Melanistic and Majestic
If you look anything like me, I'm sure you've had your struggles in finding the right foundation. When I first started buying and wearing foundations, or to be precise, powder products, I used to buy one to two shades lighter to make myself seem fairer. Because somehow I was convinced from within that I HAD to seem fairer. What I didn't realise until I was older was that the ashy sheen wearing the wrong foundation creates is not cute. You see, I was raised in a Tamil community where if you are fair, you are considered attractive. And if you are dark, you are not. Which is pretty hilarious and ironic considering that the average Dravidian, i.e., the overarching term to describe people of South Indian descent, IS dark due to a combination of environmental and genetic factors.
To be completely honest, from my experience, this seems to be a problem for girls and not so much for guys. And I have seen many, many instances where a guy with my skin tone has been described as "fair" while I myself, have been described as "dark". So I'm not sure what exactly the marker is for these types of things.
As a Tamil girl, you wouldn't believe the number of times I have heard "கருப்பா இருந்தாலும் கலையா இருப்பா" to describe a girl. This literally means even though she's dark, she's pretty. Your darkness is pointed out first as your downfall, and your beauty as the redeeming factor. Just to contrast the effect further, a common term I have heard used to describe dark-skinned men is "கருஞ்சிறுத்தை" which literally means black leopard. No, I didn't mean jaguar. It's honestly black leopard. I'm sure you know leopards are spotted but India has black leopards, that is to say, melanistic leopards. IN OTHER WORDS, if you are a leopard with melanin, you fit the bill for the term "melanin wonder", and to describe a male as a black leopard is a compliment. But if you are a female, well your family better fork out some more dowry to make up for the flaw that is your melanin.
The thing is, this is an age-old issue. There is a lot of "comedy" in Tamil cinema, society, and culture that pokes fun at Tamil women of colour, aka, pretty much the population from what I have seen. This "comedy" has become a mainstay and it's tossed about approximately every 30 mins if you are at a Tamil gathering and every hour if you are watching a Tamil film. I don't want to get to specifics because this article is already far too long than necessary but if you are a dark-skinned girl, you are next to pathetic. Meanwhile, a fair and beautiful girl on the other end of this ridiculous "spectrum" is portrayed as someone flawless and undeserving of hate and a dark-skinned guy is pretty much just a result of the way of nature. And the underlying message has become loud and clear. Dark skin is an indicator of vigour and masculinity among men while fair skin is an indicator of femininity and its pseudo-associated fragility among women. A dark-skinned male is portrayed to have attributes similar to those of warriors from our epics and mythologies and a fair-skinned female is portrayed as delicate and vulnerable, thereby attractive. Tamil cinema now has an English woman playing the role of a Tamil girl in our films. And by English, I mean straight from the UK, pure Caucasian blood, and had next to no knowledge of India prior to her first film. To give her the benefit of the doubt, she did play an English girl from an aristocratic family in British-era India but now, now, she's acting as a Tamil girl. In fact, most of the actresses are almost never Tamil themselves, but instead, from other ethnicities and incredibly fair. I'm talking about the colour of milk, not even Milk Bikis (Milk Bikis is a common biscuit available in India that I eat to this age).
And if you are watching films from home trying to take a break, and the patriarchy and the misogyny in the film haven't incensed you already, just wait for the ads. For those of you part of the Tamil/Indian culture, I'm sure you know of Fair and Lovely. And for my unfamiliar friends who have yet to be inducted into this, Fair and Lovely is a fairness (yes fairness, not brightening) cream that is supposed to make you fairer if you use it consistently enough. And despite all my pro-melanin sisters speaking up more than ever, this cream is just getting bigger and more pervasive. It has evolved to have a BB cream now. So from a stand-alone cream, it has become a three-step thing now, for you to better achieve results from your treatment - Fair and Lovely face wash, Fair and Lovely fairness cream and Fair and Lovely BB cream. Am I the only one this looks ridiculous to? This is exactly what amuses me about the Tamil/Indian culture - we always seem to take 5 steps forward, and 15 steps backwards, SIMULTANEOUSLY, with pretty much everything. And like I said, there are ads for this product, which are equally shocking. Fair and Lovely has been around for the longest for women, and its form of evolution beyond the BB cream is for its ads to relate to the girl of today. How do they do that you ask? So the girl in the ad is to use the cream to get the confidence she needs to ace the job interview so that she can be on par to match the groom her dad insists for her to get married to. If your question is so what was the ad for the girl of yesterday - well she would get rejected by the groom's family because she was dark. She didn't apply for a job or think about doing her Masters back then. So hey! #GenderEquality because your girl is working today, which in turn is because she is fair.
Also while we are on #GenderEquality, men of today have evolved to apply makeup, invest in skincare and all that ish, right? So what has it brought about? You guessed it! Fair and Handsome because God forbid you are seen at home at night applying Fair and Lovely before you go to sleep if you are a guy. And ads are portrayed such that ordinary men become these legendary actors and achieve their goals because Fair and Handsome gave them the confidence they needed. Because let's be honest, the only thing that has been standing between you and your dreams so far is your melanin. What else? And just to spell it out one more time to bring home my point, girls use fairness products to get a job or further their studies so they can eventually get married while guys use fairness products to become well-loved actors and athletes.
The reason I am so triggered is because I personally have been the butt of "jokes" about my skin colour since forever. Not only did I have to deal with it with my Tamils and Indians, I also had to put up with it from a young age at school because my skin tone is a minority. And honestly, enough is enough. It's time I speak up about this. Extremely underhanded comments have been thrown my and my family's way about how difficult it will be to get me married because I'm dark, and extremely suggestive comments about the need to anticipate a hefty dowry to compensate for my skin colour. Like my melanin is a defect. And the thing is, this colour thing has been so embedded in our culture that pregnant mums are made to drink saffron and milk during their pregnancy to have a baby that is fair. Is there any science behind this method? Because my mum drank it for me and I am a NC45 and didn't for my sister and she's a NC40. And there are mums who will do this, just to protect their baby from any form of mocking or in extremely deep-rooted Tamil scenarios, marital problems in the future if it's a girl. My own mother did a bunch of home remedies on me during my pre-teen years to "fix" this situation because "things can change during puberty".
I am extremely proud to say that I'm Tamil - my language is one of the oldest languages that has stood the test of time. And for something that has been around for over 2000 years, can you imagine the years of culture and history and practices that have been intertwined and passed down? Practices that are relevant to this day? How beautiful and amazing is that? My ancestors were so advanced as a society that they had no issues sculpting sexually explicit images on temples. Temples! Because they must have seen it as a way of life and not taboo. So when we say insulting someone for their dark skin is such an archaic practice or uneducated or ignorant, what era are we referring to? When did this disjoint happen? Old literary poems and devotional songs praise the dark beauty of some of our gods AND goddesses. People sculpted Gods as black from head to toe in temples from over a minimum of 1000 years ago. So when did dark skin become almost offensive? If you were to throw a stone, you are more likely to hit a Tamil with melanin, not a Tamil who is "fair". So how are we indulging in all these self-deprecating humour and skin tone has become something we have to talk about 24/7? What happened?
I personally think that all this talk about dark skin is coming from a place of insecurity. So to all my melanistic Tamil girls, you are MAJESTIC. Don't let anyone tell you any different. And more importantly, stand in solidarity with your Tamil melanin sisters. Unlike our language, this colour-hate in our community SHOULD NOT stand the test of time.
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