Ah, yes, that pesky issue of skin whitening creams is back. A Telegraph article quotes an outraged head of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association over the above recent series of Pond’s advertisements. ‘White Beauty gives you a radiant pinkish white glow. Pale white or pinkish white, you choose.’ Hah! As if there’s a choice? What about staying the same colour?
The Independent article quotes Urvashi Butalia, a historian and director of Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publishing house.
“It is strange. There is such a premium placed on pale skin. I am not sure where it comes from. It may have something to do with India’s history of being colonised by various people and that there is a hangover of the idea that Aryan people are superior and Dravidian people – those who were already here – are inferior.”
