All's Fair that ends Fair

Have you seen the new fairness cream advertisement on the telly? I won't go into specifics (so I don't inadvertently slander anybody) but the ad portrays the use of a fairness metre (*wink*) to help you determine what your current skin tone is and then monitor the changes as you use the product.

There are so many skin care products out there that guarantee you will be fair and beautiful after using them. Such marketing techniques simply play on the skewed mentality of the masses, that 'fair' and 'beautiful' are inseparable synonyms.
In India, for example, most men look for fairer women to marry. If you randomly picked a marriage ad from any popular matchmaking website, you'd most probably find that the groom-to-be is asking for someone 'fair and [insert any other positive adjective here]'

How fair is that? Not fair at all (sorry for the pun, but it is very much intended *snicker*).

Did you know that:

(a) your skin colour is predominantly dependent on your genes?
(b) your skin colour is not greatly determined by environmental factors?
(c) most fairness creams contain bleaching agents and so this is just a temporary, artificial way of looking fair?

When I go to the beach, I tan and then, admittedly, I complain. I don't like being tanned (mainly because I'm not naturally fair-skinned). But that doesn't mean that I want to be fairer than I was ever meant to be. I very much like my skin colour, thank you!

Of course, you may argue that just like I don't like to be tanned, there may be others who do not particularly enjoy being dark all the time. I ask you then: why change the skin colour that Nature has endowed you with?
There are many beautiful people out there who have dark skin. Just as there are many beautiful people out there who are fair skinned. And so many with skin tones in between!

We may look different from each other (except rare random people, identical twins, triplets, quadruplets...you get the drift) but in God's eyes, we are all the same...equal.

I don't want to preach but I sincerely believe that the world would be a better place if people just accepted their own uniqueness and that of others. If we do just this much, there will be no more racism, no more pining for a better skin colour, no more putting others down for their looks and accents. What a different, more beautiful world that would be!

Source: WareSeeker.com

Obviously, there are certain things we can and possibly should control: split ends (one might argue that Nature intended our hair to split at the ends), our health (I was destined to get Diabetes; its in my genes) and I-cannot-really-think-of-more-right-now-so-lets-just-end-the-list-and-perhaps-this-post-as-well =)


Excuse me as I try to get rid of some very unnatural blackheads.

Till next time,

Jo