A veteran Mohiniyattam artist, Kalamandalam Satyabhama, has made disparaging remarks about another veteran male artist’s skin colour and physical appearance. Mohiniyattam, she argued, is better performed by “beautiful, fair-skinned female artists” and not “black-skinned male artists”. Her derogatory comment shows that body shaming is deeply ingrained in society. Both men and women endure this discrimination.
In her essay, “We Should All Be Feminists”, the Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, says, “The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are.” A television advertisement had once shown an overweight girl putting herself through the emotional wringer before the groom’s family in connection with a marriage proposal. Unsurprisingly, she is rejected for her ‘physical imperfections’, the rejection underscoring the message that a girl has to be slim, fair and physically attractive in order to be eligible for marriage. The ad was part of a campaign, ‘Stop the Beauty Test’, carried out by a soap company and a TV channel, aimed at raising women’s voices against beauty stereotypes. Several women psychologists from across the world participated in this campaign and spoke eloquently about the need to change traditional perceptions about beauty and skin colour. According to Helena Lewis-Smith, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of the West of England Bristol, “In the Indian context, it is skin fairness that is very much ingrained. People who are darker than other people are teased... Girls always face pressure from their families.”
In matrimonial columns, it’s common to come across descriptions of prospective brides and grooms that often highlight their physical attributes. While girls are often described as ‘slim and beautiful,’ boys are frequently portrayed as ‘fair, tall, and handsome.’ These descriptions reflect the prevailing societal norms and expectations that put a premium on beauty and skin colour of both genders.
The feminist and existentialist philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir, believed that women’s inferiority in society stems from differences in the upbringing of men and women. She insisted that women should realise transcendence in immanence. By this she meant that there should be interplay between the two forces of immanence and transcendence. But throughout history, Beauvoir argued, men have denied women the transcendent role, forcing them to accept a circumscribed existence.
Parents have an important role to play in shaping their children’s self-esteem and perceptions of beauty. They should avoid praising other children’s looks or skin tones in front of their own children and instead focus on complimenting their children’s human qualities. Parents need to convince their children that success in life is not determined by outward appearance but by talent, hard work, and personal qualities.
In this context, the character of Philip Carey, the physically-challenged young medical student in William Somerset Maugham’s novel, Of Human Bondage, comes to mind. Carey used to be subjected to emotional violence in his school days because of his clubfoot. The experience taught him that “the normal was the rarest thing in the world. Everyone had some defect, of body or of mind…”
