An Interview with Sushumna Kannan By Manon Foucraut

Why is Bollywood one of the most important influences for beauty criteria in India?

Bollywood can be said to be one of the most important influences in recent times not only on beauty standards but a whole host of other issues as well. As has been argued, it is the carrier of modernity/west itself to the Indian masses. Bollywood defines many things--moral codes (even if through contrasts), lifestyles, culture etc.  It projects a “fun life” as opposed to real lives that are far more complicated. As a bridge to the west, many of Bollywood’s values comes from the west and its beauty criteria never really accepts the average Indian face as “OK.” As a power visual medium, it sets the criteria for beauty in India and on western terms; faces cannot have culture-specific features but must seem neutral!

Bollywood’s melodramatic nature has not gone unnoticed by the Indian middle class and anyone influenced too much by it, is often considered naive. Yet Bollywood has over time shaped the self-image of women and the fantasies of both sexes. Bollywood’s women are almost always “fair,” modern, clothed in skimpy clothes, impossibly graceful and so on. The heavy make-up and bright lights used to capture the so-called beauty therein is often known to be skin deep.

If quite naturally then, we are to ask the question, what were the criteria for beauty before Bollywood, it leads us to other cultural issues---of tradition and modernity. In pre-modern India, long hair, fair skin, curvy body for women and tall stature for men were seen as important criteria. While the value of women, brides for instance, was assessed by these standards, post-Bollywood the criteria have changed drastically. This could be due to an interest in winning the approval of the west for countries like India. But the self-consciousness that the Camera, Video, Film and other technological innovations bring to self-perception on the whole also matters. They could be said to change the nature of selfhood itself.  

What is your take on the feminine images in Indian media?  

Indian media to a great extent is like Bollywood. Selling is the main aim herein, and if semi-pornographic images catch the attention of the viewers, it passes as an advertisement. Women’s bodies have been used to sell almost everything. What is more shocking is the gender stereotyping that occurs in almost every single ad we view nowadays. In the ad world, women mostly cook, clean and wash and never complain and always manage to look good. Clad in a saree, they carry tradition forward and also act in the best interests of men. Femininity is cast softly and subtly, so that it appeal and meaning is not missed. A tomboyish woman could be said to be of no use to the Indian media.      

Indian media puts women into feminine roles mostly and a part of this is also the emphasis on beauty. Despite numerous criticisms of the stereotyping of gender roles, the ad language has over the years remained the same. This is also probably because the culture around it has remained largely patriarchal and ads try to communicate in such a world within a matter of seconds. Using as many stereotypes works well for this medium! What is alarming is that they are in turn a major source of youngster’s acculturation into patriarchal values.   

      

How is a woman with dark skin seen by Indian society?

Not very fairly! As a young girl, she wouldn't be cast as the princess in school plays. As an adolescent, she wouldn't have the attention of male members of the society as would fair-skinned girls—which could traumatize her self-confidence. And in the marriage market, to be dark is the worst sin! Your ‘value’ would go down. You would have to marry beneath you if you were dark, unless you are endowed with other “assets”! Perhaps real assets like money or a sound family background (meaning no divorces or single parenthood at least) or good education. As a wife, if you are not fair and beautiful, you would have to “overdo” things in some way to make “deal” worthwhile. For instance, a woman would have to sacrifice more in order to please her husband and his family so they would excuse her dark-skin.

Numerous ads bombarding the screen would declare to you day in and out that to be fair-skinned is desirable. The recent ad for vagina whitening (Clean and Dry Intimate Wash) sparked controversy but persists in markets today! This shows that little has actually changed in terms of attitudes in preferring fair-skinned women over the years and that technological innovation is being used to serve the interests of a capital economy with patriarchal investments. A dark skinned woman with sharp, proportionate features maybe perceived as beautiful and thus preferred but the notion of seeking or privileging beauty in women or beauty as such, quite unfairly, persists. Any relationship wherein power lies with people who prefer beautiful women could disadvantage the dark-skinned woman in India.         

Fairness obsession and westernization (call it, bollywoodization of beauty criteria in the Indian context) of feminine beauty criteria is not unique to India. According many cultures around the world, to be fair skinned is linked with being from an upper social class, even cleaner!

Colonialism could be said play a role in this behavior in India. In one sense, colonialism did leave Indian with a shame—for being conquered and plundered and administered. Colonialism’s own loathing for the dark-skinned could be seen as the source of embarrassment over dark skin in India. However, this could be only half of the story, since pre-colonial criteria for beauty also mentioned fair-skin as important. Indian goddesses are mostly described as fair-skinned in Puranas although many of them are also not fair at all. The challenge in the last 60 years, for feminists, has been to change beauty as a criteria by which to assess women and fairness or femininity as crucial. In this interest, the women’s movement has opposed to the objectification of women in movies, ads and in other cultural and social spaces. Beauty contests became a major issue to protest against. Nevertheless, the challenge remains. 

       

Why do developing countries today associate their own development to westernization?

Unfortunately, development has come mean to modernization and westernization in most countries. This is mostly so because of the colonial shame produced in most countries that were colonized. And a shame of another kind is now being produced in those who remain traditional. The reason for this is the west’s lack of understanding of other cultures. Those traditional are type-cast as irrational, unscientific, outdated, sentimental and those modern are rational, scientific, updated and practical. Repeated messages of the type-casting from the more prosperous western countries of the world have left the developing nations strive for the same resources of those that developed countries have and have also set off an imitation of the west in developing countries. This is alarming.

But there are also activists who think that another world is possible; they often work against the nationalistic agenda set by the developing country’s governance and the presumption that development resembles westernization.

Additionally, people themselves (through spontaneous protests and movements) are often able to evaluate the ills of such ‘westernization=development’ models and reject it (like in the Narmada Bacho Andolan wherein people fought for their livelihoods that surrounded the river and forests in the Narmada basin).

Perhaps a way out is to rethink the ‘development’ of the developed countries. We will then note that the developed countries use a majority of the world’s resources to keep up their standard of life. Whereas, the world’s resources if shared, allow for a much less flamboyant lifestyle but a more responsible one wherein people would not be dying of hunger.    

Manon Foucraut is a Masters Student at the Shrishti School of Art and Design in Bangalore. This interview is presented as an appendix in her Masters  Thesis. She even thanks me in her Thesis, which is wonderfully written, covering a vast historical period. I am grateful to her in turn...for the opportunity to be of any help.