Don’t try and fit into any set beauty standards, create your own!

by Sheetal Kabra

It took a huge global outrage and protest against racial injustice for two large global players like Loreal and Unilever to drop words like “whitening” , “fair” and “light” from their skin products.  Johnson & Johnson has gone ahead and decided to stop selling its skin whitening creams under its Neutrogena and Clean & Clear brand.

But the question is, is this a change in the mindset of these corporates and  society at large? Or is it a simple damage control measure? Some would argue, it’s a beginning of a change, but to me, it’s just an attempt by a business to adapt to a changing business environment.  I strongly feel that nothing is going to change deeply. These businesses will soon come out with similar but better coined products with subtle references to skin colour. Why? Because, these corporates are merely exploiting an opportunity by providing a product that suits the beliefs of people.  Unless and until we change the mindset of the people, no amount of laws or legal measures can be effective in putting an end to such racial discriminatory practices. Classic examples of this issue in India are female foeticide and dowry deaths. While the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act was passed in 1994, Dowry Prohibition Act was promulgated way back in 1961! Despite this, the statistics of female foeticide and dowry deaths in our county are still a cause of concern, even though media and social media are full of campaigns about women empowerment. Have you ever wondered why? Clearly, social media sentiments are not reflective of the ground level reality.

You may think me to be too skeptical and pessimistic. And perhaps you may be right too. But as a victim of this colour discrimination, as an individual who has been treated unworthy/ugly since childhood for being dark or brown skinned, I can’t convince myself to think in any other way! I haven’t seen any reduction in the obsession for fair skin among Indians especially when it comes to young girls or adult women. Leveraging on this obsession, over the years, several skin lightening or fairness products (some even organic!) have been launched. Many of these are nothing but a concoction of harmful chemicals and others are well-packaged lies. We can hold these brands responsible for the physical damage (i.e. the damage to our health as these products are loaded with harmful chemicals) but the responsibility for the emotional and mental damage has to be taken by everyone – the brands and our society.   

I have suffered skin colour discrimination since childhood to such an extent that my self-esteem had been battered. From being called ugly to unworthy of marriage, not just I, but my parents have been made to feel shameful at every stage. But you know what, I pulled myself together and rose above all this. And the first step towards this was by simply accepting myself the way I am and loving myself.  Acceptance calms us. Once I started believing and telling others that I love myself the way I am and am in no need or desire to fit into their frame of beauty, the focus shifted from my looks to my abilities. Having set myself free from these shackles of skin colour determined beauty standards, I have been able to harness my skills and focus on my abilities.

Running a business manufacturing personal-care products, I get enquiries almost every day asking for fairness or skin lightening soaps or products for individuals ranging in age from babies to adults. And if I had such products in my portfolio, I am sure I would have been a millionaire by now like many other businesses that are consistently doling out such products! But when I don’t believe in the safety and worthiness of these products as a consumer, how can I be opportunistic enough to sell them as a business?  This is exactly the reason why I call my products personal care products and not beauty products! This is one of our founding beliefs – to provide products for our safe & healthy personal care, to nurture natural beauty and not aim at achieving any cosmetic changes. We do not believe or subscribe to certain beauty notions like fairness & do not make products which promote such notions either.

Don’t try and fit into any set beauty standards, create your own. A raised self esteem, erases the need for such discriminatory products.

Image art credit: @healwitharttt