What are we going to do with the skin color? Do we remain beautiful and young with the flawless skin that we had in our twenties in our sixties as well? Absolutely no. The skin ages along with us and when we die it just goes away and only the skeleton remains. So, why struggle to make it look whiter and more beautiful day by day using the chemical cosmetics?
We live in the world where a girl with a white skin is considered to be beautiful and if she is dark then her life is over. Even have a glance at the matrimonial advertisements- female of this community with “white skin” is wanted. Despite the campaigns and movement which stresses that color is not an issue still people are wanting their brides to be white. Why not look for a girl with a good respect, courtesy, reverence, etiquette, well educated etc? Why not look for these qualities rather than the color?
Fact on skin damage:
Ozone gas is suspected to be one of the primary causes of pollution- related skin damage. The outer layer of our skin contains lipids. Ozone is said to oxidize them by breaking down the skin’s barrier function. Looks like it is time to encourage afforestation to reduce the pollution and ozone gas from depleting our skin.
The cosmetic industry uses actors and actresses who are promoting the product with the message that white is good. Most of the advertisements portray a black girl after applying the particular cream becomes white and fair. The word “Fair” is portrayed wrongly here which implants a negative thought in the minds of dark girls. This is another way of discriminating women. This continues till she gets a good job where she is nervous about whether she would be selected because she is dark and unfair. Many brands still think a dark model as “un- sellable.” Here women are more affected than men.
The physical damage caused by the very cosmetics that we use daily:
In 2014, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India tested fairness creams and found that 44% of the cosmetics contained mercury. Cosmetics with mercury is banned in India. Only 65 parts per million are allowed in eye drops and 1 part per million of unintentional use is allowed in other finished cosmetics. Even fairness creams which don’t have the words whitening or fair contained mercury. So, dermatologists are advising to stay away from creams that have these words- light, anti- marks, glow and radiance.
The World Health Organization states that kidney damage is one of the major issue caused by the use of skin lightening creams which contains mercury. Other effects include skin rashes, skin discoloration, reduction in the skin’s resistance to bacterial and fungal infections, anxiety, depression and even psychosis.
In 2016, a paper entitled Women’s Disempowerment and the Market for Skin Whitening Products revealed an experimental result on a research on the fairness cream stating that the products contained the bleaching agent which is considered as a carcinogen and banned in Europe and Australia.
Therefore skin lightening is not only a psychological problem but also a serious health issue. Dark or white every girl, every woman is beautiful in her one way and everyone has their unique style and that is how God has made them. So let’s start to make our inner beauty more beautiful rather than making our physical beauty more beautiful. Embrace yourself however you may be and show the world what you can do as physical beauty and skin color has nothing do with that.
Thanks for reading. Good luck. 🙂
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One can have dark or brown skin but they are still beautiful! Skin color should not be a determinant of beauty.