A look at the Tamil screen shows that the heroines are fair
skinned. I have yet to see a dark skinned heroine on the South Indian screen.
Even Jayalalita when she was a star is milky white in complexion. These milky
white complexioned stars contribute to a beauty culture in South India where
skin-whitening creams outsell Coca-Cola. Yet the fact is that most Tamil and South Indian girls are dark complexioned. I wonder why a dark complexioned girl
cannot strike out in the Tamil film industry.
One aspect that is overlooked is that the ancient
scriptures, epics, or folk tales in Tamil or for that matter in any Indian
language, the good character is always portrayed as being fair in complexion. A
beautiful princess is always without fail described as being fair and white as
snow. This is a dangerous portrayal as it is suggesting that the fair are fair good and the dark complexioned has evil intentions. This view has been
expressed by Shyamala Bhatia, an associate professor in history at the Bharati
College, University of Delhi.
If you add that the white race ruled India and their women
were white than it becomes clear why the concept of fairness being superior is
embedded deep within the Indian psyche.
But even after the white rulers went away, India‘s concepts
of beauty has not changed. Thus milky-complexioned Tamil stars to a massive
market for skin lightening creams, the notion that white means beautiful is all
pervading in South India. The word for fairness in Hindi is “GORI” and in Tamil
it is நேர்மை
Nērmai. I am afraid it will not go from the South Indian
psyche.
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