Padma Lakshmi, Diet Sabya & People Online Demand Ban On Fairness Products

Recently, Abhay Deol raised an important question addressing Bollywood actors when they expressed their solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement – Will Indian celebrities stop endorsing fairness creams now?

Now some can argue that if people don’t like the products, they don’t have to buy the products. What they fail to realise is that fairness products, magazines, and advertisements don’t just promote the products but promote an unhealthy standard of beauty. It glorifies one kind of appearance while invalidating the other. Such ideas when promoted give rise to colourism or shadeism – discriminating people with darker skin tones.

Considering the kind of negative influence such products and its advertisements can have over people, influential people with a good number of followers online are demanding a ban over fairness products, reports Hindustan Times.

Model Padma Lakshmi recently took to social media to say that companies like ‘Fair & Lovely’ have to go. She is tired of hearing how ‘fair’ equals ‘lovely’ and highlighted how it affected her self-esteem as a kid.

For years I‘ve been saying that “Fair & Lovely” needs to pack their fake cosmetics and GO!!

Anyone else out there sick and tired of being told that fair=lovely? Because I sure as hell am.

I’ve been hearing that crap since my girlhood and it did a number on my self-esteem.

— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) June 9, 2020

For people who don’t know what I’m referring to, “Fair & Lovely” is a skin-lightening cream marketed to POC: pic.twitter.com/pwd93iSPEE

— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) June 9, 2020

21-year-old Ayush Kalra from New Delhi recently posted a brilliant illustration on Instagram attacking fairness products which has now gone viral. It shows a dark-skinned lehenga clad woman holding a product with the writing “Fair? My Jutti!”.

“Didi’s flying jutti to all the FAKE FAIRNESS BEAUTY PRODUCTS and people who sponsor them! Can’t dark-skinned people be beautiful? Does being fair imply being lovely? These racist fairness Ads need to be stopped. Rise above hate. Spread Love!” read his caption.

View this post on Instagram

Didi’s flying jutti to all the FAKE FAIRNESS BEAUTY PRODUCTS and people who sponsor them! . Can't dark skinned people be beautiful? Does being fair imply being lovely? These Racist Fairness Ads Need to be Stopped. Rise above Hate. Spread Love!! . . . . . . . . . #illustrationartists #desiart #indianillustrator #indiandesi #desifashion #indianart #artistofindia #indiangirls #indianartistas #indianartist #desiartist #indianillustrator #indianartistas #womenofillustration #cultureadventure #indiancontemporaryart #modernart #rajaravivarma #indianpainting #indianpaintbrush #retrobollywood #freelanceillustration #callforartists #quarantineandchill #indianwomen #pakistanistreetstyle #vogueindia reference-Internet #fairmyjutti

A post shared by Ayush Kalra (@ayushkalra) on Jun 8, 2020 at 6:26am PDT

Sharing Padma Lakshmi and Ayush Kalra’s post, Diet Sabya too uploaded a few instances of colourism in India on Instagram Stories.

In case if you are wondering what good will such social media outrage do, let me recall a small story told by Meghan Markle. When the Duchess of Sussex was 11-years-old, she had managed to force a company into changing their sexist dishwashing advertisement. The advertisement which said, “Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans”, was soon changed to “People all over America…” just because Meghan decided to voice her opinion against stereotypical gender roles by writing letters to influential people.

Such voices that stand against social biases matter and need to be heard. Only then will there be change.

Cover: Source.