Why We Need To Embrace Skin Tone Diversity?

As we scramble to shed the ‘the lighter, the better’ notion – a mindset predominantly perpetrated in the billion-dollar beauty industry – are we doing more harm than good?

- Sanjana Salunkhe

If you’ve grown up in a typical Indian household, you know the scrutiny you go through for having a darker skin tone. The women in the house will huddle around you and share words of wisdom on how to whiten and brighten your skin to look like a pale, rosy doll. Simple lessons like ‘keep washing your face’ or ‘scrub your face hard’ are shared without realising how problematic they can be. Even strangers don’t refrain from subtly shaming you. The sales lady follows your visit to the make-up counter at a departmental store – not so diplomatically – preaching about how you should paint your face in lighter shades to look fairer. Beauty advertisements, too, have never shied away from showing how you can succeed and achieve everything you want in life with fair skin.

Do we see this changing? Yes, we are evolving with time, but we are moving at a snail’s pace. The solution to the problem was never adding 22 shades of foundation. It was always about the lack of research and ignorance regarding understanding melanin-rich skin. Today, words like ‘colourism,’ ‘inclusive’, and ‘make-up for all skin tones’ are buzzwords that highlight how all ethnicities are catered to. Here, we speak to three successful women who share their experiences and are on the path to building a diverse and inclusive world.

THE REAL DIVIDE