Freida Pinto: ‘People in India are so fascinated by white skin’
August 2, 2011 in Beauty & Body Image, Celebrity Quotes, Freida Pinto by Versus
Stunning actress Freida Pinto recently discussed with The Independent about a delicate issue: Indian women’s obsession to get lighter skin. Let’s hear her out:
“It’s completely wrong medically – and culturally, of course, because it’s giving people the wrong idea. My friend who’s a doctor told me that she’d have parents come in with kids who were three years old, saying, ‘Do something – I want my baby to be fair.’ It’s just this thing that people [in India] are so fascinated by white skin. There’s a lot of people there who are naturally really pale. But the whole idea that you have to be fair – without naming actors, but there are actors who admit it – the fairer you are, the easier it is.”
Even within Bollywood? “Oh yeah, absolutely. The amount of pancake cream on your face is ridiculous. I don’t think it is required, by the way. If a cream can give you confidence then you really have to check your whole confidence department in the first place.”
… says Freida.
What do you think about Freida’s revelations?
When I was in India, I saw products to make skin paler as often as I see products that make skin darker here in Europe (Norway). We all want the opposite of what we have.
So true! Every other advert in India is for skin bleaching products, the same way every other advert in western culture is for tanning lotions. They do seem obsessed. I’m blonde and fair and I got hounded the whole time I was in India.
I’m sure skin bleaching does no more damage than a tanning bed but it’s a sad state of affairs.
I know. In Europe, we are surrounded by tanning products and all fancy ways to become tan fast and get a better than. In Thailand (as i’ve experienced) a European, or a fair skinned person in general, is a real head turner, they seriously go wild, and it is the exact same thing as in Europe. Tho I think they are being more extreme about it then we are with tanning. I am norwegian, fair skinned and a redhead, when I was in turkey as a kid, I got stares, my hair was pulled, they touched and twisted my arm to get a better look. Is is like being from another planet.
I think this unhealthy obsession about craving a color that is opposite of what is generally normal/natural in your homeland. I think dark skin is beautiful, I think light skin is beautiful, a healthy NATURAL skin color is beautiful no matter if it is withe as snow or golden brown. It is also a scary thing, people risk their own health and economy to become “beautiful”.
The color you are born with, you got because it is perfect for you, beauty-wise and environment-wise. To me, beauty has become more and more a voice saying “being what you are not”
It is a strange, strange world.
So true! I myself am India, and I’m a darker skinned Indian, my skin is darker than Freida’s, probably the same as Beyonce’s (and this is when I have NO tan from being out in the sun – just a few hours in the sun and I’m way darker), and when I was a kid the biggest insult other kids could throw at me was about my skin colour. I was called ‘blackie’, and people made jokes like ‘Oh if you had a kid with a light skinned guy your kid would be a Zebra’ and other such stupid things. I’ve even overheard a guy joke that for secret santa he was going to give me a fair and lovely cream (this is the name of a popular ‘fairness’ cream in India).
Then when I moved to the United States in middle school, my friends loved my skin color and it was weird how everyone around me was trying to get a tan. I think that exposure and experience made me feel completely happy with the color of my skin. I still get a lot of ‘oh you’re dark’ comments in India but it doesn’t bother me anymore.
I may have a great body, great face, lovely personality and nice hair and everything, but at the end of the day, so many guys in India don’t ‘date’ me or find me as attractive as a lighter skinned girl because of the color of my skin.
As you said, everyone wants the opposite of what they have, so it’s not my fault that so many people in my culture think that ONLY ‘fair is lovely’.
Totally. In Asian countries pale is SO in! I’m Asian myself though and I have to say I look better pale than I do tan…especially since my features are so small and dark that they don’t stand out against a dark background/skin!
” We all want the opposite of what we have”
NOT really ,, i think people just want to be in middle ,,i mean Pale people want warm lovely shade of skin
and dark skinned people want that too
(iam talking about people who use creams ,,i know not all people wanna change thier skin color)
It’s true that Indian culture is extremely color conscious. Most Indians don’t even consider Freida to be beautiful because she is “too dark”. They prefer their Bollywood stars to be Persian looking. It’s sad, really, I love Freida’s dark skin and think she is really gorgeous.
WHat they dont consider freida PRETTY? serious? shes gorgoues.
Seriously, I’ve actually never heard of her before, but when I saw the post I thought “That girl is gorgeous!”. How could anyone not like her?
i dont. personal taste i guess.
It is personal taste. There are people that think anyone with pale skin isn’t attractive just like there are people who think that darker skin isn’t attractive regardless of the features of the person
in India as in West Africa it runs deeper than personal taste there’s a whole caste system where pale skin equates to upper class and a desire to be more European and darker skin working class a poor field worker and considered ignorant, a hangover from colonialism. Sad but true.
In India it’s far older than colonialism. The Brahmin caste have always been very pale skinned, and also the highest caste. The lowest castes were dark-skinned. Ultimately I think that’s where the obsession comes from.
Not being able to see beauty in someone because of their skin color has a name. It’s called racism…perferring one race over another.
Sara- I think that’s crazy- and actually quite sad; I mean, how can someone’s skin being a few shades darker make them less attractive? It’s reminds me of once when I was waiting for the bus when two girls were discussing a guy and one of them said “He’d be hot if it wasn’t for him being ginger.” I was like ???? How does the colour of someone’s hair detract from their ‘hotness?’ in my eyes, a hot guy is a hot guy whether his hair is blonde, brown, ginger or blue (same goes for girls, in my opinion!)
Also, one of my close friends admitted to me that she’d “never date a black guy.” I don’t think she’s racist and I get that tastes differ from person to person but I just find it strange how to some, a feature such as the shade of their skin or colour of their hair can made such a difference towards whether or not they’re perceived as attractive!
Yeah I don’t know why but that happens to me! I don’t think it’s strange at all that it takes a lot more for me to find a redheaded guy attractive. It’s just that people have different “types” and that’s just not one of mine.
Aww! Redheaded guys can be cute! Though I admit I don’t usually find them that attractive either…Lol I know everyone is different/has different tastes, but here’s one I think is – Eddie Redmayne:
http://www.rightcelebrity.com/wp-content/photos/Eddie_Redmayne_3.jpg
<3 Red headed boys
there is one boy that works in a record shop near me that me and my friends go to just to perv on him :p
Also the actor playing Dexter, he’s a hot ginger
http://blindgossip.com/?p=20638
Well he’s an exception! It takes a certain “look” for them to be attractive I think.
Some women like other skin types, just like they like a special eye color, but I don’t get it either. If you think a man is attractive, then just let him be… Though I realize that I am attracted to polish and russian men (mostly their looks)
Here, where I live (Germany), black men are pretty rare. I mean you don’t see them often on the streets. The husband of a friend from my mum is black, so are her former boyfriends. My mum asked her where she gets to know black men, she said there is a bar, where a lot of black men come. In the next week so so many women came to this bar, just because they wanted to meet black men. My mum goes crazy for black men
so don’t bleach your skin, come to germany!
what ?? black guys are soo hot
(iam not black though )
are you iranian?
Freida is considered beautiful in India. In fact some of the most popular Indian actresses like Priyanka Chopra, Kajol and Shilpa Shetty are all “dark”. You could Google some pictures to see for your self. Freida is not considered talented enough to act or emote here in India. Anyone could see that in Slumdog Millionaire. She wasn’t offered much work back home even after her journey to the Oscars. It’s sad if she feels like she isn’t considered pretty back home. I’m from Mumbai and my sister looks just like her and I think she’s gorgeous.
She is not only considered pretty in India but all over the world, the woman is unconditionaly pretty, whatever skin color she has…just like Halle Berry.
Im Indian and everybody ive ever spoken to thinks Freida is gorgeous.
You know what sucks is when everybody keeps saying stuff like ” its so sick how indians are fairness obsessed ”
Its a matter of likes and dislikes. Here , the majority prefer light skin. its rare here. Its not very often you see someone with pale skin. Its like how people seldom obsess about blonde hair. Its rare.
Whereas in western countries , most prefer slightly tanned skin. And not everyone here is as obsessed with fairness as it is often claimed.
I for one , am slightly dusky. And i dont mind at all , because i use my spf. I protect. And my skin is clear and healthy.
People prefer varying things. I being indian prefer a slight tan. Whereas i have met White people who prefer pale skin.
Its not wrong to have preferences.
Just because Indians prefer light skin does not mean they discriminate against those that have darker skin. Atleast never where i live. Its really not that big of a deal.
This is a sad statement but it’s true. Even worse, this comment could be used for all ethnic groups. In black, latin, and even asian culture, the lighter you are, the better you are. You only see the light skinned people on TV or on the cover of the magazines. The horrible part is that people in these communities start to believe this.
Yeah unless you’re pale, then you better get your ass in a tanning bed if you don’t want to be ridiculed.
Putting tanning lotion on your skin is a lot different than bleaching your skin. I believe that people who tan are just going for some superficial look that is thought of as beautiful. However, people who bleach their skin actually have some type of self hatred. There is a big difference between somebody trying to look like the cast of Jersey Shore and completely transforming and trying to change yourself permanently like baseball player Sammy Sosa. Bleaching your skin is trying to permanently change yourself. If you do not believe it look at this picture.
http://stupidcelebrities.net/2009/11/08/sammy-sosa-bleached-skin-before-after-photos/
Tell that to the girl I know with skin cancer from tanning beds because she, too, thought they were ‘safer.’ She’s in her early 30s and she’s been “temporarily” changing her skin color since middle school. Her mother would ridicule her if she left the house looking pasty and sunless tanner evidently looked too fake.
To me, that seems to be an equal amount of self-hatred.
i am glad that people are opening up about being forced to tan
i cant believe that mothers condemn their children for not tanning! wow.
i have to say, that there is a difference because tanning is not a racial thing. bleaching is. every place that has been colonized by whites(like most of earth) has been infected with this paleness thing.
i refuse to give in though
Yep, everybody wants what they don’t have..
OMG! that is so true! i had an indian bf once, and he was afraid to touch me cuz he said i was white and he didnt want to get me “dirty”,, its really sad actually, and i had no idea people still think like that :/ thats just sad theres nothing wrong with darker skin, your skin color doesnt make you ugly your face does,,,
Your personality does, actually.
ya that too
Ok, chill out
Yes, this is true unfortunately. In the middle east, creams to make your skin fairer are also everywhere! & then in the other half of the world people bake themselves in the sun and spray themselves orange! You also get people getting boob jobs, nose jobs, bullshit jobs and some even go under the knife to change the colour of their eye…
No one is happy with what they’ve got!!
Wait what?! You can change the colour of your eyes???
I remember seeing something about it a while ago on the tyra show..it was an episode about black market plastic surgery. It’s should be somewhere on youtube
Found the videos. It all sounds very freaky to me, I think I’d like to stick to my natural eye colour hehe
You reminded me of it & I am now re-watching the entire episode!
It’s freaky and very very sad!!
That’s the link for anyone else who wants to check it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvacWgKj7W0
She’s beautiful! But it’s so funny how here in the states, being tan (almost orange) is what celebs strive for!
yes but no matter how tan white people are they wont be brown cuz theyre white,, so theyre not trying to be “brown”
I have white friends that tan to the point that we have the same skin color during the summer and I’m black. So yes it is possible for those with naturally lighter skin to get brown
Americans hate their own skin color too, they always wanna get darker. Only Chinese people appreciate their own skin color. They stay out of the sun, and if they do get darker, they try to get whiter to stay in their own skin color
If Chinese people “try to get whiter”, then how exactly is that appreciating their skin color. It seems that if they were comfortable, then they would just accept their skin as pale or tanned.
The brightening/whitening skincare industry is huge in China (just like in many other asian countries), a lot of Chinese people find fairer skin more appealing.
…This is an incorrect assumption. Whiteness in China is a status. Just like in America, being able to tan means that you can afford the luxury of not doing anything and tanning. In China, being pale means that you’re not doing manual labor outside. There’s also a saying that essentially translates into “White & Pure”. So there’s a lot of culture associated to being pale = higher education, more elegant, more intelligent.
This culture is SO pervasive that, even though my parents never really said much to me about my skin color, it was kind of just understood by me that anytime before I go back to visit China, I should avoid the sun like the plague for a month or two, and exfoliate every week.
Although this post is kind of getting lengthy, I thought this anecdote would be the perfect illustration for how far it’s gone. Before I was suppose to go to China to visit family about a year ago, I came down with a really bad case of Hay Fever, which in combination with my monthly made me very frail and sickly looking (laid in the dark for about a week to avoid migraines). When I got on the plane, the first thing the stewardess said to me was “Wow, your skin is so translucent and pale! It’s beautiful!” -______- Needless to say, China and I don’t agree on what’s beautiful.
exactly.
Well put
Totally agreed. I’m Chinese and have naturally pale white skin that looks TERRIBLE without makeup, seriously I look bloodless and pallid and almost greenish, and yet there are lots of (mostly older) women who keep asking me how I keep my skin so light and then they lament that their daughters spend too much time playing sports in the sun when all I want to do is to look healthy and glowing and golden like them.
Untrue.
South East Asia is no immune from the obsession with western features. Blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery) is very common in countries like China and Korea to make eyes appear more caucasian.
Yeah, as others have already stated: dark people want to get lighter, whereas pale people want to get more tanned.
My mother is naturally really dark (she’s from Turkey) and in her childhood she was called “gypsy” (in Turkey gypsies are known as being really dark). Therefore my mum had always have the “dream” of being pale although I think she has a great cappuccino-like skin tone.
i dont think skin bleaching and tanning go hand in hand people want to lighten their skin cause they think they will see more opportunities while someone tanning probably does it for a desired effect.
A person will not be looked down on because they are pale in america
Yes, this is a really true comment. Being whiter is a “caste” thing in India. The “untouchables” are really dark and the wealthier castes are lighter. So it’s not just an aesthetic thing, so not the same as Hollywood stars wanting to be sun tanned. There are plenty of pale top stars. I can’t think of any really dark Indian top stars (unless they’re playing servants).
so true
Shah Rukh Khan & Amitabh Bacchan are two of the top Bollywood stars and both of them are dark. SRK is really dark and is still the King Khan in India. So yes, dark skinned actors don’t play servants here. Please get your facts right before you comment.
I don’t actually think that SRK is dark… I think he is fairly ‘light’ as you could say, but I think you could say that Akshay Khanna is ‘dark’. Neither do I think that Amithabh Bachan is ‘dark’, but his son might be a little ‘dark’
I just don’t understand the obsession with skin color. I myself am Indian, but I was born in Scandinavia and have been living there for 16-years. Whenever I went to India, people looked at my skin color and thought it was wonderful because it was so fair. I always loved this attention I got when I was younger, but as I grew I realized that the color-thing was waay bigger than just what was on the surface. In India the color of your skin determined your status; the darker you were the more likely you were not as appreciated no matter how awesome you were, which was really sad… And the lighter you were the more things you would get. My sister and I used to go to a shop when we were younger and we got free lollipops and stuff, and the other kids didn’t because our skin color was ‘lighter’ and because we were from a foreign country which is also a big thing in India.
A year ago I moved to Canada with my family, and the meaning of diversity became much more clearer to me. In Canada it really doesn’t matter what colour your skin is, or what’s your religion, sexual orientation etc. is… They just accept you the way you are, which I think is absolutely magnificent. During my many visits to the States though my image of the great melting-pot (various ethnicities) got shattered. I mean sure there were many ethnicities that you could find in a single city, but that diversity of cultures was not completely accepted there… In some places people from Latin backgrounds were greatly disregarded and in some places it was with black people… It just varies from place to place, but the essential thing is that every culture has a thing that they consider to be beautiful and what they look for and I think that this will never end because
During my many visits to the States the image that I had in my mind got shattered. I thought that the States was a place where every single ethnicity has a place, but after observation that wasn’t the case anymore. The Latin culture is somewhat unappreciated, which is sometimes portrayed through the media, but the media – which controls a lot in our lives – doesn’t always give a full picture, as we know. The black people in some southern parts of the States are treated really, really badly and I could go on and on about this… It’s just not your skin color anymore, it becomes so much more. Now the big thing in the States is your sexual orientation = are you gay. The gay-thing has gone too far too, because it has taken the lives of so many unique individuals because they’re not allowed to be fully who they are. The same thing happens in every single culture: in India the skin color is the thing, and sometimes wanting to be like what the society wants you to look like can drain you out completely and just change you to want something that you might not want deep down inside…
Hahhah, sorry guys ☺ I basically wrote a novel for a comment ☺
I agree almost, because being tanned in celeb world is almost a must do. Pale celebs are a rarity and only recently have we seen this come back.
Its so weird, back in the day high society women would do anything to keep their face pale, they even used to put arsenic on their skin, to show that they didn’t do any manual labour, and then somewhere in the last century having tanned skin translated into meaning you had money and could afford to go abroad and relax in the sun.
Now I think tanned skin is still associated with that sort of carefree glamorous life, but as being tanned is available to anyone (fake tan / sun beds) I don’t think we see it as amazing or something to admire unreservedly.
Bollywood actresses like Aishwarya Rai have gotten visible “whiter” as her career’s advanced. That’s why she’s reveared in Indian, because she’s so fair and has light blue/green eyes.
***On another note…I’ve always been curious to know what country people who post here are from. Nothing creepy, I just would like to know where everybody’s from. I’m from the United States Of America, California, specifically.
Italy, Northern
romania, central europe
Hungary, Eastern europe.
ohhh a neighbour
Yup
))
how old are u?
if u’re a teen like me w/ nothing to do we could be buddies on messenger lol, hope it doesn’t sound creepy :-S but if u have to work and have things to do it’s ok haha. i just looove to talk to foreign people. the differences are so interesting for me, especially the food 
)
btw i never know where to place my country…i guess i could say eastern like u said, cuz it’s definitely not considered western=luxurious
) in my head it’s more like south-central
Haha, I’m 21.
I work full-time but I do have free time of course, otherwise I wouldn’t even be posting here lol 
)) In my heart, I consider Hungary central as well, but if I’m being “realistic” LOL, then I’d have to say besides Budapest the capital it’s definitely not westernized yet, and still has a long way to go to develop. By geography though, I think central is still the most accurate 
Me too
And i am also half Hungarian.
esti din romania? hihi. i guess from transilvania, right? my bf’s from there
i’m from bucharest
) i’m 17 btw. is that u in the pic? :O
dunno why, i always thought ur name sounds russian, i remember ur comments from an year ago lol
transilvania, stabilita in bucuresti. da eu sunt in poza.
24 ani.
yes, i’m from transylvania, residing in bucharest. That would be me in the picture. 24 yo.
If thats you in your profile pic then I can definitely see “Hungarian” features!
Very pretty! Unfortunately, I don’t really look hungarian at all imo 
Although the best part about Hungarians and also Romanians from what I noticed is that there is such diversity from every perspective, there isn’t really one distinct look, rather individual features which a majority might have, but since the overall appearance is so different from person to person, you don’t notice it that much 
Yes, that is me in the picture
Thank you. I think you are right, we do not have very distinctive features, neither Romanians nor Hungarians, quite a melting pot. Even though many people over here expect us with Hungarian descent to have green eyes, lots of people assume Hungary and Hungarian genetics is everyone with green eyes, haha. Btw, i’ve only visited Budapest from Hungary, no other city, but i love it immensely, such a beautiful city! It was good being there and actually knowing the language, my friends really depended on me, haha.
omg bucuresti?? me 2:)) ce nice :O we can be friends <3 poate te.am speriat :-s nu prea ma inteleg cu fetele de varsta mea. sunt mai linistita si ele au fite….
haha, te inteleg. da-mi add. mai vorbim
my dad is from Bucharest, left with his family when he was 17 (in the late 1960′s) and refuses to go back, even for a visit. I’m dying to go visit and see where he grew up…I think he just has too many bad memories, but unfortunately I need him to be my translator!
Mia, considering the era and the age of your father back then, most likely he had some shitty stuff happen to him. But too bad he cannot come back, maybe it would do him some good… but people suffer in different ways, we can’t blame them in the end. As for you, if you have the opportunity, you should come. Most people speak English over here, it’s a good place to be a foreigner, to say so
i guess it’s because of the after ww2 world..communism..thank god i was born after the revolution…i just feel like they brainwashed people. hehe u can also buy a dictionary and hire a tour guide, maybe? i think it;s better u don’t understand all, cuz some people are *excuse me* stupid here(especially young) and you don’t wanna hear their bad language and jokes
Copenhagen, Denmark
me too
/også mig
I’m from Cali too.
Germany, but originally from Turkey
I’m from Denmark too
US, Ohio. Haha. I was writing that thinking “SOOO exotic”, but then I guess to some people it might be… which really brings us back to this whole post about everyone wanting what they can’t have/weren’t born with or into.
ahhaahhaa, yeah. In U.S.A. it’s like, ‘Oh whatever, just the midwest…’ In other countries, they’re like, ‘Ohio? The name sounds so beautiful! Classic American girl!’ We would totally feel the same in Argentina or Poland or France. ‘My country is soooo boring. I need to go to Germany or Italy.’
Nice, fedt med flere danskere
i’m from Ottawa, Ontario Canada but i’m currently living in Dubai, UAE
Ja det er altid lidt sjovt når man møder danskere her
Hm I kinda have to disagree here, Bollywood actresses don’t become lighter as their careers advance. If you look at Aishwarya’s movies when she started or now you won’t see a difference in colour. Besides, Aishwarya has never been involved in Fair & Lovely-like campagnes and when ELLE lightened her colour on their cover, she openly spoke against it.
You have some lighter girls in Bollywood like Kareena Kapoor and Anushka Sharma, but actresses like Shamita Shetty, Priyanka Chopra, Kajol, Rani Mukerjee portray the range of different skintones there are in India.
Oslo, Norway
<3
Thank you <3
stockholm, sweden!
Paris here
I live in France too
Wow, it’s great that we have input from such a wide variety of countries on this site.
I’m from North Wales, UK.
I’m from the UK too but in South-East England
Im from London England
strange for some reason I thought that everyone on here would be from the U.S
I’m from Denmark, but ive lived in London
I can’t imagine wanting to know what country people are from being construed as creepy! Imagine someone trying to track me down by “USA” & my handle. lol
Cape town, south africa.
right now, im back home for the summer so:
very close to the Polar circle, Sweden
normally:
Linköping, Sweden
Hey.. I was just about to come there for a master degree.. but I ‘m going to Vienna instead. I heard Linkoping is great
Cool! Yeah, im studying there, it’s a great uni
Finland, Northern Europe
Minä myös!!!
Muutin kyllä Kanadaan vuos sitte 
Portland, Oregon USA
Hello there californian neighbor!
Freida Pinto is so beautiful and it makes me sad we can embrace the color we’re born and naturally are. :7/
I LOOOVE Portland! I want to move there! <3
Hello from Malibu!
US–Georgia
US-Texas.
New Jersey, USA. No, everyone does not look nor act like “Jersey Shore” here… and we don’t have the same accent as the people on the show either.
agreed. born and raised in jersey…we’re not that bad!!!
New York, New York now
Trondheim. Norway : )
Wellington, New Zealand
Also New Zealand – wouldn’t say where though, given how small our country is!
Chicago, US, originally Moscow!
Miami, FL, US, orininally Moscow
originally*
Miami, FL too, although originally from Haiti
ay, where? i live in kendall, work in downtown
We’re neighbors! I’m in Jacksonville
Spain!!
Living in Dubai, originally from Lebanon (the country, not Tennessee =p)
Tirana, Albania. It’s southeastern europe, for those of you who don’t know.
I’m albanian too(: Well,half. But my family’s from Montenegro.
I’m from California, too!
Though my family is from Armenia.
Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, but I’ve moved to Paris about a year ago!
Regarding Freida’s quote, I wish people weren’t so damn obsessed with looking unique and different from the crowd. Why can’t average be beautiful? “Average” is such an arbitrary concept anyway…
U.S, Texas
I love the diversity on this site.
I’m from Texas too! Hello neighbor
USA, Cali. LA to be exact (:
Berlin, Germany
Also Romania.
Belgium!
British-Nigerian living in London!
Brazil! No brazilians on this post? I usually recognize a few brazilians names and ‘english’ here.
Brazil here too, amigaaa!
east coast, U.S.A.
me too!
Indonesia. Most women in my country are obsess with white skin too.
wow, so many scandinavians, interesting!
Originally from Israel, currently living in Philadelphia.
Canada, (British Columbia)
An island, North of Scotland
sydney, australia, and i’ve lived in the US, UK and Italy:)
*has
Gawd! *india
Everyone wants what they can’t have.. In my country too, if you’re darker, you can be mistaken with a gipsy..and gipsyes are not well seen here, so it has a negative conotation..
They are all misconceptions..
P.s.: I’m from Europe, Romania.
then how do you explain ‘pitzi’s'?(girls that look very cheap=orange skin, yellow hair, pink lips, shiny clothes haha) god, m.am saturat de ele….acum ca toata lumea stie de ele nici nu pot sa port un ruj roz ca ma simt pitzi:( desi’s bruneta, palida, ne-manelista
) si eu sunt din romania 
Curentul “pitzi” e alta poveste.. n-are legatura cu pielea deschisa/inchisa.. ele se bronzeaza doar pt ca li se pare cool, ca arata mai bine si mai stiu eu ce alte chestii au ele in cap.
The pitzi trend is another story, it has nothn’ to do with dark or white skin. They tan because they think it’s cool, that they look better that way or god knows what those girls think..
yep…
I have a friend from southern Asia who told me that she was really jealous of my fair skin…which was weird to me, because in the West everyone seems to be obsessed with being tan. I can tan, but choose not to, because I don’t want wrinkles or skin cancer! I think everyone should just be happy with their natural skin tone and get on with their life, you know? We all look different for a reason.
That’s just like me. I’m pale and have naturally light hair/light eyes. A lot of other Caucasian people tend to tease me about my very light skin and tell me that I should go out in the sun more to tan (I don’t want to do that because of the possible HEALTH and aging risks). However, I’ve met Asian people and people for various backgrounds who have often complemented me on my pale skin tone. Some of them said they were jealous and wished they had my fair skin. It just shows that every country/continent has it’s own beauty ideals depending on the culture. People always want the opposite of what they have, which in some sense really isn’t healthy (as Freida stated). People want what they can’t naturally have. Although I also think that tanning lotions are safe and probably safer than bleaching creams. A person’s worth and beauty shouldn’t be based on the color of their skin, eyes and hair. I think nature usually gets things right, so the natural colors you are born with (eg. eyes, hair, skin) are probably what look best on you.
Oh, and I’m from USA–of mixed Welsh, Scottish, and Cheyenne River Sioux descent
Ahh, another Welshie! (sort of :p) What part of Wales do your family come from?
Are you Welsh Kirsty? Like Catherine Zeta Jones? That’s cool
Yup, speak the language and everything
And I’m not as cool as Catherine Zeta Jones lol. I’m just a pale girl from the north.
my people were miners from Y Maerdy
other parts of the family were from the coast and were fishermen.
I wish this thing had an edit button…to the Zeta-Jones comment, she is half Lebanese…lots of welsh are swarthy-ish, but not that dark…my dad looks like the stereotypical swarthy welshman
I have naturally golden/olive/carmel brown skin and when i went to the Czech Republic (Europe), and in parts of Italy, people went crazy going on about how i had the most amazing skin color and saying they all wish they had color and they have to bake in the sun to get color, etc etc, always asking me what ethnicity i was. i think she’s a bit stupid for making this comment sound as if everyone in the world wants pale skin. thats not true. what everyone here said is whats true–that people want what they don’t have.
she’s mistaken. no one wants to be pale/super white, but most dont want to be super dark. i think the olive/golden brown skin is the most desired because its right in the middle, which is why people try to mimick it with the orange tans. i think all colors are beautiful though!!!
That’s simply not true. There are plenty of people who want to be pale/super white. I’m super pale and I like it and don’t wish to be darker. Many people compliment me on my skin colour.
Me too. I’m okay with being pale.
Actually super pale skin is hold in high regard in many cultures. (In Japan, for example.) Pale skin was also very desirable in Europe throughout centuries while a tanned skin was associated with lower class. Tan became the rage when Coco Chanel got accidentally sunburnt in her vacation at the 1920s.
Fashions change, I guess. But I too think every single skintone is beautiful.
i think they just realized that coco chanel looked 10X more gorgeous with a tan glow! , whether its a gorgeous tan or even rosy cheeks on a pale girl….a little COLOR goes a long way in making someone look gorgeous and more lively–its just true!
just to clarify i myself am pretty white…but when i tan (real or fake) or even just use bronzer to look a little darker, i get 10 times more attention from guys and look prettier
. sad but true. i guess i just wish i naturally had a little more color. i think the only reason people in India think that way is because they are a poor country and they associate being pale with rich white americans and a better life, but it has nothing to do with beauty.
Actually I like pale skin. I find it very attractive on certain people. Some people look hotter without a tan. It depends on the person. Tanning is really just a fad. In Western culture, one minute pale skin is “in” and the next minute “tanned” skin is in. Fake tan when applied probably are okay. I wouldn’t o out int the sun and tan though, being pale and looking young is much better that being tanned and looking old/wrinkly. Besides, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Once (during a freezing/windy Winter – which made me look quite pale), this South American guy came up to me and said “So pretty. So pale… and so pretty.” It was the weirdest compliment I’ve ever gotten. haha. But I dont mind it.
You can get that ‘healthy glow’ from eating lots and lots of fruits and vegetables…it is actually more attractive than a tan (there was research done on it). I think that as Americans, we’re just told that tan is beautiful so we believe it. I actually don’t think that what nature wants is best on you–my hair was super light as a child and deepened to almost black at around age 19. It definitely washes me out and I dye it lighter.
http://www.ambernightdvd.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jaime-murray-an.jpg
that is my coloring and I hate it on me! She looks beautiful, though.
I think her comment was pretty clear that she was specifically taking about people in India not everyone in the world. Most Indians you talk to will tell you the exact same thing.
oh and freida looks very pretty
i just like to tan to hide some skin imperfections, tho i haven’t tanned in 3 years but i might. when my skin will be nice i won;t tan never ever again because i like the pale skin black hair emo look 
lol
I guess it’s true, though a lot is changing in India nowadays. Even though there are a lot of fair skinned celebs, Konkona Sen Sharma and Bipasha Basu are also very much loved, so it’s not like every Indian completely dislikes a darker skintone.
I really like Freida Pinto (she is gorgeous and comes off as a likeable person), but she once claimed that Indians don’t like her because she’s too dark, and I don’t exactly think that’s true. Even people don’t like her, it’s because she played a big part in Slumdog Millionaire (which a lot of people think portrays India in a wrong way) and has never done a Indian film but sticks to Hollywood only.
Anyhow, I completely agree with the idea that everyone wants what they can’t have…
I admire her for speaking out about this.
Whys should people be ashamed of their culture?
I just hope she isn’t a hypocrite and gets a whitening treatment in the future.
totally unrelated- but the face of that guy in the back is just too funny
true
) maybe he likes her
I guess it goes back to white being seen as good and dark/black being seen as bad.
Berlin Germany
Very intriguing topic… I’m a light-skinned American woman who has traveled extensively, lived in india and in europe and I have seen this in many countries. It always kind of amazes me at first when people swoon over you because of your skin. I don’t notice it anymore.
I find inter-racial relationships to be an interesting topic as well. I have dated people of different skin tones and appreciated all of them, but it’s interesting how many times the color of someone’s skin, and what they desire to have, is often the complete opposite.
Everyone wants what they arent. In America everyone is like TAN TAN TAN MUST BE TANNER!!!! but in india i guess they are the opposite.
She is definitely right. In most Bollywood films you never see dark skinned actresses. Most of them are light with blue eyes, whereas I would say that most Indians don’t look that way. Regarding tans, I think most people like the lightly tanned golden look, not super dark and not Anne Hathaway looking pale either.
I love Anne hathaways skin.
I should move to India then! people here (eruope) are always messing with my skin, even in winter. not even my nail polish gets a break (“they say some colors don’t match my white skin”) but I aleays say I couldn’t care less, I like being white and I wear whatever the hell I want. what bugs me is that everyone has to follow the stereotypes
same happens to me X( !!! but i’d rather move to Korea . i don’t find indian guys cute
I think Freida’s beautiful. I wish my super pale skin was a little darker naturally. If only I lived in California, I’d naturally get some color by being outside. It just rains over here… So I get a light golden tan (not orange) from a bottle
I always thought Freido Pinto was really light-skinned anyway. Deep complexions are gorgeous, too. We ALL have something to offer – the trick is to know our colors & make the most of what we’ve got.
yes exactly!! i thought freida was a light skinned indian lady as well but maybe i don’t know much about what constitutes a lighter/darker indian person. and i cannot believe how many people on this site are european! how international. i’m from ottawa canada.
she is not particularly dusky, i think she is just in a habit of complaining. she irritates me.
you come in one movie for 5 minutes, do practically nothing and get very famous and you still find something to complain about.
sorry. ranting. must leave.
I am very mixed racially. I don’t even know what races were mixed, but I’m guessing african, native south american and caucasian european.
It’s so interesting, because when it’s winter people think I am caucasian. When it’s summer (and I tan a lot, because I live 50 meters away the beach) people think I am afro-descendent.
BTW, I had no idea they could make creams that make your face look paler!!! Is that what Sammy Sosa used?
Oh, I noticed how Americans are obsessed with classifying skin color into races. They do not seem very comfortable with “mixed” races.
I’m saying it because I know Jessica Alba and Vanessa Hudgens have claimed to lose a few jobs because people were unable to identify their races.
It’s absurd, right? It’s like the first thing they see when they meet anyone is their skin color. Why not see the person underneath it? When are we going to let it go?
Lately I’ve caught myself eyeing the DiorSnow skin brightening line which would set me back a couple hundred dollars. And this is coming from a girl of Russian/Ukrainian decent. Ever since I’ve left the tanning bandwagon, I’ve been dreaming of deity like skin.
With this post I am wondering if it is due to bias or a superiority complex. Maybe stemming from some media undertone due to todays backlash over the ‘fakeness’ of tanning.
Aren’t I essentially trading evil for one wrapped in a brighter package. Might not be getting it after all.
This is prevalent not only in India but most of Asia, specifically China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia countries. White skin is revered and usually dignifies “class”
how is it any different then americans trying to be darker/wearing bronzer? yet no one deems that as “wrong”
yeah she’s right but like america does that too. remember when elle magazine released both the gaboury sidibe and aishwarya rai covers? both of them were lighter than they natrually are. google the covers, its almost shocking.
I know it looks bad, but don’t jump to conclusions–bad photographers often lighten everything to make it ‘pop’ more. Darker skin can be a little trickier to photograph well if you’re used to taking pictures of people with lighter skin. I don’t think that it is right either, but it might not necessarily have been because they wanted lighter skin.
Freida is sooo pretty, just beautiful.
Re the skin tones – as a caucasian, I think there’s a subtle pressure to be tanned, people often comment on my pale skin.
I get annoyed when people hassle me about being so white or when i’m plastering on the subblock, My Nana died of skin cancer when she only 53, so i’d prefer to stay pale!
Don’t worry about what people say. If that’s you in the picture, your skin is beautiful.
thank you
Hi, I am currently in Nigeria. But I am originally form Houston, TX. I’m here for the summer.
I agree with what a lot of you guys are saying. I am half black american and half nigerian and I have noticed here that A LOT of skin lightening creams and bleaches are sold in the local stores here in Nigeria. Here, lighter skin is better also, just like the Indian cultures! It depends on what part of the world you are in.
houston sista what’s up!..im sorry I just ate dinner and now I’m all silly…
Very true.
I’m Nigerian but my skin is kinda fair and I remember as a kid my mother would always urge me to stop using any moisturiser that she thought was making my skin darker.
Easy for her to talk, she is fair-skinned..
Maybe for an Indian, but compared to Caucasians she really looks tanned.. She has a lovely beige golden glow and you can tell she can get darker. Fair skinned is Scarlett Johansson, Christina Hendrickx, Dianna Agron.
Really silly, these darker skinned people complaining about their skin tone, they’ll never be pale, and they’re lucky!
From your previous comments I get that you don’t like your pale skin and would want to be more olive, but why can’t pale skinned people also be lucky? Why should pale skinned people complain or tan? You make it sound like being pale is the worst aesthetic offense lol. You are basically just perpetuating the same idea that you shouldn’t be happy with whatever skin tone you were born with… what I also really hate, especially here in Europe, that racism is still very much alive… gypsies, Indians, Blacks, anybody with naturally dark skin is looked down upon, but when its a “white person” with a real/fake tan, it looks amazing. I hate the hypocrisy. :S
I’m not saying pale people SHOULD tan or complain, but I myself could complain my ass off over all the comments I got “why don’t you go in the sun? you’re so white” like I have a disease or something. It’s just really frustrating when you have a skin type that takes forever to get a color (when doing it safely with SPF of course). For me, I just think I look better with a slight tan, like in my picture.
And yes, being European I know that there’s still a lot of racism here. I myself don’t look down upon darker skinned people at all. And I don’t “hate” pale skin per se, I think it can look awesome on dark blondes by example.
There’s nothing wrong with not being completely in love with your natural skin tone, just like it’s not wrong for people to change their hair color.
By the way it’s not like I’m the type of person who goes from super pale white to medium brown. As you can see in my picture I still very much look Caucasian and relatively light skinned!
anyways Freida has such a pretty face. And I love her skin color!
I’m Guyanese, and of Indian decent generations back. I’m not dark-skinned, but in Indian terms I may be. More like caramel. I live in the U.S. and I’ve seen products for tanning, I’m assuming India has products for skin-lightening. It kills me how people aren’t satisfied. I think alabaster skin is beautiful as is tanned skin. Freida is beautiful and has great skin color. I personally prefer her over Aish.
Here in the West Indies (i’m from the Bahamas.btw), skin lightening creams are seen in almost every beauty supply store and its sad to see that people are not comfortable in the skin they’re in, whether they be pale or dark, you should be proud of what you have, because everyone’s beautiful in their own kind of way, but i guess it’s the media who puts these ideas in our heads that being olive skinned means perfection
If from Australia and receive comments about my fair skin, not positive comments. Think I might move to India lol
i am caucasion with very fair skin and dark blonde hair. i am currently dating a latin man(peruvian-mix of native indian, some asian and some european), and none approves of my choice because he is DARK. they like his personality, but because he has a “mexican” look to him, everyone just shakes their head and tells me im stupid for settling. My parents dont even want to meet him. Yet everyone is cool with his sister because she is a few shades lighter. The world is weird, weird place..
i live in US, by the way. Miami, which is actually very tolerant towards any skintone as we are a melting pot of various ethnicities. most of miami is latino. of course, the lighter skin latinos think they are better than others and call the darker skin ones “arrow throwers”..
that;s sad…
caucasian*
Wow! It’s so interesting to see where everybody is from. No wonder we have such a myriad of opinions on here! Thanks to everyone who replied ( :
I’m from a country when fat women with fair skin are considered beauty queens, I know what she’s talking about and it’s really sad.
Tell me where are you from?
Sounds gross
I mean the fat pale people, not your country!
so pale fat people are gross…interesting
You better stop talking now, you are embarrassing
To me they are. And my opinion is definitely shared by millions. The pale part isn’t gross btw (although it can be or certain people), it’s the fat part.
I don’t think I’m embarrassing myself. There’s nothing wrong with calling fatness gross, it is unnatural after all to be extremely fat, even though the fat acceptance movement tries to claim otherwise.
It is also my right to find pale skin not particularly attractive, just like it’s your right to find something else unattractive.
hahahaha , even if I’m against it but I wouldn’t say it’s gross. btw, I’m from western sahara and it’s pretty much th same thing in Mauritania.
PS: I didn’t feel offended
ewww i remember once chatting w/ a random middle eastern guy and he said i’m too skinny and showed me pics of some chubby(fat, w/o tone) actresses/whatever in sexy poses and i was like ‘ignore’
where
It’s the same thing in the Middle East.
Btw., I live on the East Coast, US but I’m from Jerusalem, Palestine.
We should learn how to accept and love what whe have. I have a dark skin and although i have curves in the right places, I struggle with people telling me i should gain weight and stay out of the sun.
I remember that Oprah has done an episode about beauty criterias all over the world and how diverse they are.has anyone else seen it?
I think I saw that episode. It was interesting. Different countries have their own ideals on beauty.
Can anyone tell me if this is a result of the India as a british colony thing…or was this already in the caste system..or is it a combonation of both…id love to see differing opinions
also I already knew about the lighte thing I know of one cream from my south asian friends, but F if that doesn’t suck I heard shit like “oh you’d be prettier if you were lighter” since I was a child (not to me really I’m like darkened caramel) and shit if it doesnt piss me off
I think it started way before british colonialism; I don’t know much about Indian history, but I assume it’s more like tribes from the north (like from modern day Iran etc.) migrated down to the Indian subcontinent and conquered the land from the native tribes or pushed them further down south and established a dominant culture there with themselves as the ruling classes and the conquered tribes as the lower classes, and after generations it became the caste system. I used to think there were only 4 castes (brahmins, warriors, tradesmen and something else and then the untouchables) but apparently there are over a thousand different castes in India!! I have friends who are from the brahmin caste and they range from light-skinned to dark, as well as friends with untouchable ancestry who also come in a range of skin-tones (from caramel to almost solid black), but it is always the lighter-skinned Indian who is more popular/treated better.
So…what does this article have to do with diet, exercise, or being skinny and/or curvy?
It’s about beauty and how beauty is perceived in different parts of the world and how much prejudice there is around the subject. You have to be pretty narrow minded in order not to grasp why this article is extremely proper for this site.
This link showcases the variety of skin colours that India. Coincidentally, it also shows the variety of eye colours as well.
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t8178.html
Here in the UAE there are shelves and shelves dedicated to whitening creams at the supermarket. There are ads on tv basically portraying the dark skinned Indian man shunned by girls until he used a whitening cream, his skin gets paler, and then they all run after him! I was shocked when I first came here and realised what a status symbol it was for Indians (and Arabs, Pakistanis, etc) to have paler skin. I had an Indian friend tell me that it’s because those in Northern India are more likely to have pale skin and they are traditionally the wealthier, ruling class and look down upon those with the darker skin tones – like those from further south. She is very tall, slim and has pale skin and pale eyes and is very proud of it – and even does modelling. If she had darker skin there is no way that she would be able to model in India.
But India is not peculiar in their love of pale skin. It’s a status symbol in many parts of Asia – the labourers worked outdoors and were tanned by the sun, while the wealthy were indoors, pristine and white! In 18th Century Europe everyone would cake their faces in powder to appear more white as well! It’s only recently that being tan has been seen as so attractive in the West – for a long time it was especially unsightly for women to be tan. The Ancient Greeks hated their women being darker at all because they were supposed to remain indoors.
It’s sad, but not as sad as the Hindu caste system – that’s really still ingrained in many Indians and it seems very unfair to me!
i agree with most of what you wrote..apart from the modeling part. i would even say that most models we have are darker skinned.
i wonder what the attraction of fair skin is however, maybe a hint at a more luxurious life..less labor done outside the house..who knows? i always find myself admiring extremes though, like very pale skin or dark skin. it looks cool.
Oh really, I didn’t know that. I don’t live in India, so I guess I was just extrapolating that if there is this ideal in India of having fairer skin, then models would be more desirable if they were fair skinned – and my friend has suggested that her fair skin is an asset to her.
I think you are right that the attraction of fairer skin is that it was traditionally associated with a more luxurious lifestyle. Just as being a little plump was (and is still in some cultures) considered desirable because it means you come from a wealthier background and can afford to eat and not do any hard labour! Nowadays it’s actually a sign of wealth if you are thin like Victoria Beckham – then you probably have a personal trainer and can afford the tiny designer dresses that you have to fit into! These trends seem to come and go through human history.
I think people look best with whatever skin they are born with! I don’t like the idea of whitening creams or spray tans to change your skin tone. But the worst is fair-skinned women baking themselves in the sun, they look terrible in later life, not to mention will likely get skin cancer – not attractive at all!
her comment seems to be addressing india from 5-10 years ago, its true white skin is fawned upon, but i honestly have never ever heard of someone fretting about wanting fair babies..she must know some weird individuals. india has truly changed, we have tons of darker skinned actresses and models -which might seem weird to point out, but a few years ago there wouldnt have even been a handful.
in india she’s not considered anything special because her features are common and ordinary there. indians also don’t tend to like their women that scrawny. over here, she is considered exotic. i for one can’t see why and will always find her plain.
different cultures have different ideas about beauty, and also the fact we put a premium on rarity, like blonde hair or a skinny figure. in india freida is not rare at all, therefore not admired.
Disagree -white skin -”fair” in euphemistic terms is still as highly valued as before. Lightness is social capital.
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/21/lightness-as-symbolic-capital-fair-skin-in-marital-ads/
Having been to India many times, I can confirm newspaper adverts are structured in this way – Name, Age, Occupation, Colour of Skin.
Some Indian girls I know avoid going to the beach (not in fear of skin cancer) because getting darker will make them more unattractive. While the article below is written by a Pakistani person, the issue is the same.
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/3790/we-are-racist-like-our-parents-were/
Having dark skinned girls in the media is progress- but that is not to say the attitude of ‘white is right’ has been eliminated or can be relegated as belonging to another era.
Just because you haven’t personally experienced it does not mean your opinions are generalizable for all of India, especially rural communities where this preference is more acute.
I live in the US and I actually saw a selection of skin whitening products right next to tanning products. It was very weird
Beauty standards are very different around the world.Some cultures consider pale skin and being larger beautiful while others consider very thin and darker beautiful. There is not one standard look that everyone is going to find beautiful which is why there is such a variety of looks among celebrities
Wierdly tho I have 2 Vietnamese friends who tell me (a pale brit) to tan more lol
If I had to hazard a guess, I’m gonna say this fascination in India comes from their COLONIAL heritage. From the Belgians, the Portuguese, the French, the Dutch to the British, white people brought their issues with them. Exhibit A: the many, many South and Central American and Carribbean countries with 42,000 gradations of skin color and corresponding categories.
Can’t blame India for being obsessed; can blame them for not making efforts to address it.
Finally someone who pin pointed the reason behind it all. It is NOT about people wanting something they can’t have that.
You cannot juxtapose tanning with skin whitening. They come from completely different ideas. Wanting lighter skin is not just an obsession in India, or Africa, but also Jamaica. This is directly tied to their colonial pasts. Being lighter allowed for opportunities for those lighter skinned blacks that could not be afforded to a darker skinned black person. These things have been brought to present day society although the original reasons for them have long been over. Tanning is just not tied to anything like that.
I completely agree with you!!!
I know before I used to want to be tan. I knew so many people and I thought it looked beautiful. I tan really good in the summer. but what am I going to do? Go to tanning beds 9 months of the year where you get spots and miss places and pay $50 a month? You also increase your chance for cancer! I learned you just have to learn to love what you have because you will go somewhere where they will think it is beautiful. When I went to Colombia everyone was staring at me for my pale skin and green eyes. There’s no point changing yourself because someone will think you are beautiful. You just have to see it for yourself.
People are remarking on the human nature aspect of people always wanting what they can’t have but I don’t really think it is the same thing. The reasons for people with darker skin wanting to make themselves lighter goes deeper than the aesthetic reasons behind tanning.
Some of histories atrocities (slave trades, colonialism, cast system) were all justified by a belief that people with fairer skin are superior to those with darker skin. Previously it was believed that the bible stated that people with darker skin are descendants of the cursed race of Ham and this was used to justify the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Also slaves with lighter skin were said to have gotten “better” (if there was such thing) treatment than those with darker skin. Also colonialism in Africa and Asia saw people with lighter skin ruling over those with darker skin. History is consistently shown examples of darker skin being inferior and thise complex has long since filtered into other parts of society. People may comment that these events are in the past but the mentality is sub-consciously alive today and this is why there is a lot of tension amongst black people regarding different skin tones as there is amongst Asians.
Nicely articulated Nkeon.
stupid because in america all of the white people go tanning to be dark. everyone just wants to be the opposite of what they are. why can’t people just accept the way they were born?
Hey everyone! Thank you so much for replying to my post–it’s so cool to see where everyone comes from! No wonder we have such a myriad of opinions here ( :
Yep I was really surprised too to see so much people from Europe commentin’ on this site.. I was expecting many more from the U.S.
)
I agree.. no wonder we have so many opinions
not just europe ? iam shoked there are people from negeria ?
well.,, iam from Saudia Arabia
soo,, yeah ,,small world
this is soo sad!! i hate having pale skin…i burn constantly whether or not i put on sunscreen and it doesnt look as slimming as when your tan..so yea, personally i think the opposite is more attractive..i find it silly that having no color in your skin is beautiful?? to each her own, i guess
Sorry if this is repetitive, I stopped reading posts after I hit 100 or so….
To me, any physical alteration falls into the same general bucket. Boob jobs, Botox, fake tans, eyelid surgery, skin lightening…They’re not the same procedures, but fundamentally, all use modern day advancements to mold oneself into their ideal beauty standard.
How many fake blondes are out there? If you don’t think something about yourself is beautiful, you have the right to change it. I realize there is a drastic difference between bleaching your hair and bleaching your skin and I realize there is an interesting racial component woven into this story… this is one born and bred Asian woman’s opinion.
The notion that Indians with darker skin are discriminated against is disappointing. It’s like that is Asian countries. Back in the day, if you were dark skinned, it meant you worked outside in the fields all day.
This is just really sad that this still goes on. My mother hounds me about my skin tone–I got my Celt/German dad’s paleness instead of hers (she’s part Slovak and Greek). She always buys me tanning lotion and tells me that I need color because my skin looks bad. People make no sense.
I saw this guy at the gym once who had the absolute darkest skin I have ever seen, and I thought it was so beautiful. Maybe I’m just a weirdo?
though this comment is true Freida needs to stop being to dramatic. There are quite a few bollywood actresses who have darker skin than her (deepika padukone, bipasha basu) and many who are lighter then some hollywood actresses.
I myself am I light skinned Indian, why do people seem so assume it’s impossible for indians to be borderline pale without lightening creams? Or that they can’t have light coloured eyes without wearing contacts…ridiculous
most indians are really dark.. so for people to be told through advertising and social shaming that that is evil and wrong..
something God created. that is sick.
You can still get lighter skin without having to slather yourself with expensive creams. While a certain amount of skin tone is determined by genetics, it can also be influenced by environmental factors as well. Staying out of the sun can do wonders and there are of course natural remedies that can be applied to the skin if one does wish to have a fairer skin tone.
Well there are lots of comments about the fact that prefering a lighter colour is a matter of taste .I just want to say that’s this phenomena is not particular to India .We have it in every society which was founded/ or interferred by/with the Europeans with slavery ,race mixing etc .You find the same issue in the Caribbean .The ligther you are is the better for you .It’s the same in the US within the afro-american community .Sometimes ,maybe not about the skin colour ,but about the hair ,with topics like what is the better hair ,fair hair ,bad nappy hair .You find the same in South America .The Natives are called ” Indios ” in comparision to the rest of the people which is of spanish ascendance .Every society which ,in its process of building ,got interractions with Europeans ,especially if there was slavery ,has ,as a result ,this kind of issue which goes way deeper and further than just preferences .
i think she’s right about the obsession with white skin in india ,,becuze iam from middle east ,,and it happen here too ,, i mean most people here are obsesse with being white too ,, women will spend $$$$ on whitening creams ,,and men only want white women to mary .
and when they describe a beautiful woman ,,they say : she’s white & tall and thin ….etc ??
and i don’t get it O_o ,,it’s sick & stupid
I’m Spaniard and I’m very pale, and people in Spain prefer tanned skins. In fact, people has told me that I seem a ghost, that I seem dead, that I would be prettier with a more tanned skin, etc. Some people laugh at me and feel superiority thinking their tanned skin is cooler.
People is idiot, we have to accept it (the most they critizice you, more insecurities they show).
I’m Indian and while I really love dark or tanned skin I don’t find Freida beautiful at all.
It’s all personal choice.You can give her the shade of Christina Hendricks and still people in India wouldn’t find her beautiful.They find Jessica Alba beautiful who is dark skinned.
I guess it’s also out of spite since there are some talented actors in Bollywood ( who are dark skinned FYI : check Konkana Sen Sharma) and you have this girl who’s rarely showed any acting skills and she’s trotted around to be one of the most beautiful girls in the world.
There are several beautiful dark skinned girls in India (check the Southern Indian states) whose skin color is borderline African skin color who are much better looking than her.I don’t find her features pretty too.She’s basic and average
I guess why Indians dislike her too is also because of her accent.She’s born and bred in Mumbai and studied in a state Indian school.There’s no way in hell anyone can develop an accent like that at 25 years old.I’ve been exposed to Brits and Americans all my life and while I’m young I still stick to my accent.
She seems like she’s sucking up too hard
its the same thing with where im from . lighter skin is liked more. i do think if someone is pretty theyre pretty regardless of their skin tone. but i do say this as a darker asian. it is just mhy opinio of course but i do think its easier to look prettier with paler skin (not super pale of course) just because i dont have such a nice nose (its kind of wide) it shows more on darker skin. that although someone else has a similar nose to me but lighter it seems to not attract attention like mine. LOL more shadows i guess?
White skin is beautiful. Europeans are Gems. What other race has such Diversity in their beauty? Red, Blonde, Black, Brown hair. Blue, Grey, Brown, Hazel eyes.
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Okay I live in the US and I don’t know who the hell this woman is. I am from India too and while there is skin obsession, it’s not as awful she is making it seem like to be. From what I heard, this woman had a small role in Slumdog Millionare, which I never watched. She is not that well known of a star to be opening her mouth like this. I watch indian movies and there are tons of dark skinned actresses such as Bipasha Basu, Rani Mukerji, Priyanka Chopra( who was Miss World in 2000), Vidya Balan, Kajol,etc. Now if all of these women could make it and not her, it might have something to do with talent. From what I have heard she is not even talented and my friend did see one of her movies, The Immortals and they she sucked in it. Kinda sad how the fame has gone into her head. She has said even that she is accepted in Hollywood because of her skin tone. That’s bullshit. Hollywood itself has a major problem giving proper roles to colored actors, so she is happy that she is in an industry that will type cast her and not give her any good roles? I don’t see her having a long,great career in Hollywood. Within a year or two, this broad will be gone and will be back in India doing whatever she was doing before.