Written by Jyoti Sharma Fairer Than Snow White “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” In our kindergarten days we all heard the story of Snow White. And every little kid who heard it would have imagined a lovely lady dressed in a beautiful dress with bewitching beauty and complexion. Many might have even asked their mothers in their innocence filled voice, “Ma, how can anyone look like snow?” Mother knowing it is just a story, might have answered her toddlers with a warm smile. But hardly would anyone have imagined that in the future to come, they are going to witness every other girl with a snow white complexion in the ads endorsing fairness creams. According to the Oxford dictionary, beauty is “the quality of being pleasing to the senses, a person or thing that is beautiful”. Nowhere, absolutely nowhere is it defined on the basis of skin colour, except when we refer to the time when ‘blacks’ were the white man’s ‘burden’. Then why in this age, when a lot is said and done to remove the racial narrow mindedness, are these fairness creams acting anti-social? These so called fairness creams promise to make one’s skin a shade lighter, and automatically more ‘attractive’. One of these ads shows that a woman who uses this cream gets a job much easily because the interviewers were impressed by her super whitish appearance which for them defines beauty. When we come to Asian and African countries, most of the people are brown or wheatish in complexion. And to promote such ads disturb the very tranquillity in the mindsets of people, especially women who are always concerned about how they look. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. We all were made by God, and trust me; all His creations are equally beautiful. As Carallie Buchanan says “Honey, God loves you just as you are. As people who have been created by God, we are infinitely precious to Him because we are His creation. Regardless of our outward appearance, we are all made with that spiritual potential to relate directly to Him, spirit to Spirit...” These fairness creams with their disgusting mentality, does not even hesitate to create uneasiness in the minds of the ‘dark’ complexioned people, just to promote their products. If white is what it takes to be successful, then there are many ‘brown’ men and women who prove this theory absolutely wrong and pathetic. Take for instance Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Martin Luther King, Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Will Smith, Oprah Winfrey and many more. They all prove the fact that colour complexion does not hold any importance, what matters is hard work, dedication and a true belief in your dreams. Hence it’s criminal to think that complexion and outer beauty is the ‘key’; just be your self, because you are special, beautiful and unique. Do not waste your talent by comparing it to others. You are extraordinary in you own special way, just discover it and see yourself shine. It is not the outer appearance which defines you. Take for instance the highly inspirational story of Elizabeth Ann Lizzie Velásquez, a 24 year old American woman who has a rare medical condition which causes her to have a high metabolism which keeps her from gaining any weight. She has never weighed over 62 pounds in her whole life. In addition to the existing plight she was born sightless in her right eye. When she was still a teenager she discovered a YouTube video of hers in which she was labelled “The World’s Ugliest Woman” and by the time it already had four million hits and some of the commentators even suggested her to commit suicide by shooting herself in the head. Lizzie too, like any other teenager was shattered and cried her eyes out. For long she brooded over the question of “what defines me?” And one day she asked herself “Am I going to let the people who called me a monster define me? No. Im going to let my goals and my success and my accomplishments be the things that define me. Today Lizzie has authored three books, including “Be Beautiful, Be You” and has become a motivational speaker. Her life was never easy but she never gave up. It is her hard work, undying spirit and unshakable faith in her supreme father which keeps her going on. And she rightly said that “Even when it seems like things will never get better in the darkest times, if you have faith and continue to push yourself, you can eventually get through anything.” A pretty face gets old, a nice body wither away but the golden heart will always be the golden heart, no matter what. I will like to end by quoting Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. “People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in; their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 13:15:39 +0000
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