Colour of Life Achievements: Historical and Media Influence of Identity Formation Based on Skin Colour in South Asia

Abstract

In this paper I examine South Asian fascination with skin lightening as a result of historical, cultural and media portrayals of lightness as a beauty ideal and prerequisite for life achievements in the region. To investigate the practice I start with a Foucaldian genealogy of the practice in the region. I start by studying the association of light skin with beauty and progress. Through establishments of scientific racism and imperial emphasis on exclusion based on racist ideologies this trend of associating light skin with beauty and progress is studied in colonial India. Then the symbolic of light skin is revealed through a vocabulary of skin tones in the region, representing the micro-level categorisation of racist ideologies from macro-level colonial doctrine. Using Goffman's concept of bodily ‘Stigma’ with Sara Ahmed's idea of the ‘Stranger’ with its implications to subjectivity the fate of a dark skinned individual is examined. Lastly, building on sign values of images, language and narratives of the ads of the skin lightening product, Fair & Lovely, the association of light skin with emotions of ‘happiness’, ‘achievement’, ‘confidence’ and largely ‘acceptance’ is revealed in South Asia. By creating subjectivities these ads also produce stereotypes connecting derogatory status to dark skinned individuals and privileging status to the lighter skinned ones. Such categorisation generates the desire of ‘acceptance’ and ‘transcendence’ among the stigmatised by using skin lightening products and other resources available to them. However, the ads only play a role in illustrating the social and cultural ideology of the community.

Keywords:

• Beauty Ideal
• Discourse Analysis
• Genealogy
• Intra-group Racism
• Lightening Products
• Media Representations
• Skin Colour
• Skin Lightening
• South Asia
• Stigma
• Stranger

Notes

1. A clip of the show is available from: http://vodpod.com/watch/330598-aishwarya-rai-oprah-interview

2. The article is available from: http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/2004/time100/artists/100rai.html

3. Advertisements have been translated by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nazia Hussein

Nazia Hussein is currently a PhD student in Women and Gender Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. She completed her MA in Gender and Media from London School of Economics. Before her Masters she worked as a Gender Sector Specialist at BRAC (NGO) Bangladesh and also taught at the Media and Communication Department at Independent University, Bangladesh. Her research interests include media representation of women in South Asia and its influence in everyday life of regular women. Apart from skin lightening issues she is also engaged with Muslim women's representation in the media and the debates on ‘Hijab’. This research paper was presented at the Feminist & Women's Studies Associations' conference on Feminist Transitions 2009