If You’re Not Fair & Lovely, I Guess That Means You’re Dark & Unpleasant

My personal experience with the magic cream known as Fair & Lovely

When I mention Fair & Lovely amongst the South Asian community (i.e. Bengali, Indian, Pakistani), they have no problem identifying the product. They know exactly what it does, why people use it, the advertising surrounding it, the social issues behind it, and some may even have it in their bags for all I know. If I mention Fair & Lovely outside the South Asian community, I get baffled faces, instant Google searches, and questions along the lines of, "is this for real?" Yes, it's for real. And it's not just the whole idea that skin-lightening creams exist, it's the spectacle behind the mega industry that is Fair & Lovely.

I have encountered this brand more times in my life than any other beauty product.

I think it's safe to say that any country with an established standard for beauty will have a large-scale skin lightening industry supporting it. I didn't know there were actually parts of the world that preferred "some color on their skin" until I went to an American beach. There I was, standing at Jones Beach at age 5, confused (along with my parents) as to why there were so many women laying on the sand absorbing all that sunlight with so little clothes on. We have never witnessed any person voluntarily sitting under the hot sun solely for the purpose of allowing the sun to touch their bare skin. My uncle explained to us that they were "tanning." This completely blew my mind. Here I thought they were trying to absorb sunlight into their skin for superpowers or something (not really). My uncle explained to me that tanning is what "really pale people do to get darker."

I have very few memories of actually living in Bangladesh, but the few that I do remember are vivid and detailed. My aunt would always shout out to my cousins and I every time we played outside, "Do not stay out in the sun too long! You will look like gramer (village) kids!" If there was one thing we knew, we knew not to look like gramer kids. And we knew not to stay out in the sun. Not because she was concerned about the health risks, but because we would appear darker than we were.

This aunt, who by the way, grew up as a textbook tomboy due to being the only sister out of my dad's seven siblings, is a very interesting case in this story of mine. She will wear makeup let's say…once every 2-3 years. She doesn't care if her eyebrows are plucked, if she has dark circles under her eyes, or if she even owns a single shade of lipstick. But she has been an avid user of Fair & Lovely for an extremely long time. And she becomes concerned, very concerned, if she realizes she looks one shade darker than she did two days ago.

I recently visited Bangladesh a few weeks ago for a full month and have spent a good while with my aunt. She has eased up on the excessive use of Fair & Lovely into this weird translucent sunscreen powder that provides you with a ghostly appearance due to its lack of 'blendability'. Thankfully the ghostly mask of powder begins to subside after 15 minutes or so, and it is initially better for the skin than the ingredients of Fair & Lovely (go SPF!) But at the end of the day, she is using the powder mainly for the momentary appearance of lighter skin and not for its sun protection benefits.

I believe the root of my aunt's problem has manifested from her exposure to the many Fair & Lovely commercials that run all throughout Bengali and Indian channels.

(Refer to the YouTube video, Fair and Lovely Skin Cream Ad (in English), posted above)

I mainly encounter these commercials with Indian or Bengali actors, but this is the only commercial I can find that is dubbed in English. But this is the general gist of majority of the commercials. A young girl will feel insecure in a situation such as a job interview, or any social situation really, and will resort to the conclusion that her darker complexion is what's holding her back. Using Fair & Lovely will allow her to flourish and conquer any situation with confidence because she's all of a sudden three shades lighter. And now that she's three shades lighter, she can become Queen of the World!

And the thing is? The commercials are not far from reality. From my occasional visits to Bangladesh, I have been able to conclude one of the storylines used from a Fair & Lovely commercial to be true. My cousin's friend lost three marriage proposals in a row due to her darker complexion. Wow.

Personally I am not a fan of this company, if you couldn't tell. I believe it feeds on the insecurities of young girls-insecurities that the company itself has manufactured and chooses to attack. The issues behind skin tone may not exist in the magnitude that it does if it weren't for Fair & Lovely's desire to make young girls feel inadequate about their darker complexion. Young girls are constantly reminded that their darker skin is not acceptable to get a job, to have friends, to get married, or to be confident in general. The message, "darker skin equals ugly, lighter skin equals happiness," is projected over and over, decade after decade, to the point where the idea is embedded into the culture's beauty standards. As someone who falls into the category of "unpleasant skin tone," I am the perfect candidate for a Fair & Lovely experiment. I would be lying if I said I never thought about using it at least once in my life. But luckily, I got over it.