“Ugly” is a term that we use to refer to something unpleasant or repulsive. At some point in your life, you have felt that your worth is low because you are “ugly”. News flash! You have probably internalized the deep-rooted colonial mindset regarding beauty standards that have been fed to you through mainstream media, society, and capitalism.
Today we will dive into the depths of our perception of beauty in Bangladesh and the horrible obsession with Eurocentric features that has consumed women all around the world.
The Evolution of Colonist Ideal of Beauty
“Light features, like blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin, were believed to be physical manifestations of “the light of God,” writes British writer Mark Tungate in his book Branded Beauty. It was the rise of Christianity in Europe that put emphasis on relating beauty and spirituality. Skin color also had class connotations since the early ages where the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman societies associated being lighter-skinned with being higher class. Colonizers took it to the next level and introduced it across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the later years, this connection between beauty and whiteness has been used as propaganda to rule over people of color.
Bangladesh has been a colony of the British Empire for 200 years. From our constitution to our education system, a lot has been influenced by colonialism. Unfortunately, along with our wealth, the colonizers have consumed our beauty standards as well. The notion “whiter is better” has been engraved into our brain so deeply that even after so many years, we are incapable of not thinking like our colonizers.
Colorism in Bangladesh
Even though Bangladesh is not racially diverse like the USA, people still find a way to shame those who have darker skin. Yes, Bangladeshis are brown-skinned people. So how do we find a way to demonize dark skin? We do it in an extremely “classy” way.
In our society, the chances of women getting married depend on the color of their skin. Mothers do not want dark-skinned daughters-in-law as that will increase the probability of them giving birth to dark-skinned babies! And then if those babies are female, it would be extremely tough to get them married!
According to Borbodhu.com, the largest and oldest matrimonial website in Bangladesh, “at least 70% of grooms say that it’s compulsory for their brides to be fair.”
In a research article “Colorism in Bangladeshi Society” by Kari B. Jensen, a participant emphasized the connection of social stratification with the skin color of women. She said, “Since we are not rich, we cannot afford to have a dark daughter. It’s related to poverty, so it’s complicated.”
This implies that for a poor family, marrying a dark-skinned daughter may be costly in terms of future dowry payments to the grooms. Along with these extreme repercussions of being a dark-skinned woman, there are so many instances of casual colorism.
“Bright color doesn’t look good on you because you have darker skin tone” is an extremely common dialogue that girls have to endure from idiots. Girls are advised to use creams and herbal products to lighten up their skin tone. We are accustomed to seeing brides wearing foundation shades 10 times lighter than their original skin color.
Although boys do not face as extreme consequences as women do, they are subjected to mockery for being dark-skinned by their peers. Calling someone “kala” (dark-skinned) in a mocking manner and thinking that it is funny is extremely problematic. The problem is not that you are calling them “dark-skinned”, The problem is why you are laughing about it
The Impact of Colorism on Our Self-Image
“You’re pretty for a dark-skinned girl.” This comment might seem like a compliment but in reality, it is offensive and demeaning. From an early age, girls are convinced to hate their skin color if it is anything other than pale. I have heard the horror stories of many dark-skinned women who despite being extremely competent, talented, and independent, were shunned by society or their families for being dark.
Our beauty is intermingled with our self-worth as women, which is a by-product of patriarchy, capitalism, and colonialism. This might seem like a superficial issue to some people, but when your skin color becomes the determinant of your status as a woman, it can genuinely feel like a life and death situation. Women’s mental health suffers a ton which forces them to resort to fairness products.
Global Obsession with Eurocentric Features
Every person has facial and physical features that make them who they are. It’s a representation of their race, nationality, personality, lifestyle, and more. But unfortunately, society has set some standards for features that are supposed to be “appealing” or “beautiful”. You need to have whiter skin, straight hair, a pointy nose, and pinkish lips to be categorized as pretty. You also should be slender and tall, being curvy can be categorized as “fat”.
Yes, because of the Kardashians we all suddenly love curvy women. But beautiful black women with curves and pulpy lips were never considered beautiful. I will let you wonder why.
Fashion Industry
If you take one look at the global fashion industry, you will understand what I am talking about. It’s everywhere. And we don’t know any better because that’s what we have been exposed to all our life. Most of the top models that we know meet those Eurocentric standards.
The only black model I know who has reached that level of fame is Naomi Campbell. And when Tyra Banks came along, the media started pitting these two black women against one another as if there was only one who could take the position of being a “top Black model.”
According to a report by the Guardian, 78.2% of all the models featured in spring 2016’s fashion adverts were white.
Although we do see a representation of POC (people of color) models, they are sometimes treated as tokens to push forward fake inclusive narratives from brands.
Beauty Industry
When it comes to Beauty, women of color have always been an afterthought. Even a few years ago, companies would launch foundations with 30 different shades for white skin tone and two shades for someone who was unfortunate enough to be not “white”. Launched in 2017, Fenty Beauty has destroyed this practice and provided a 40-shade foundation range for all skin tones, universal lip gloss shades, and lipstick colors to assure the inclusion of all women in beauty. The sad news is that it was launched just 4 years ago, and the good news is that this has encouraged other brands to make products for women of color.
In Bangladesh, beauty is to be fair. I didn’t know that foundation needs to have different shades until I came across beauty YouTubers who told me otherwise. Most shops in Bangladesh have 3 to 5 shades of foundation. If you have enough money, you can order darker shades online, but quality makeup is very expensive, and everyone cannot afford it.
Social Media
One glance at google search would tell you that the image of beauty usually means pictures of white women.
When you look for fashion inspiration on Pinterest and you are from South Asia like me, you will face a problem. All the photos are of white, blonde, skinny women with Eurocentric features. It’s a bit difficult to know if these clothes or aesthetics will suit you when everyone’s features are the same and it doesn’t match you.
Instagram might look inclusive from far away, but the same rules apply there as well. But these days there’s an interesting phenomenon occurring. Many white influencers have been accused of “blackfishing” a term that describes the phenomenon of non-Black influencers and public figures using bronzer, tanning, Photoshop, or even cosmetic surgery to change their looks to appear Black or mixed race. It looks like the formula for social media fame is to copy black women’s style, skin tone and features while being white. Unfortunately, real black women do not get appreciated enough for having the same exact features. The irony.
Decolonize Your Standards of Beauty!
Slowly but steadily, women of color are being represented through social media, fashion houses, and beauty products. Along with Fenty Beauty, many brands are coming forward with inclusive products that are suitable for diverse skin tones.
The fashion industry is evolving as well by including more people of color in adverts, runways, and campaigns. People are calling out fashion brands that focus solely on white women and demanding more inclusivity. In social media, women are being encouraged to embrace their own unique features. Brands are becoming more inclusive which is creating space and employment for women of color.
After the Black Lives Matter movement took over in the US in 2020, Hindustan Unilever Limited’s faced a lot of backlash on social media for selling Fair & Lovely by capitalizing on the insecurity and colonial mindset of South-Asians about their skin color. As a result of this backlash, it dropped the word ‘Fair’ from its name, restricted using discriminatory ‘White/Whitening’,’ ‘Light/Lightening’ from all its packaging, and renamed the brand to ‘Glow & Lovely’. Although this is an extremely small step, it is a step in the right direction.
While most of our own actresses and models are light-skinned, Nabela Noor, a Bangladeshi girl living in the US, has encouraged girls to embrace their diversity and challenged the existing beauty perceptions of Bangladesh.
This representation in the west has clearly challenged the beauty standards we have in the sub-continent. In Bangladesh, a good number of people are developing the mindset of calling out our age-old mentality of equating darkness to being ugly.
Recently, Prothom Alo had to edit one of their headlines after being called out by the public for being regressive and uneducated on the topic of colorism. I am sure this would not be the case a few years ago and it would be easily overlooked. Things are changing.
And to accelerate this change we need to take more active steps to normalize dark skin tones all around Bangladesh. Influential people with large platforms should speak up more about this issue. Media houses and filmmakers need to be aware of their choices while casting people and make sure proper representation is being ensured.
We need to revisit our biases while selecting a life partner and unlearn our racist outlook. I know it’s not easy to teach the elderly about colorism when they have been influenced by it all their life, but we can take some active steps to influence our kids to be better. Children should be given moral lessons on colorism from a young age. Little girls should be encouraged to play with dolls that look like them, not just white barbies. They need to be taught that their worth is not related to their complexion, and they should feel confident within their own skin.
We need to understand that we must be the change that we wish to see in the world.
It’s high time we left the age-old rotten colonial standards of beauty and embraced all our shades with confidence and love ourselves as who we are. We are Bold, Brown, and Beautiful.
