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Of the nearly 7 billion people on the planet, 1 in 6 is an Indian, and at least half of those are men. That’s a massive potential market. Most of those Indian men have little disposable income. Now, as India’s economy grows, some of them are becoming consumers. This trend has been spotted by the cosmetics industry.

For decades, the cosmetics business has made millions selling skin-whitening products to Indian women. Now, it’s making more money by persuading Indian men they should be lighter, too.

Industry analysts says skin-lightening creams for men, first introduced just a few years back, are selling well, and that the Indian market is growing.

The TV advertisements tend to send the same message: Light skin makes you attractive to women and successful at work. Dark skin, by implication, does not.

‘White Is Hot’

“It’s obviously what you don’t have is what you want. The Western world they go in for tans. They want to get a little brown touch to themselves. They think that’s hot,” says Darshan Gokhani, 27, a model for TV and print commercials. “So, what we think over here, since we are brown-skinned people, white is hot.”

Gokhani, who works in Mumbai, capital of India’s entertainment industry, says modeling is a tough business.

“Oh, my God, it’s really, really competitive,” he says. “I got in easily, but even if I go for an audition now, the audition goes on for three days and there are at least 500 boys coming in for an audition each day.”

Gokhani says he is lucky to be, as he puts it, “nice and fair.” He also has naturally curly hair. He says advertisers like his “look” because it is unusual. But Gokhani says he believes most of the young Indian men who show up for those auditions are using skin-lightening creams.

“Out of 500, I think at least 300, definitely,” he says. “Earlier, it was all hidden. But now it’s all open. They want to be fair; they want to be nice. Anyone who’s fair gets on Indian television.”

N. Radha Krishnan, founding editor of Man’s World, one of a half-dozen men’s lifestyle magazines that have cropped up in India in recent years, targeting the country’s new class of affluent fashion-conscious males, says that in India, skin color is an issue from birth.

“Well, Indians like white skin, that’s it,” he says.

He adds: “Indian women also want their kids to be, you know, fair skinned. That’s one of the first things that they ask: Is he fair-skinned? And it’s right across. It cuts across the country.”

Reinforcing Stereotypes

Cosmetics manufacturers claim their skin-whitening creams produce results within weeks or even days, though there are many skeptics. These creams are generally contain sunscreen and moisturizer, plus a formula the companies claim affects your skin’s melanin, which determines its color.

This is a sensitive subject in India. The cosmetics industry and the ads they use have been accused of reinforcing stereotypes about race, caste and gender.

“We believe that beauty is beyond color, and that every woman or child born, male or female, has the right to believe that they are of value,” says Kavitha Emannuel, of Women of Worth, a women’s rights group.

Emmanuel says some Indian women are so concerned about pigmentation that during pregnancy they will eat saffron and powdered gold in the belief this will make their babies lighter.

The scale of the pressure on Indian women to have paler skins can be seen in the matrimonial columns of India’s newspapers. Advertisements, taken out by parents seeking brides for their sons, frequently specify that they are seeking “fair” or “very fair” girls.

Roots Of Desire

The desire for pale skin has roots that run deep in India’s history. It’s entwined with Hinduism’s complex social hierarchy, or caste system. Those higher up the scale generally tend to have paler skins than people on the bottom rung.

Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, a young writer who blogs about Mumbai’s social scene, says that’s one reason some Indians seek to become whiter.

“It indicates to someone who’s meeting you for the first time that you are born into a family where you haven’t had to do any outdoor work, and that your status is higher as you haven’t had to be in the fields or do any of that,” Madhavan says.

Madhavan says the prejudice in favor of lighter skin is stronger among India’s older generations. Those skin-whitening ads aimed at young people don’t seem to have worked on her.

“I like being brown! I think I wear a lot of clothes that contrast with my skin color and I have lots of fun with the brownness,” she says. “In fact, I go out of my way to get even browner.”

Prahlad Kakkar, a well-known director of television ads in Mumbai and a social commentator, says some Indian men have been using indigenous natural remedies to lighten themselves for centuries. He has an unusual theory about why: He says throughout history India’s repeatedly been invaded. These invaders – Persians, Moghuls, and the British – tended to have lighter skins than Indians, so paler skin has become associated with power.

“It’s something that is a part of the legacy and the burden that the dark man has to bear for the pillaging and the raping and the conquering of the white man,” Kakkar says.

Kakkar, who is nearly 60 and has a successful career behind him, has a word of advice for young Indian men who are hoping that having paler skin will put them on the road to social or sexual conquest.

“It’s always a waste of time to try to look different from what you are,” he says. “What are the most attractive things about a man? When he’s younger, it’s his belief in himself and his articulation, and his imagination. And when he’s older: his bank balance!”

npr.org

This story is filed under: Arts & Culture

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