Skin Deep : On fair skin and why it shouldn't be " In"

(Edit: 14 September 2015. Consider this a sort of retraction, in retrospect, of one or two things said that may diminish people. When I wrote this, I was incensed at my personal battle with people around me propagating certain ideas of how people should look. In my deep passion, in trying to prove a point about being comfortable in ones own skin, I diminished those who are light skinned. I am so sorry. The following piece isn't necessarily changed but it has been edited in order to convey my original message- to be in love with who you are, which is every reason I write this blog. Xx Su)



I'm ashamed to say that my newest pet peeve is when I see people edit their pictures until they are unrecognisable. The vanishing noses, artificial poses in bathrooms that could use a tidying up and the brightness setting turned up. 

After brief deliberation I realized it wasn't the editing that upset me (I love what can be done with effects and adding magic to a picture, you can transform something banal into something beautiful). It was the degree of "retouching" that occurred. They were not touched up, those photos were groped and pinched and scratched into "sexiness". It was the reason they edited the pictures: Where naturally beautiful girls ended up looking like plastic dolls and phantom ghosts because they seem to think their natural complexion isn't something they should be proud of.

I do want to point some fingers at what may be the cause of this obsession with being fair skinned. To do this I might need to use an example about being fair or being darker skinned in various communities  around the world, whilst all skin types are beautiful, it is a tragedy when women try to alter their gorgeous skin to conform to an ideal that is neither healthy nor positive. 

 Colorism is defined as a form of discrimination based on the colour of your skin that results in different treatment socially, within your own ethnic group.It has nothing to do with race, often it is within ones race that people discriminate against the individuals who have melanin rich skin, by that I mean darker. It happens in many Asian countries, India and in Africa. 

Instead of going on about it from a detached perspective, I might use the advantage I have of actually seeing colorism first hand. I am an Indian, I live in South Africa ( and am a bornfree) which is a wonderful melting pot of many different cultures and people... So I get to see the common threads of colorism in cultures that would seem poles apart.

I've been to weddings where I've heard older women say, " Oh she's a lovely bride, if only she wasn't so dark.". When a baby is born I've seen people coo " What a lovely fair skin she has!". We watch Hindi films where every actress is lighter and every time I go out into the sun, I hear someone say " Don't get too dark !! " (in my head or in real life). You see many boys say "Yeah shes a doll, look at how fair she is ! ". Why wouldn't girls think that beautiful meant being light? 

We've been indoctrinated into feeling that being brown isn't beautiful. We begin to resent the gorgeous hues that we come in. And then we start hurting that skin by plastering lightening creams (often with dangerous substances like hydroquinine and mercury) on them and by damaging that delicate skin for years. Beauty should NOT be pain or something that would result in an illness. It riles me up that young women are pushed to this. It irks me that someone who is naturally brown edits something until they are a milky white face floating on my timeline.

It should start at home really, where a girl is told she is beautiful in her own skin. Where she wants to be more than just pretty on the surface. Where we embrace the entire spectrum of skin. From milky tea to black coffee. 

I love my BROWN skin, my melanin soaked and not easily burned BROWN skin. I love the parts on my cheeks that get slightly darkened by the sun whenever I smiled. The lighter spots on my tummy that never gets to see the direct rays of sun.  We should all love the skin we're in. Be proud and brazen about it because if we don't start saying something, no one else will.