Why does skin colour matter in Indian marriages? I am really surprised as to how someone can choose a life partner based on their complexion. Since my childhood, I have constantly been coming across matrimonial ads in newspapers where most families want ‘fair’ brides and grooms. Don’t you find it funny and illogical?
This is especially a major problem for young women who are inching towards a marital age. A woman with a darker complexion is forced to look for ways to look fairer, be it through fairness creams or expensive skin-lightening treatments which are a colossal waste of money.
How can we not understand that a person’s skin tone is determined by their genes? Being ‘fair’ doesn’t make you the most accomplished, and having a ‘wheatish’ complexion doesn’t mean that you are ugly. Being healthy and confident needs to be considered as the real beauty of a person. Please understand that your skin colour doesn’t determine how beautiful you are a person. And don’t make yourself go through hell just for the sake of a marriage. In any case, your life partner shouldn’t be fixated on your skin colour and like you for who you are as a person.
It’s pathetic that in India, a person’s skin colour is still being used to discriminate against them. A person’s complexion, body type or looks don’t define who they are. And as a society, we should move beyond such shallowness and focus on looking at the traits of a person, which actually make them who they are.