To My Dear Fairness Cream…

What are the advertisements trying to sell impressionable girls? That a woman’s confidence is dependent upon her fairness cream? A letter calling this out.

Hey dear,

I know you are doing extraordinarily well in this world obsessed with skin colours. This letter is to thank you for being there with me right from my teenage years. I owe you a big thanks from my heart. I have always kept you in my dressing table drawer. You “help” my facial skin to hide its flaws when I touch up a bit with you and dress up for a party.

Since a few days I have been watching you. You seem to be convinced by the TV advertisement where a dark complexioned girl is unsure about a decision. Remember the ad? She is confused whether to get a job first or to marry first, as a prospective groom awaits and her father convinces her to get married. Then she gets you and becomes fair which consequently gives her confidence to get a job first. Her face brims with self confidence and glows like a LED bulb.

That was it. They made you believe that you are no longer a polymerized tube filled with chemicals. That you are super powerful and can transform a woman inside out. Now I see your half empty crumpled body stretching straight in pride. But do you realize this ad can crumple the confidence of a girl and make her feel low about herself forever ? Think. How can your Alpha Hydroxy Acids, Vitamin A , vitamin C extracts define a woman?

Look, you are great inside a beauty kit. That’s your boundary. Just don’t have misconceptions about the women who use you.

Confidence comes from faith. Confidence comes from knowledge. In no way can confidence come from fairness!

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Said advert ends on a silent note: Dark girls have two options – one, get married and two, use cream to become fair (!!). I would like to say to your beloved advertisers – you have two options: one, be creatively intelligent about ads without putting women down, and two, go to hell. You never know when the myths and trends reverse.

Published here earlier.

Image source: YouTube

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