The spurn and ridicule of dark Indian girls in Tamil movies - why is it an important issue

Previously, KK posted an article on where are the real, dark skinned South Indian women in South Indian movies.

Many opposed the post blatantly despite the telling discrimination - some said it's because South Indian women are cultured, hence they won't act in glamorous role,s that's why South Indian directors go for North Indian girls. Look how the issue is diverted and patriarchal culture, exalted. Indian film industry is a male dominated one that caters for the male audience and voyeurism is the inherence. To blame women as uncultured for exposing doesn't make those who demand the exposure and watch the scenes with tongue lolling out and a nanosecond later condemn those actresses - regardless of where they are from cultured. It rather makes them supremely hypocritical and disgusting if I may add. If patriarchal culture is what these people call as culture, then that culture is not worth following and espousing. The true proprium of culture is respecting harmless choices others make in their lives and letting going and letting living - high time Indians inhale and retain this puff of culture in their psyche.

The Indian colour bias is also immersed in patriarchy -  a male actor will never be humiliated for his skin color but a female actress definitely would be immaterial of whether she is fair or dark, the ridicule of the fair skinned girl when she pinpoints the dark skin of the hero, note Muni 1 and Sivaji the Boss. If she's fair and she pinpoints the hero's dark skin tone, all hell breaks loose. Suddenly dark skin is most desirable and is of highest level. But if the same dark tone is on women, they're simply downgraded. How this cinematic liberty influences people is that while Indian males can reject dark women simply based on their skin color, women doing the same is not tolerated and considered expecting too much and simply callous - it's even worse if the woman is dark. It perpetuates the subtle bias that a guy is free to choose a gf/wife who fits the standards of beauty shown in Indian cinema while a girl can't have any, what more pinpoint the aspect.

It is a social issue stemming from Indian movies color bias - when Indian men watch such movies they tend to have high expectations on their future gf/wife, the outstanding criteria, fair skin. They unabashedly list fair skin as a criteria on Indian matrimonial sites - girls will list their fair skin as a plus point and guys will request for a fair skinned girl. This is influenced by movies. Dark girls are maliciously sidelined - they exist nowhere.

When guys propose to a dark skinned girl and get rejected, they say "do you think you look like hansika / Aishwarya rai etc.." They think they are doing darker skinned girls a favor by claiming to be in love with them. Then they will start harassing those girls.. Why? Coz of cinema influence obviously.

Other examples include darker skinned girls who are highly educated, lawyers, doctors etc. Their relatives would pester these girls into marrying even an uneducated, unemployed loafer who is only after her money just because of the girls' skin color. These girls are considered lucky even to get guys who are by comparison, pale before these girls' achievements, simply because they are dark. Highly educated and positioned dark skinned girls are not appreciated for their accomplishment - they're depreciated simply because they're dark. I'd like to cite a personal story - I have a cousin sister who's dark. She completed MBA and is now pursuing PhD. She was put under the gun to marry and the best guy that our relatives found for her is a SPM = 12th Standard dropout. All the aunties could talk about how lucky my cousin was to get a guy fairer than her even though he looks like Jabba the Hut. The fact that he is way under qualified for her didn't affect anyone - he's fairer than her hence she found serendipity; that was exactly what our aunt told her, that she's lucky a fairer guy agreed to marry her And, as with typical guys with inferiority complex and inflated ego, the guy tortured her both mentally and physically. The marriage culminated in divorce.

All these are not just cultural influences; it's also cinema influenced. Denying it won't solve the problem. Acknowledge it and try to remedy it. Fair skin has its own distinct beauty and dark skin has its own distinct beauty be it on men or women. We need to realize that and not try to change our skin color to suit some socially and cinematically constructed beauty standards. Just as how whitening dark skin is wrong, tanning fair skin is just as wrong and harmful. We all need to feel comfortable and beautiful in our own skin and not try so hard to be something we are not just because cinema and society implied so. It takes a lot of mental grit and time but we have to start somewhere and at some time.

~Pattu Mamee~ #OnlyAtKK

Idea credit: Aishu Ashvinaa Jayabalan