One consequence is the effect on mental health. One study, for example, found a correlation between symptoms of depression and prejudices against darker skin tones among Asian-American women. Some research has found that colourism impacts mental health Credit: Getty Images.
One of the most prominent manifestations of older generations imposing colourist ideals occurs in the realm of matrimony — as seen in Indian Matchmaking. In South Asian communities, it is common practice for parents to arrange the marriages of their adult children by meeting prospective spouses and their families.
One study on Indian arranged marriages found that darker-skinned marriage candidates were rated lower in preference by prospective mothers-in-law , compared with their light-skinned counterparts. These findings are not surprising. Preferences for light-skinned brides have been prevalent in arranged marriage newspaper advertisements for decades; light-complexioned women often are highlighted in these ads as a way to attract more prospective grooms.
Prominent Indian marriage websites like shaadi. The Indian marriage website shaadi. But a remnant of this skin tone filter remained on the website: the user interface for selecting a skin tone remained, even though any requested skin tone specifications were ignored in the actual search results. When news of it reached a Facebook group of South Asian women living in North America, a petition was immediately launched to bring it to the attention of shaadi.
While colourism in South Asian communities has been largely overlooked until the past decade, social media and the internet are changing that. Making already vulnerable situations even more terrifying, I dreaded how dates would react to my atlas of spots.
I will always fondly remember an ex-boyfriend who memorized the patches on my hands, tenderly kissing them whenever he got the chance. Unfortunately, not everyone was as kind. One partner, during intimate moments, blatantly refused to look at them.
Though doctors reminded me there were no guarantees, as vitiligo has no known cures, I adhered to the strict regimen topical therapy entailed, lathering my spots in steroid cream and baking them under the morning sun to trigger melanin production.
Then, discouraged by the lack of results, I quit. When I gave up on treatments, my mother became frustrated, to the point that my vitiligo cannibalized our interactions. One day, she surprised me with a gift, special-ordered theater foundation, for complete coverage.
She sought all kinds of cures: medical, spiritual, even supernatural. Though her efforts were out of love, at that point I had stopped demanding perfection from my skin, and I had hoped she would too. If I expected other people to accept my spotted existence, it was imperative that I, too, did the same.
My journey with vitiligo has been one of bodily acceptance—a beauty rewiring feat on its own. I moved to New York four years after developing my skin condition. In a city where the color spectrum is much wider, the whiteness of my surroundings, even just at home with my white roommate, made my spots—and the melanin around them—feel all the more pronounced.
I had to dismantle my own warped beauty valuation system. If I clung to the beauty standard I was taught growing up, how did I see others now that gradients were more nuanced?
Who did I now find beautiful? Did I automatically deem fair as better? And, in this expanded color palette, how did I see myself? But perhaps nowhere is the fair skin preference more ingrained than in newspaper classified adverts seeking a spouse.
The mindset is so normalised that many people accept fairness treatments as a standard part of wedding preparations — for men as well as women. Then they put this fruity and flowery white paste all over my forehead, cheeks, nose and chin. They promised it would even out my skin. Panchapakesan said his eyes started burning after about five minutes, and he got an irritation around his nose as the sweet smell turned to acrid fumes.
When it was all done, his face looked as if it had been dusted with talcum powder. Everyone has about the same number of cells to make melanin, but how much you actually produce is down to your genes. Having more natural melanin means darker-skinned people tend to develop fewer wrinkles and are less at risk of skin cancer. Skin-lightening creams often aim to interrupt the production of melanin or just improve the general health of the skin.
They can contain a natural ingredient such as soy, liquorice or arbutin, sometimes combined with the medical lightening agent hydroquinone not all creams contain this: hydroquinone is a potentially carcinogenic ingredient, and products containing it are banned or restricted in Ghana, South Africa, the Ivory Coast, Japan, Australia and the European Union, though they are still used illegally.
Mercury was also previously found in some lightening creams and soaps, according to the World Health Organisation. Mercury suppresses the production of melanin, but can also damage the kidneys and brain if it is absorbed by the skin and accumulates in the body. Other lightening methods include a chemical peel, which removes the top layer of your skin — leaving fresher skin exposed to harmful solar radiation and environmental pollutants.
Chandrappa says clients often come in wanting the skin tone of a favourite Bollywood celebrity. Originally from the Philippines but now working in Bengaluru, Mendiola says she has been taking the pills for the past five years, not just for lighter skin but for their antioxidant properties.
Mendiola describes herself as morena — not too fair and not too dark — and says her skin returns to its natural colour faster when she uses the pills. Why not? The pills she takes are glutathione, an antioxidant naturally produced by the liver that can protect the skin from UV rays and free radicals, which contribute to skin damage and pigmentation.
A more direct form of treatment is glutathione injections. These are commonly used to counteract the side-effects of chemotherapy, such as nausea, hair loss or difficulty in breathing, but their growing popularity for skin lightening has led to official concern. It highlighted adverse effects including skin rashes, thyroid and kidney dysfunction, and even the potentially fatal Stevens—Johnson syndrome, in which the skin peels from the body as if burned.
Nevertheless, there is growing consumer demand. Mendiola has taken two treatments of injectable glutathione, but mostly relies on pills.
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