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Showing posts with label fairness creams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fairness creams. Show all posts

Yup you read that right, and after you watch this video for ‘Clean & Dry Intimate Wash’ you’ll agree that someone needs to shoot the entire creative team behind this ridiculously retarded advert that is now trying to tell Indian women that not only does your skin have to be fair for you to be a perfect partner; but now your freaking vagina has to be fair too !!

Like WTF is wrong with society ??? Who cares what colour any ones’ vagina is ? I’m pretty sure that no guy thinks ‘ooooh she’s hot, I hope her vagina is fair & lovely’ or ‘Hmm she looks like she might have a dark vagina, I shouldn’t ask her out’

As you can see the couple in the video are quite ‘fair’.  They are sitting there having a coffee whilst the woman is looking like she’s about to burst into tears (I wonder why).  The guy goes about his coffee without even glancing up at her.  She’s still looking like someone has died (or has an upset tummy) and voila – she has a solution.  It’s off to the showers for her were she uses a magically whitening and lightening intimate wash so that her vajayjay can become all shiny so as to attract the attention of her husband !! Before you can even blink at the absurdity of it all, she’s out prancing about on the sofas so that the her newly white vag is in her hubbys’ face aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the best part is that she is now comfortable enough to stick the keys into her shorts just so her hubby can reach in and unlock the new magical white vag !

It’s bad enough that the Indian society is full of stereotypes – the biggest being that one  has to be fair to be accepted and appreciated by members of the opposite sex; and that women particularly must maintain their radiant white skin tones (how many ‘white’ Indians have you come across recently ??).  But to come up with this ridiculous product to ‘lighten and whiten your vagina’ – it’s just too much !!

Women as a whole are always under pressure to look the part, dress the part, act the part – to be that perfect woman that all guys want – and now to tell them that their most intimate body parts are ‘too dark & ugly’ and needs fixing is just too much !! I canvagina cupcakes’t even begin to imagine the kind of complexes some Indian women will begin to feel after seeing this commercial.  It’s bad enough they aren’t comfortable with their bodies; but now to have to sit and think ‘is my vagina the right shade of pink’ – that’s just WRONG on so many levels that it makes my blood boil !!

Oh and now the Indian male chauvinist pig who enjoys putting his woman / woman around him down – after seeing this commercial – will think it’s his God given right to tell a woman ‘sorry, your pussy is too dark so I can’t go down on you – that just means more blowjobs for me’  aaaaaaaaaaaaaargghhh !!!! I swear to you this is the new line a man could/would use to avoid going down on a woman.  If a man EVER told me that my coochie was too dark and needed lightening, I would just decline & deprive him of pussy privileges and throw his sorry ass out !!

The unfortunate thing is that this ridiculous product can capitalize on the fact that people within the Indian societies have inferiority complexes and hence will actually buy the product !! I just hope to God that none of the Bollywood celebrities actually try to endorse this product – ‘cos then the herd mentality will commence !

What are your thoughts on the subject ? Do you believe that celebrities should endorse products that somehow impose an inferiority complex on the population ? Don’t we have other things to worry about in an already very complex world ?

Guys – seriously – have you ever thought about the shades of vaginas that you are interested in ?  Does it even matter to you ? I would hope that you would dissuade any woman from ever using such a product.  In fact, since it’s Cake & Cunnilingus day tomorrow – show her that a real man wants to eat his pussy au naturel !

Disclaimer : I’m aware that there are fairness products available in the US / Europe for the same thing – but it’s not something that is endorsed the way it is in India.

Further Reading

  1. Your Vagina Isn’t Just Too Big, Too Floppy, and Too Hairy – it’s Also Too Brown ! by Lindy West for Jezebel.com 
  2. Is Your Vagina Pink Enough ? (the product mentioned here is for the Caucasian society)
  3. Economics Journal : Is Fairer Skin Really Better ? by Rupa Subramanya for the Wall Street Journal

sspIndia is full of stereotypes.  I’ve come to learn of them during my 3.5 years in the country.  But what really irks me to my core is how everyone associates ‘being fair’ to ‘finding a perfect match’. 

Ladies and gents (from India) – you know what I am talking about.  My grandmother hates it when I get tanned; she feels that no guy (or guys’ family) will want a ‘dark’ girl as a potential addition to their household.  I love being tanned – the way my skin has a healthy glow to it.  But apparently it will restrict my chances of finding a nice guy !

So no surprise that I was appalled and shocked at the series of advertisements (5 actually !) for Ponds Cream to promote their cream ‘White Beauty’.  Here are the adverts for you to watch : Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4 and Episode 5.

makeup advise

How on earth can one justify that by using a ‘fairness’ cream can help one land the man / woman of their dreams.  It’s just SAD.  Within the Indian society – there is this uncanny obsession with being ‘fair’ and using that as a criteria to select a partner.

Of course this also happens in other countries but it’s not used as a basis for finding a partner.  European & American ‘white’ men & women want to get ‘tanned’ and ‘get darker’ so they can look good.  Then you have the Indian community who instead of being happy of their natural skin tones (and mind you there are some beautiful tones out there) are going out of their way and using products that can harm and damage their skin.  For what ? To be FAIR because the society thinks it’s better than being your natural colour ??

skin pigmentationI sometimes feel that Indians are the most racist amongst themselves as a community due to the prejudices within the society as a whole.  Have you ever come across a matrimonial advert or seen the criteria on match-making / matrimonial websites ?  There is a section for ‘skin colour’ !!! If that’s not racist – I don’t know what else is !  For those who opt for ‘arranged marriages’ – being ‘fair’ is one of the criteria set out for brides-to-be.  Oh and if the girl is ‘fair’ AND ‘thin’ then she’s a prize winner (doesn’t matter if the guy in question is an ugly ducking or the size of Yokozuna)

What shocks me more is that celebrities are even promoting and encouraging such ridiculous and delusional ideas.  The advert itself is just so OTT it gets on my nerves.  I’ve seen Priyanka Chopra (the actress who uses the cream in the ad) in person and the woman is NOT fair by any standard.  She’s got a dusky complexion.  In fact most of the models / actresses in Bollywood are ‘dusky’ rather than ‘fair’ i.e. Bipasha Basu (she’s hot); Rani Mukherjee; Kajol; Kareena Kapoor (she was always dusky, don’t know how she got so ‘fair’ now!); Shilpa Shetty; Sushmita Sen etc.  Shouldn’t they be taking a stand and NOT encouraging such attitudes ?  The majority of the population is in awe of these actors / actresses and fall into the herd mentality of believing that if the celebs use XYZ products then it must work ! 

One can’t go around stating that being ‘fair’ means that you are automatically better than the next person.  I think the adverts fail (for me at least) as it’s a very unrealistic story and doesn’t quite fit the product.  Now if they were using the product to help get rid of excessive tans; reduce dark pigmentation on skin due to excess exposure to the sun – it makes more sense. 

Unfortunately (and fortunately for Ponds) – the product can capitalize (and IS) on the fact that people within the Indian societies have inferiority complexes and hence will actually buy the product !!

What are your thoughts on the subject ? Do you believe that celebrities should endorse products that somehow impose an inferiority complex on the population ? Should ‘skin tone’ even be considered as a physical attribute when describing your ideal partner ? Don’t we have other things to worry about in an already very complex world  ?

Further Reading :

  1. Lost Love & Fair Skin by Reema
  2. Conversations - Great White Hope by Kuzhali Manickaval
  3. Fairly Neurotic by Mark Jacobs
  4. The Dark Side of Skin Whitening Cream by Sunny Hundal for the Guardian (link courtesy Angelina JoLoveless)
  5. Beyond The Pale by Naresh Puri for BBC

And if you have a 5 more minutes to spare – check out the views shared by The Young Turks network channel.