Across Cultures, darker people suffer most, why? -Andre 3000 Dark skinned girls and media representation We’ve all grown up with standards of beauty that were difficult to live up to. For dark skinned girls, the standards were impossible to meet. As a teenager, my favourite tv shows starred tall, slim, white women with perfect proportions. The magazines I saved up for …
Category: Women Beauty Standards
Bollywood and it’s Long term Commitment to Sexism
New Age media has repeatedly published articles about the problems with Bollywood. About how movies portray actresses, awards, and the million things that are related to Bollywood and our society. This article comes with the hope of making a difference, however small. It comes from a desire that women everywhere can watch a movie and be entertained instead of being infuriated, …
#ToTheGirls – Positivity from the older generation of women
The last article of the #HashtagTrilogy aims to finish on a more positive note. Therefore in this article, I’ll be focusing on the hashtag #ToTheGirls. What is the #ToTheGirls hashtag? The hashtag #ToTheGirls was started in April 2015 by author Courtney Summers. It allows older women to impart positive advice and encouragement to younger girls struggling with the myriad of …
Objectification and Sexism in Bollywood – The Bollywood Diva Song
Soon the viral video ‘The Bollywood Diva Song’ starring Kangana Ranaut was released, the video gained widespread attention for a number of different reasons. And one of them was the highlighting of the rampant sexism and objectification in Bollywood. Let’s discuss this in the context of the video briefly. The whole mock dance number shows the stereotypical way in which female …
UnfairandLovely – the importance for women to get behind this hashtag!
For years, the push of white western beauty standards means that fair skin is entrenched as the beauty ideal in many countries across the world – particularly in India. This has led to the launch of numerous products such as skin lightening pills and creams, offering to make user ‘more attractive’. Adverts imply that having lighter skin will make you more attractive …
Women in Sports
“Do you think Bartoli’s dad told her when she was little: You are never going to be a looker, you’ll never be a Sharapova, so you have to be scrappy and fight?” Make special note of the words used. Those words belong to John Inverdale, a commentator who handled the commentary for the finals of the 2013 Wimbledon matches. Through …
Dark Skin Is Dirty
Ever since I was a little girl, I remember the cosmetic industry in India would prey on the insecurities of women—manifested by the society obsession with pale skin—and promote the use of skin-whitening cream. Ayurvedic Vicco Turmeric cream, made with turmeric and sandalwood, was considered the smell of marital bliss for “good” women. Fair & Lovely, another skin lightening cream, promised visibly …
Feminism or Basic Human Rights?
Growing up in an ordinary, military, middle-class family, I didn’t expect myself to become a feminist. When I was a teenager, the prevailing view was that feminism meant being anti-men. Feminists were women who were divorced, widowed, or victims of abuse and hated everything to do with men. They lobbied for women’s freedoms only so that they could take away …
Slim, Fair & Beautiful: How Shallow are Our Definitions of the Ideal Indian Woman?
We’ve all laughed our guts out at those jokes in Indian films about the big, fat, swarthy woman. It seemed like the obvious thing to do then. These people were ‘meant’ to be funny. Watch any of the Indra Kumar/David Dhawan comedies for reference. If they slipped on banana peels or appeared abruptly when you were expecting the slim, beautiful …
Slim, Fair & Beautiful: How Shallow are Our Definitions of the Ideal Indian Woman?
We’ve all laughed our guts out at those jokes in Indian films about the big, fat, swarthy woman. It seemed like the obvious thing to do then. These people were ‘meant’ to be funny. Watch any of the Indra Kumar/David Dhawan comedies for reference. If they slipped on banana peels or appeared abruptly when you were expecting the slim, beautiful …