tennisfan

Yeah you are right ebony .. I may be colour stuck .. my country is full of people of such drastically varying colours... its not even funny ... the proportion of varying colours is the highest as compared to any country in the world..

so yes, light colour is extremely revered out there.... thats the truth .. cant lie about it !

i wish I wouldnt feel like that, but thats the impression we get from childhood. Its ingrained and getting out of it is rather difficult.. I hope you understand my point of view !

LightenNLift

Also, it is true that when you come from places that have the same perspective of beauty - such as asians and pale white, it gets stuck to the psychological ID and SUPEREGO of the people without them actually realizing it, the subconscious mind. Look at how many advertisements/labels we are exposed to everyday with every blink of an eye without giving them a thought.

EbonyBeauty

Tennis-I understand. Being a woman of color, I witnessed how some people, even from within my own community, put emphasis on certain skin tones. And yes, Indians come in multiple skin tones, as do Black people. In all honesty, I feel bad for you. I am sure your have beautiful brown skin. It's not your fault, that is what you were thought. I mean Aishwara Rais is Indian's GOD,lol. Kidding. I knew this Indian girl, an ex-friend, who seemed to have gloat when people thought she was Dominican. She was Indian but had wavy hair instead of the normally seen straight hair. So, I guess some people thought she was Dominican. She would talk about it as if it made her happy.

It's easier said than done, but I hope you can learn to see your skin tone does not make you any less worth, and not to let society define you.

@Light-True. We all have issues. Even white people, the blonde women tend to get more immediate attention than brunettes.

jganer

Everybody is color struck down here in the south....... atleast thats what I notice.

Manay

i admit that i am color struck, i've been brainwashed by the media intensely. i notice the skin tones on billboards, magazines, and t.v., like i am obsessed with media. i defintely wished i wasn't, but its hard now to reverse cuz like i said it brainwashed me.
so i can help notice skin tones when i got out, like it all started the summer before my senior year and i was sixteen, so i go in sooo much trouble, cuz i mean thats the year i got my drivers license and i just went wild with friends! so i was pretty much grounded half the summer and all i watched on t.v. was entertainment news and i was just soo obsessed. i'm 18 now and even though i have an even tone, i want a lighter tone....and yes i know i have a problem, but i can easily fix it with me getting lighter since i know thats possible instead of doing therapy and stuff which i can't see helping at all. and its not just darker ppl, white ppl are using tanning beds and shiit, so overall society is just very strange.
sorry i just rambled all that, but i realized that the media reflects what happens, and how ppl operate in the world today. i just hate the fact that i realized this at any early age. cuz if i realized this at an older age i probably wouldn't care.

this probably doesn't entirely make sense, but i hope you get my drift.

Manay

and no matter how much we fight for society to embrace variety of skin tones.

in this society lighter skin is an advantage anywhere.

and we just have to face that fact.

LightenNLift

none of these justification and society matters, BOTTOM LINE: accept yourself for who you are, think of yourself as beautiful and look after/take extra care of yourself because after all YOU came into this world ALONE not WITH SOCIETY, its all about you.

tennisfan

Lighten as much as your words are encouraging, they are rather philosophical and unfortunately do not hold true in the real world

Ebony - You know most of the Indians gloat iff and when they are mistaken for other races.... you know why ? Because most people from most races keep stereotyping and telling the Indians how they find that race unattractive.. And the moment the Indian gets to hear he or she looks from another race, it makes them feel that they are nice looking !

Its just a psychological kick to their egos. And I seriously wouldnt blame that girl for gloating and feeling good about being called Dominican. I despise it when Caucasians tell me, OH you dont look Indian. As if being Indian is something to looked down upon and as unattractive.. Its such a strong stereotype, most Indians revel in being called Not so Indian looking !

Today when even blacks are being called hot, stunning and goodlooking, the Indian race continues to be tagged as ugly, shabby, highly unattractive and not worth a second glance. Another fact that Indians have to come to terms with from time to time .

LightenNLift

The media stereotypes and focuses in on a particular kind of Indian people for most other races who look down on Indians, the media and organizations such as the UN, Charity and Funraising organizations focus in on the Indians from the farms and the poverty stricken neighborhood who are very tanned and sun damaged and worn down from working 18 hours a day outside. India is the third most populated contry in the world with a population of 1 billion people, with that population it is able to easily produce beautiful, drop bead gorgeous people such as Aishwarya and has many women who competed and won in the miss world, miss universe, miss asia, and all the other competition consecutively. There are many many unique and sexy women in India that people are not regularly exposed to here in the states and Europe, people here in the states are exposed to the specific bad living/poverty environments of India on PBS, the World news, political science/world development course. But there are countless unique beauties that resemble people from all over the world in India, just watch Bollywood. I have a lot of Indian friends from living here in NYC, they are interesting and diverse.

tennisfan

lol... you telling me about bollywood ? Every indian is more or less an avid fan of it !

Yes, surprising how drop dead gorgeous in India has been tagged based on colour itself. Aishwarya rai - a fair high yellow complexioned Indian girl.. lol..

So why isnt Sushmita Sen, lara Dutta or Priyanka Chopra considered drop dead gorgeous ? Sure they are beautifula nd pageant winners also, but not usually metioned on the levels of Aishwarya Rai when it comes to beauty ( yes there a few who find them more beautiful than Aishwarya, but the ratio is significantly lower ) ! Inspite of hte fact that they are very attractive girls themselves !

You see, subconssciously its fit into all our heads about fair colour, green eyes etc.

LightenNLift

priyanka is drop dead gorgeous too, aishwarya has more exposure because she has blue eyes and a unique facial structure.

tennisfan

Well to anyone Id know from India who is a fan of Priyanka , they would say she is very very attractive. Not ONE single person would say she is DROP DEAD GORGEOUS ... most wont !

Thats just the way we see things.. based on colour .... unique face of Aishwarya is not so unique minus those eyes.. BTW.. she doesnt have blue eyes.. she has the typical Indian sorta brahmin green eyes !

LightenNLift

those are blue last time I saw her in pink panther and those loreal commercials

tennisfan

hahaha.. she highlights them with contact lenses to enhance their looks..

at the rate of sounding immodest.. I did live in teh same city as she has... I have been a part of hte media relations world.. so I guess i have seen her wihtout makeup ... she does have green brahmin eyes and yellow light complexion contrary to people stating that she is dark ( she is not even close to dark..) but yellow light does look darker in certain lights.. she is not white .. like kareena or karisma kapoor..

minniefox1

I know I haven't yet introduced myself or submitted other posts yet, (I'm an avid lurker here and tend to keep my opinions to myself, so I'll post a proper greeting etc, at a later time...) But I just had to ask tennisfan, what do you mean with that comment Today when EVEN BLACKS ARE BEING called hot etc. etc.... I agree that there are many beautiful Indian ppl ( I think most are very beautiful,)but it seems you are implying something pretty negetive,either intentionally or unintentionally in that part of your comment. I think it is important that when stating our opinions that we be careful how we come across, or rather how we address those opinions. just my point of view.

LightenNLift

that comment could have been phrased without that offfensive tone tennis

Crescentmoon

My sentiments exactly. I was just responding to that single statement when your response preempted mine. I browse and observe also, and I have found that if one is inherently biased, and shows a distinct pattern of bias, he/she likely has no real concept of how he/she comes across. The blind areas are vast and embedded, and appear to be a fixed part of the person they have become. When I come across statements such as this one, showing similarly consistent biases from the same individual, I cannot help but think that those opinions are beyond any forum edification. I simply say that it might be time to take the matter to the therapist's couch.

LightenNLift

Also, that shows a persons character that might have been formed from society's pressure on looking a certain way, discouraging family, friends, and so forth but many people accept that as who they are but those negative aspects that form people's thinking pattern shouldnt be an EXCUSE to change who you are (you would then be changing yourself for other people); humans should be smart enough to not give in and kill themselves trying to conform, they should be smart enough to evaluate and enforce a better quality of life without the superficial aspect, this is not philosophical comment/theory and they CAN be applied to the real world with success.