Apparently Michael Jackson was right. A dark skin colour will sooner or later comes back to bite you even if your popularity depends on it. Ask Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, who despite being hailed as the dusky exotic beauty worldwide, the kind that would cause Obama to increase the tanning tax in America and Jersey Shore’s pint sized star Snooki to claim her eternal right to darkening her skin tone, has allegedly been recently photoshopped to look many shades lighter on the cover of TV Guide’s US edition. And not just her, Slumdog star Freida Pinto was also allegedly toned whiter for her Vanity Fair shoot last year and so was Oscar nominee Gabby Sidibe, who looked almost bronze from a dark tan in order to grace Elle magazine’s cover. So, is the tan-loving west heading back to the 90s, when the only acceptable skin colour was fair and the much revered dawn of dusk is still a long way to come?
Model Donna Masih disagrees, saying that Padma’s photoshopped cover might be a one off for a certain kind of target audience. “I think dusky is extremely exotic and many South Asian models and actresses are really famous internationally. I have a wheatish dusky complexion and have never felt any discrimination on the basis of my colour,” she says.
And fashion photographer Bikramjit Bose, continues in the same vein. “I agree there was a period when dusky complexion in fashion was not considered at par with lighter skin tones, but I doubt that it’s the case still. Choosing a model depends on the fact whether he or she fits the shoot and scenario and not on the skin colour anymore,” he tells us.
Though a sliver of change is visible but even we are not free from our fair skinned obsession. Famously dark skinned model Tinu Verghis clarifies. “The bias will exist for a lot longer and if Padma Lakshmi herself is okay with the shoot, then why should we have a problem? In fact, we dark brown people ourselves think every African is a drug dealer. The pot is still calling the kettle black,” she retorts.
Even designer Rina Dhaka says that Padma has a beautiful complexion and a flawless skin, which is not very dark but instead wheatish in colour. “Ujjala Raut, who has been working as a model for many years, said that only recently a shampoo brand which had a reputation of casting only fair women, hired her for a campaign. So, I guess attitudes are changing, though they will take their own time,” she says.