attracted to fair skinned women rather than the ones with darker complexion. In arrange marriages, besides the influence and good nature of the family, if the groom's side of the family sees that the bride is dark skinned, it may be the deciding factor to call of the decision of marriage, no matter how educated the bride is.
I remembered that when one of my cousins was looking for a potential marriage partner, most people would not choose her because she had a darker skin tone, even though she was a doctor! She eventually found someone, who was also dark skinned, and they both eventually got married, and let me tell you the pictures of her marriage are horrible! Because of the white-obsessed culture, the make-up that was put on her made her look like a china doll or a very creepy clown. Do you know how becoming black faced is seen as being "offensive," try being white faced, and sadly, everyone was praising her for her so-called "beauty."
It has come to a point in these countries that almost all of Bollywood's actors and actresses are fair skinned. It is an unwritten requirement in Bollywood that in order to be successful, you need to be white. Because the industry of Bollywood is influential, in this part of the world, whatever the actors and actresses do, say, wear, and are the "thing" of now and their bodies are no exception. Skinniness, tallness, and fairness are the forms of beauty for almost all males and females and with the influence of westernization, these beliefs have been reinforce time and time again with extravagant music videos where the back-up dancers are white while the main dancers are of Indian descent,
but obsession over whiteness is a very big problem, to the point that the idea behind it indirectly causes the riots we see in the current news. In the case of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Gardener and hundreds if not thousands of other African-Americans who have died, the reason for their deaths is always justified with their skin color, as well as a somewhat logical reasoning,but it is hard to avoid the influence the skin color has during the event and the decision making process.
It is odd that in America, the idea of beauty when it comes to skin color is the other way around. A somewhat darker complexion is more attractive that a pale complexion, in order words, a tanner skin tone is attractive. I will never understand why people would even try to damage themselves in order to achieve the natural state of beauty, but then again I can never step in their shoes. I am a light-skinned South Asian who also has the desired tan that white people sought to be and unfortunately, I do not know how to approach the solution to this problem. I believe that everyone is beautiful in their own skin and that this obsession over white skin is a different form of white supremacy.
