Seven Things That Society Says About Dusky Women That Makes Me Go WTF

Being a dusky girl is not easy in a patriarchal society. Your life is obstructed by prejudices, sexist comments and discrimination at every level. You are discriminated against not just because of your gender but colour too. With our country still set on colour biases of colonial times, managing to thrive as dusky women in India is indeed an achievement.

But should it be this difficult for a dusky woman to survive in our society? Why do we still follow the biases propagated in colonial times? If that is so, are we even free? Here are seven comments that I have stumbled upon while surviving happily as a dusky woman in a society obsessed with colourism. 

1. Tumse shaadi kaun karega?

One of the worst comments that I come across as a dusky girl is how my colour will affect my &t=1120s">marriage prospects. Our society is obsessed with fair grooms and brides. It is something that is not a question but taken as an unchangeable norm in our society. But dear onlookers, if husband or in-law have a problem with my colour, then this reflects their narrow-mindedness and not my inability to be in a marriage.

2. Don’t go out sun. Aur kaali ho jaogi

When I was in college, it was obvious that I had to travel whether it is a cloudy or a sunny day. In fact, I loved basking under the sun and stretching myself in the back lawns of my college. But whenever my mother came for a visit, she could not stop talking about my dark skin. She would take me to parlours, buy fairness and anti-sun creams and all against my choice. But dear mother, why does my look matter to you? Why are you more obsessed with my dark skin than my college and success stories? Just because my colour will get darker, does it mean I stop going out and doing what I want to do?

3. Your parents are quite fair. How come you are dark?

I am dark and that makes me unique in my family. I don’t have any regrets for not inheriting the fairness of my parents. I would rather inherit their experience, goodness and make my own legacy.

4. You look fair and beautiful today

Really? Why should it be necessary for me to be fair in order to be beautiful? I look beautiful every day in my dark skin. I don’t need to look a shade lighter to deserve your compliments.

5. Why don’t you try some fairness creams?

Fairness creams are the most overrated products that I can think of. They feed on the wrong ideology that fairness is the natural colour of women and dusky girls must thrive towards attaining it. Even advertisements show that fairness creams make women more confident in life. But dear society, I embrace my colour as it is. I don’t need a fairness cream to look confident and beautiful.

6. Don’t wear black clothes or clothes with light colours. It will make you look darker

Wearing light coloured clothes doesn’t make me look darker, but it enhances and shows my true colours. And I am in love with my colour and my choices of clothes. So spare the effort of choosing the right clothes for me.

7. Dark-skinned girls belong to lower class/caste

I have often come across this stereotype that a woman with dark skin is assumed to be hailing from a lower caste or community. While men and women who are fair belong to well-to-do families. But dear society, this is just a bias that has been running through our veins since colonial times. It was during colonial times when British people were considered better than dark-skinned Indians just because of their skin colour. It is just not right to stereotype women with dark skin as belonging to lower communities. Their skin colour is just a feature of their body and not a determinant of their abilities, beauty, class or caste.

Views expressed are author's own