Introduction

In various cultures, it may or may not come to a surprise that social norms where females are driven to desire lighter complexions and fairer skin tones still currently exist today. Personally growing up as a South-Asian female, I have had instances in the past where I too desired the look for a fairer complexion because of the various influences of family relatives, media and cultural norms. In South-Asian countries such as India, women are heavily under the influence of the media and advertisements for the desire for fair skin through skin-lightening products (Li, et al. 2008).  One of the most famous brands that still exist to this day is Fair & Lovely, a cream that promotes achieving lighter skin and guarantees fairer skin with constant use of the product. However social media platforms, such as Instagram, allows for a new generation of females who express that what should be seen as desirable and accepting can be seen through the use of selfies under the tag #unfairandlovely.

Various South-Asian celebrities, on the other hand, endorse such skin lightening products and promote the primary social standards of desirable ‘fair and lovely’ skin. This blog will undertake these social norms of fair skin being desirable and beautiful, and present the consequences and negative connotations that follow them. Along with these norms, new forms of social acceptance and values will be expressed through the #unfairandlovely Instagram community, proving it to be a much better example of what South-Asian females should follow and believe in.

Limitless Bwl

“The darker South Asian women are, the stronger the women’s desire for a lighter complexion is” (Chia, et al. 203).  In an effort to break this social norm of longing for lighter skin, photographer Pax Jones created the campaign #unfairandlovely on Instagram, a play on the Fair & Lovely company, in order for women to post selfies while embracing their darker skin and sharing it with the online community.  Currently with over 14,000 posts, users continue to share their experiences on the topic and how they have overcome the social pressures of fitting in and being light-skinned.

This particular selfie is of Youtuber Limitless Bwl, who posted a video alongside this selfie in order to share her experience of being a South-Asian female struggling to accept her darker complexion. She touches upon how many people in her life, from family and friends to strangers, comment on her skin tone and even result to making jokes. “When the lights turn off, they’ll be like, oh, where’s Luckiya?” (Limitless Bwl, “Dark Skin Ruined My Life”). This further confirms the idea that peers can give great influence on what is deemed acceptable and desirable. As Li, et al. states, “Failure in following this norm will result in low self-esteem and social status” (448). This poses a problem because it can potentially direct women to have lower self-esteem and self-worth, with such norms persuading them to believe that they do not belong within social standards and are marginalized from their cultural groups. Limitless Bwl brings this problem to awareness by uploading a video of herself addressing these issues (linked below) and posts selfies, like the one above, to join the #unfairandlovely movement in order to bring together and celebrate skin tones of all kinds, while not having to surrender to cultural standards. 

Priyanka Chopra

South-Asian celebrities within the media also play a great role in idealizing social standards of beauty, as they endorse products such as Fair & Lovely in advertisements and achieve roles in films for their considerably light skinned appearance. Priyanka Chopra is an Indian actress, with over 12.1 and 15.5 million followers on Instagram and Twitter, respectively. She is one of the many famous celebrities in Bollywood media who has endorsed the business Unilever (which held over brands such as Fair & Lovely, Garnier, etc) under Garnier’s fairness cream. “…eighty-two percent of the Indian ads used Indian models or celebrities. One reason for this may be the recent globalization of Indian beauty as affirmed by a number of Indian winners of such global beauty contests as Miss World and Miss Universe” (Li, et al. 447). Accurately enough, Chopra falls into this category as well, winning Miss World 2000. With such a large and growing following, she creates a heavy influence onto her viewers and women who look up to her, reinforcing the social norms that only those with fair skin are considered ‘lovely’.

The first selfie presented here is of Priyanka Chopra on the far left with co-star Aunjanue Ellis from her hit American show Quantico. Being the first South-Asian female to hold the main lead role for an American show, she now has an even bigger audience, presenting herself within both the Hollywood and Bollywood media scene, both of which are the top leading forms of film culture in their respective countries. In her selfie, it is clear that her skin seems fairer than usual (compared to her other photo on the right) and subliminally exerts the message that having fair skin is beautiful and desirable.    

As she captions the image on the right with #nofilter, it is understood that there is no alteration in the photo and that that is what her skin colour actually looks like. Seeing how there is a comparable difference in her skin tone with the first selfie, her photo suggests that she either lightened the selfie with filters or used very bright lighting. By promoting brands like Fair & Lovely and posting self-portraits such as the ones mentioned above, Priyanka Chopra strongly idealizes the concept of being light-skinned to millions world-wide. Instead of bringing down women for having darker skin, she should empower her followers to embrace it, much like YouTuber Limitless Bwl, so that females in South-Asian (and other) cultures grow closer to breaking down the barriers of only fair skin being acceptable and the norm.

Here is also an example of an advert where she endorses Garnier's Light Fairness Moisturizer: