The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| “Dark is Beautiful” movement takes on unfair India Posted: 24 Oct 2013 09:21 PM PDT The new poster girl of the "Dark is Beautiful" campaign, Nandita Das (pic), has called out India's obsession with fair skin - a prejudice she says has driven some young women to the brink of suicide. "Magazines, TV, cinema - everywhere being fair is synonymous with being beautiful," Das told AFP. Described as having "dusky" skin as opposed to a fair complexion, the 43-year-old is well used to Indian preoccupations with colour, and not just in the film industry, where she has refused requests to lighten her skin for roles. "How can you be so confident despite being so dark?" is a question regularly asked of Das, who has preferred to star in unconventional, issue-based films but says she would struggle to get ahead in mainstream Bollywood movies. Beauty beyond colour In May, Das became the face of the Dark is Beautiful campaign, launched in 2009 by activist group Women of Worth to celebrate "beauty beyond colour". Her backing has helped to generate increasing debate in the media, but the response has underlined just how ingrained the preference is for fairer skin, which has long been associated with higher social classes and castes. "I started getting tonnes of emails from young women pouring their heart out about how they were discriminated against. Some wanted to commit suicide because they couldn't be fair," she said. Das found her own photograph had been lightened by a newspaper even for a feature on the campaign. When looking for a nanny, she was told one candidate was "good, but quite dark". Amid such pressures to be pale, India's whitening cream market swelled from $397 million in 2008 to $638 million over four years, according to market researchers at Euromonitor International. Skin-lightening products accounted for 84 percent of the country's facial moisturiser market last year, their report shows. The bias facing darker-skinned women was raised again in September when an Indian-origin woman, Nina Davuluri, won the "Miss America" contest in the United States. "Had she been in India, far from entering a beauty contest, it is more likely that Ms Davuluri would have grown up hearing mostly disparaging remarks about the colour of her skin," said an editorial in The Hindu newspaper. "She would have been - going by the storyline of most 'fairness' cream advertisements - a person with low self-esteem and few friends." Vaginal whitening cream Last year, a commercial for an "intimate wash" to whiten vaginas emerged, showing a young Indian woman who uses the product to successfully regain her boyfriend's attention. The advert was widely panned, but a glance through matrimonial websites and newspaper columns suggests that fair skin, at least on a woman's face, remains key to attaining an Indian husband. Aspiring grooms often state in their adverts their preference for a fair bride, while nearly all women's profiles describe their complexion as fair or so-called "wheatish". Ekta Ghosh, a fashion designer in Mumbai who specialises in wedding wear, said the message that only fair is beautiful had been passed down to Indian girls for generations. "Parents, relatives, they all keep saying you should do something to lighten your skin tone," she said. India's mass market whitening pioneer was "Fair & Lovely", launched in 1975 by Hindustan Unilever and now selling in a range of other countries where pale skin is desirable, across Africa and the Middle East as well as Asia. Indian consumer group Emami later came up with "Fair and Teen" for girls and "Fair and Handsome" for men. Promoted by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, the latest advert shows him tossing a tube of the cream from the red carpet to a young male fan. Dark is Beautiful has launched a petition against the "irresponsible" video and its message that "fair skin is a prerequisite for success". So far more than 15,000 people have signed up in protest, but Khan has not responded. "You're telling people they're just not good enough," said Das, who describes whitening cream adverts in general as "so regressive and derogatory". Fairness cream producers suggest they help to boost users' confidence, although both Emami and Hindustan Unilever declined to comment for this article. Not everyone, however, is convinced such creams are even effective. Receptionist Prachi Chawan, 28, said she had been using Fair & Lovely products for three years "out of habit", but was yet to see noticeable results. "There have been no side effects but no change either," she said. Das believes whitening cream developers did not create Indians' colour bias and insecurities, but have "cashed in" on it, creating a "vicious circle". While men's fairness products are gaining ground, the actress says women and girls still face far more pressure over their skin tone, which she puts down to a general lack of respect and inequality. "Until we let women have the same space as men and treat them as human beings, all this will carry on." – AFP, October 25, 2013. |
| The toad that turned into a nice little earner Posted: 24 Oct 2013 07:25 PM PDT Then one day a Polish fairy waved her wand and the plain old cane toad turned into a precious fashion accessory. That's the story of Polish designer Monika Jarosz's luxury Kobja brand inspired by the fairytale idea of the "toad that transforms itself into Prince Charming". Introduced from South America decades ago to control the native cane beetle, the cane toad may have outstayed its welcome in the South Sea Islands, but today their skins have become a much-prized luxury fashion material. A friend unknowingly set the wheels of innovation in motion by giving Jarosz a stuffed frog from New Zealand as a gift. "(It) disgusted me but ended up by fascinating me," she said. Three short years later, and her luxury accessory business is producing bags, belts and purses made from whole skins, set with semi-precious stones or Swarovski crystals in place of the eyes. The high-end leather items, which come in an array of colours including vermilion red, emerald green, turquoise, fuchsia and black, are now sold in Asia, Europe and the US. A purse can cost between between 220 and 250 euros (RM959 and RM1090), depending on the country, while a large bag would be priced at around 1,200 euros (RM5231). Jarosz came to France from Poland 12 years ago to work as a model before developing an interest in design, in particular working with unusual materials. Fascinated by the stuffed frog, she recalled that the more she stroked it the more the idea of creating something "really good like a jewel" from a similar material started to take shape. But finding skins to work with presented a problem. In vain, Jarosz made inquiries with restaurants serving frogs legs. Then she discovered the existence of the toads of the South Sea Islands where they had proliferated to such an extent they were in the process of destroying several local species. Animal defence organisations had recommended that they be selectively eliminated. With the help of a taxidermist in the Australian city of Cairns, Jarosz set about transforming the skins into high fashion. After the taxidermy, the skins are tanned, dried and coloured in France, ending up in a workshop in Paris where the leather is cut, stitched, set with crystals or stones and lined with lamb or goat skin. "When I called Jean-Charles Duchene (who runs the tannery in Paris) for a quote, they thought it was a joke," she recalled. "It was a challenge because we had to adapt to the material. The toad (skin) is denser than lamb, the dye is fixed quicker and it needs less," she added. A symbol of fertility and prosperity in some cultures, the toad is also linked to sorcery, Jarosz added. Now sold in luxury goods shops or concept stores in Tokyo, Beijing, New York, Paris and Berlin, Jarosz's quirky products have developed an almost cult-like following among some customers. Some even give their bags names, she said, and regularly update her with news about them. – AFP, October 25, 2013. |
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