The snow-white syndrome
"Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them."
David Hume.
That beauty is only skin deep is a mantra best left for winning beauty pageants. Since the dawn of globalisation in India, the cosmetic industry had got its much-needed jumpstart. And Kochi with its
beautiful, image conscious women, has been an obvious target. Walk into any cosmetic store in the city, and one has an array of products to choose from leaving both the market and the consumer in a state of perpetual high. But then all this has come with a price. The slow yet deliberate conditioning of the Malayali female psyche to the Western ideal of `divine beauty' (aka- the tall, fair, slim syndrome) had just begun. In the West, white aesthetic predominates and that ideologue has come to rule our subconscious. Just switch on the television and one is bombarded with advertisements and fashion think tanks endorsing these pre-conceived concepts to the subliminal minds of the viewers. Thus you have a whole new generation of young Malayali women totally disillusioned with their intended evolutionary physiology, desperate to get their hands on products that will morph them into the TSF (Tall, Slim, Fair) ideal.
An obsession
In fact the fascination for white skin has almost become a national obsession. Flip through the matrimonial ads, and guess what the ideal requirement of a prospective bride is? It's quite intriguing to watch famous brands of `fairness creams' blatantly advocating the superiority of its `fair maiden' over the `dark skinned loser'. The glorification of the done to death `Gori-Gori' songs in Bollywood movies have not helped either. Says Smitha, (name changed), a corporate executive, "The preference for good looks is so obviously deep rooted, especially in todays corporates, where image counts a great deal, that sometimes you wonder if it affects the selection criteria during interviews." And this is not the affliction of just hip-urbanites. Sheila a domestic -help says, " I spend a part of my salary every month on fairness creams for my daughter .She is of marriageable age and should get a good husband you know." Obviously under the impression that fair skin is indeed a ticket for a good alliance. But nothing could console the attractive 17-year-old, who was denied access to the `elitist circle'(read popular) at college, on account of her dusky complexion!
Often victims of such racist remarks, these impressionable youngsters are under tremendous pressure to succumb to the TSF complex often leading to depressive disorders. A German tourist, while flipping through the matrimonial section of a news daily, had once commented that he simply could not fathom the Indian fascination for fair skin, and in essence said that we were quite like a coconut, brown on the outside but white inside. I couldn't have thought of a better analogy.
Discrimination
This maybe just the tip of the iceberg. We have inadvertently succeeded in building a thoroughly discriminatory mindset, thanks to the global cosmetic players. The Indian `nari' (woman) has come of age- exclaim the cosmetic gurus. She has indeed metamorphosed into their `Barbie Clone' with anorexia et al. But what they are doing are, undermining the self-confidence, violating the sentiments of millions of women through such racist endorsements. We have the collective responsibility to see that our children grow up in an emotionally, physically and intellectually healthy environment. Acceptance and respecting differences, whether they be of colour, caste, or creed, to seek beauty in all of nature's creations, should be driven into young minds. Cosmetics do enhance ones looks and should be used as an accessory, not the mind-altering panacea that it ruthlessly advocates. Meanwhile, the television is replete with the horrific images of death and destruction, and yet one dreads switching it on for fear of seeing something far more grotesque to feminine sensibilities.
to have as they are born half a century before you 
