Our innocent childhood witnessed the ugly media world telling us that fairer skin infuses confidence.
It made some of us believe that everyone will love us more if we have fair skin.
The advertisements portrayed a discouraged, dark-skinned woman who was rejected by her colleagues and other men. But, one thing that would change everything for her – get her confidence and respect – was a bottle of the magical fairness cream.
This cream would not only ‘brighten’ her skin but also help her to obtain lucrative career offers in a split second.
What these beauty creams reflect are the horrific social traditions that compare fairness with a higher caste status and a qualification for marriage or success. And, we can only wonder why leading actresses like Deepika Padukone would be promoting such illogical beauty standards.
But in a refreshing change, actor Sai Pallavi recently turned down a ₹2 crore advertisement deal for a fairness cream.
And, she did it because she doesn’t want to promote fairness creams and mislead young girls and women.
Sai Pallavi, leading Malayalam actor, shared with Behindwoods about why she refused to endorse such products.
“This is Indian colour. We can’t go to foreigners and ask them why they’re white. We can’t look at them and think we want that. That’s their skin colour and this is ours. Africans have their own colour too and they are beautiful.”
Opening up about her childhood guilt, she further added:
“I’ve tricked Pooja (her sister) several times. She wasn’t as fair as I am. When we stood in front of a mirror, she would look at my face and then at hers. I noticed this several times. So I told her that if she wanted to become fair, she should eat fruits and vegetables. And she did. She doesn’t like fruits and vegetables at all but she still ate them because she wanted to be fair. I felt very bad about that, the impact it had on a girl five years younger than me”
And, what earns Pallavi our respect is her views about the money that she could have earned from such deals:
“What will I do with the money I get from such an ad? I’ll go home and eat three chapatis or rice, go around in my car. I don’t have other big needs. I see if I can contribute to the happiness of people around me or if I can say that these standards we see are wrong.”
It’s not just us who are celebrating Pallavi Sai’s inspiring act. The internet is in love with her as well!
The fact that their is a multi-million dollar “fairness cream” industry thriving in 2019 within certain parts of the world is another example of our collective moral failure. More power to celebrities who refuse to advertise for such industries. https://t.co/LGQ8lukIF6
— Justin Jos (@justinjos1992) May 31, 2019
“What am I going to do with the money I get from such an ad? I’ll go home and eat three chapatis or rice. I don’t have any other big needs.” @Sai_Pallavi92 is now our forever confidence goals!https://t.co/H0kJtPKsQR
— JFW (@jfwmagofficial) May 28, 2019
“Fairness cream” is fraud and it’s racism.
There is a reason why USA cream business is not trying(advertising) to make ‘Black’ people to ‘White’.
Shoutout to @Sai_Pallavi92 ????????
//Africans have their own colour too and they are beautiful.”//https://t.co/kLCcOPTOyi
— கல்வெட்டு (@kalvetu) May 29, 2019
Breaking Stereotypes 🙂 https://t.co/qtewdBk3Oh
— Manas Kumar Rout (@manas_mkr) May 29, 2019
Well done Sai Pallavi. #IndianColour rules. High time we got over the senseless fairness obsession.https://t.co/RIH6EL6rks pic.twitter.com/nKnJZtIuYd
— Debabrata Sengupta (@digitallydeb) May 30, 2019
