Tags
bodyshaming, discrimination, fairness creams, hair straightening, hair styling, judgmental, skin deep beauty, smile makeover, vanity
She noticed the magazine advertisement for Fair & Lovely cream. The usual promise of utopia, of turning a shade – or hopefully, three shades lighter. Surely women should have the guts to accept their natural tint! she smirked.
She sensed the parlour attendant hover behind her chair and murmured, “Honey gold highlights, please. And of course, straighten out those darn curls of mine too.”
The parlour attendant rolled her eyes … Surely women should have the guts to accept their natural tint!
The attendant hummed as she hugged a secret to herself. She had reserved this month’s salary for that expensive dentist – the one who specialized in ‘Smile reconstruction’. She desperately wanted to modify her 2 protruding front teeth.
The dentist wriggled her chocolate brown fingers into the glove. Her gaze lingered upon the luminous, rosy complexion of the parlour attendant who reclined beneath her gloved fingers.
‘If only … ‘ whispered the dentist.
*****
Superficial? Shallow? Skin deep?
Guilty! I’m guilty too. In fact, this post formulated itself as I sat waiting to tame those stubborn curls of mine (Click here for my tryst with hair straightening)– as well as a coffee brown shade.
Did you notice how easily we justify & defend our own vanity?
Why are we so judgmental on somebody else’s vanity?
#Bodyshaming
Impractical Dreamer: Sweety Shinde 
I guess its all right no?😉
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Absolutely. Luckily we can jump in & out of love with out latest look. We can also go back to our original avatar. Perhaps cosmetic industry makes us realize that we were better off with what we were born with 🙂
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True that.
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We all are…seems in the modern world we have gotten accustomed to this issue. Could be because we have the resources readily available to play around with our looks?
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Spot on! Its a relief to modify some aspects of our personality for the better. There still remain the un-remediables of the soul & body.
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Things to ponder surely. Unless acceptance you will never feel beautiful….for me it’s the uniqueness each, one of a kind, which makes them beautiful. Love the tone and smirk layered in it.
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Thank you! I often used to get judgmental about fairness cream ads & its buyers. But then I thought, how can I judge someone who wishes to try out the cream?
I ought not to ever discriminate based on color, but equally I ought not to sneer upon someone who has a complex about it.
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Very thought provoking question.
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Hey, long time! Did you visit India after all? Hope it didn’t disappoint.
As for questions, they are the only way to provoke answers within us.
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The real question is: Do we really want the truth behind the two questions you asked?
The fact is we all know the answer but don’t want to accept it, at least publicly.
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Correct, they were rhetoric.
As you said correctly, they cannot be answered publicly (which is why I asked the questions publicly 🙂
But they can be answered to oneself, perhaps after dimming the lights to avoid looking into the mirror.
Infact I have asked & answered myself. Did the replies please me or leave me shaken? Hmm
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Well, everyone has an image of perfection and runs after it like a deer after a mirage… panting, desperate. And, we all scoff others and consider it vanity. I think, that’s natural. But, it’s a short and very beautiful post. Not to mention introspective.
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You said it all perfectly. Mirage is just the word for it.
I think looks & stomach are 2 never ending thirsts embedded within us. They are the ones shepherding us along different pathways.
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Very thought provoking post.
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🙂 Hoping that it resonated. Thank you.
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A thoughtful piece. An interesting thing that happens is that we all eventually get old. It’s a really hard transition as so much of our identity is tied up with appearance. At some point, vanity if forced to turn inward and our means of being beautiful can only be from the inside out.
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How very true. Hopefully age will bring wisdom along. Till then youthful vanity will brandish its fangs and continue to pamper itself.
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Oh I once used every possible cream to lighten my skin. There were umpteen Fair & lovelies and Viccos & hours of scrubbing after malai & turmeric. Eating weight gaining food every now and then. I have relatives who suggest me creams, powders & masks to reduce the melanin. I tried them all and finally I got fed up. I stopped using it because they never worked. It took a lot of time for me to stop. A couple of years after I stopped I realised that it did not matter. Maybe this is what it is all about. We need chaos to realize what peace is. We have to visit both the shores to realize that both are equally green. But sometimes, we need to stay a bit longer where we are to appreciate the beauty. 🙂
And now as someone said, ‘It took far too long to love this strange creature I see in the mirror’.
A very thought provoking write up 🙂
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wow you summed it up beautifully. I especially loved that last line, b’cos it goes beyond loving our own body and speaks of really ‘liking’ the person we are.
Infact we end up bodyshaming ourselves far too often & more brutally than others do.
Thank you so much for the visit.
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