Miss India pageant goes beyond the pale

[Technics 1210]

The Miss India beauty pageant has long been a stepping stone to success for some of the country’s biggest stars.

Bollywood actresses such as Priyanka Chopra, 36, and Aishwarya Rai, 45, were discovered in the contest. This year’s contest has blundered into a storm of controversy, however, after the finalists were revealed. The 30 young women with glossy dark hair and a fair skin tone look almost identical.

The row has exposed India’s obsession with light skin and the ancient prejudices that persist. India is one of the world’s biggest markets for skin-lightening products that reinforce the notion that fairer skin is superior to dark, a path to professional success or an advantageous marriage. Campaigners have tried to overturn those caste-based prejudices. Miss India has been accused of undermining their struggle at a stroke.

Social media exploded when a newspaper showed the 30 finalists. Critics noted that not only was their skin tone uniformly pale but many of the women looked uncannily alike. In a population of 1.3 billion people the women appear to represent the same narrow strip of northern India.

One Twitter user said: “Are you certain this is not the same woman in different outfits?” Another said: “This should be named north-Indian Punjabi beauty contest.” One post read simply: “So white.”

For campaigners, the prejudice against dark skin is all too familiar. Traditional Indian art has equated fair skin with the Hindu gods. Caste discrimination stigmatises dark skin. Women experiment with skin lotions that are unsafe. A World Health Organisation study found that more than 60 per cent of Indian women regularly used lightening creams.

Resistance is gaining force, however, with the Dark is Beautiful campaign. Sai Pallavi, 27, an actress, said this week that she turned down a lucrative deal to promote a skin cream. “The standards we have are wrong,” she said. “This is the Indian colour. We can’t go to foreigners and ask them why they’re white. That’s their skin colour and this is ours.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/miss-india-pageant-is-too-pale-to-be-true-vq3tdpxnd

 

[marlonbrowndo]

This is no surprise in the subcontinent. Disgusting mentality associating beauty with skin colour. Really frustrating when so many so called educated and sensible people make casual remarks about a person’s (mostly women) skin tone

 

[marlonbrowndo]

As prevalent as this is in India, it is also really awful in Pakistan

 

[troodon]

None of them look alike. Its racist to say that.

They are not pale either. They all look brown. I don't know from where the beyond pale thing in the title came from.

Blaming caste system for this is taking the easy way out. The problem is in the mindset of people where lighter skin is considered more attractive. In a nation where majority are black skinned or dark brown, a light skin person is bound to get more attention.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

None of them look alike. Its racist to say that.

They are not pale either. They all look brown. I don't know from where the beyond pale thing in the title came from.

Really?



Do you really think that represents all Indian regions?

 

[troodon]

Really?

View attachment 91908

Do you really think that represents all Indian regions?

That is a typical color for a person from Delhi or Punjab or Haryana or Himachal. Most contestants seems to be from that area. I don't see any issue there.

Also, do not go by photos. None of them look pale to me. All are wearing your regular make up and they all have brown tan to them. I don't see any pale in them as the title of the thread claims.

Is the issue in question because there are no South Indians among the contestants?

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

That is a typical color for a person from Delhi or Punjab or Haryana or Himachal. Most contestants seems to be from that area. I don't see any issue there.

Also, do not go by photos. None of them look pale to me. All are wearing your regular make up and they all have brown tan to them. I don't see any pale in them as the title of the thread claims.

Is the issue in question because there are no South Indians among the contestants?

Yes to me that would be an issue because South India is still India. Are all the girls ugly in South India?

 

[Slog]

That is a typical color for a person from Delhi or Punjab or Haryana or Himachal. Most contestants seems to be from that area. I don't see any issue there.

Also, do not go by photos. None of them look pale to me. All are wearing your regular make up and they all have brown tan to them. I don't see any pale in them as the title of the thread claims.

Is the issue in question because there are no South Indians among the contestants?

It’s a miss India contest not miss northern Punjab or sth.

 

[troodon]

Yes to me that would be an issue because South India is still India. Are all the girls ugly in South India?

Contest is about Beauty and Brains combined. If no South Indian girl qualified, then it is just that. I have seen many of these contests in 90's and Early 2000's and there were many South Girls too. Aishwarya Rai, Deepika and Priyanka Chopra (Mom) are South Indian. Sushmita Sen is Bengali.

I still see no issue.

 

[troodon]

It’s a miss India contest not miss northern Punjab or sth.

I can see an Asian looking Indian. Obviously she is from North East of India. I can also see a Jadhav Girl (most probably from low caste Maharastrian), A Gupta (UP'ite)..

So not all are Punjabis..

 

[troodon]

To bust the myth that it is not a Punjabi Beauty Contest, see below the contestants names. I see contestants from all over India. They do not look pale in any sense. A huge uproar over nothing.




Shaasthra Shetty ( Goa), Jayanti Reang (Tripura), Marina Kiho (Nagaland), Sang Doma Tarang (Sikkim),Mansi Taxak (Gujarat), Harnaaz Kaur (Punjab), Chitrapriya Singh (Jharkhand), Sushmita Roy (West Bengal),Siddhi Gupta(Uttarakhand), Sonal Sharma ( Haryana), Roshni Dada (Arunachal Pradesh),

Standing Second Row: Urmila Shagolsem (Manipur), Jyotishmita Baruah (Assam), Nikita Tanwani (Andhra Pradesh), Aashna Bisht (Karnataka), Suman Rao (Rajasthan), Garima Yadav (Madhya Pradesh), Lakshmi Menon (Kerala), Shreya Shanker (Bihar),

Sitting First Row: Rubeiya SK (Tamil Nadu), Garima Verma(Himachal Pradesh), Vaishnavi Andhale(Maharashtra), Mansi Sehgal (Delhi), Shivani Jadhav (Chhattisgarh),

Sitting Second Row: Sheetal Sahu (Odisha), Sangeeta Das (Meghalaya), Megha Kaul (Jammu and Kashmir), Shinata Chauhan (Uttar Pradesh), Sanjana Vij (Telangana), Lalnunthari Rualhleng (Mizoram)

 

[slipcatch]

To bust the myth that it is not a Punjabi Beauty Contest, see below the contestants names. I see contestants from all over India. They do not look pale in any sense. A huge uproar over nothing.

View attachment 91909


Shaasthra Shetty ( Goa), Jayanti Reang (Tripura), Marina Kiho (Nagaland), Sang Doma Tarang (Sikkim),Mansi Taxak (Gujarat), Harnaaz Kaur (Punjab), Chitrapriya Singh (Jharkhand), Sushmita Roy (West Bengal),Siddhi Gupta(Uttarakhand), Sonal Sharma ( Haryana), Roshni Dada (Arunachal Pradesh),

Standing Second Row: Urmila Shagolsem (Manipur), Jyotishmita Baruah (Assam), Nikita Tanwani (Andhra Pradesh), Aashna Bisht (Karnataka), Suman Rao (Rajasthan), Garima Yadav (Madhya Pradesh), Lakshmi Menon (Kerala), Shreya Shanker (Bihar),

Sitting First Row: Rubeiya SK (Tamil Nadu), Garima Verma(Himachal Pradesh), Vaishnavi Andhale(Maharashtra), Mansi Sehgal (Delhi), Shivani Jadhav (Chhattisgarh),

Sitting Second Row: Sheetal Sahu (Odisha), Sangeeta Das (Meghalaya), Megha Kaul (Jammu and Kashmir), Shinata Chauhan (Uttar Pradesh), Sanjana Vij (Telangana), Lalnunthari Rualhleng (Mizoram)

You are keep digging a bigger hole after trying to defend racism.

I believe, it has to do with you not understanding what racism is.

 

[troodon]

You are keep digging a bigger hole after trying to defend racism.

I believe, it has to do with you not understanding what racism is.

I can clearly see dark skinned girls in the picture and the girls come from all parts of India from various castes and religions. I even see a Muslim girl Sheik Rubeiya among the contestants.

Where is the racism here? Unless you are telling these girls do not look like the normal people on the streets of South India..

 

[slipcatch]

I can clearly see dark skinned girls in the picture and the girls come from all parts of India from various castes and religions. I even see a Muslim girl Sheik Rubeiya among the contestants.

Where is the racism here? Unless you are telling these girls do not look like the normal people on the streets of South India..

They don't

They aren't dark skinned.

 

[Technics 1210]

Miss India contest: Why do all the finalists 'look the same'?

It is the contest that kick-started Bollywood superstar Priyanka Chopra's career, so it is unsurprising that this year's Miss India finalists have such wide smiles in their publicity shots.

After all, this is a competition with the power to change lives.

But instead of being able to enjoy their success, they have found themselves at the centre of a storm over a photo collage which, critics say, suggests the organisers are obsessed with fair skin.

The collage published in the Times of India newspaper - which belongs to the group that organises the annual beauty pageant - depicts 30 headshots of beautiful women.

But when a Twitter user shared it and posed a question: "What is wrong with this picture?" it began to gain traction.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-48442662

 

[Pakistanian]

They don't look that pale. People have preconceived notions of how south asians are supposed to look like and that itself is racist. Next people will say south asian models should stop wearing make up and not use flash photography or photoshop like how the vast majority of models around the world do.

 

[King-Misbah]

They do not look very Indian to me!

 

[troodon]

They do not look very Indian to me!

Indian as in Dalits/Tribals and Andamanese people?

 

[USaqaf]

Very interesting that of all people Pakistanis are criticizing India for racism.
Remember they were racist towards darker, Dravidian looking Bengalis so much so they refused to honor an elected mandate to be ruled by 'inferior' Bengalis that even caused the country to be split.

 

[King-Misbah]

Very interesting that of all people Pakistanis are criticizing India for racism.
Remember they were racist towards darker, Dravidian looking Bengalis so much so they refused to honor an elected mandate to be ruled by 'inferior' Bengalis that even caused the country to be split.

Two wrong do not make a right my friend. Besides, the common West Pakistani held no hate towards the then East Pakistani but this was Bhuttos ego.

Anyways, wanting to be fair skinned is common problem in India and Pakistan. We should collectively not bury our heads in sand!

 

[King-Misbah]

That is a typical color for a person from Delhi or Punjab or Haryana or Himachal. Most contestants seems to be from that area. I don't see any issue there.

Also, do not go by photos. None of them look pale to me. All are wearing your regular make up and they all have brown tan to them. I don't see any pale in them as the title of the thread claims.

Is the issue in question because there are no South Indians among the contestants?

Even Punjabis tend not to be very light skinned. Only kashmiris, Pashtun and some Baloch tend to be light skinned. It is misconception about Punjabis or "North Indians" to be fair skinned.

 

[Romali_rotti]

lol Like Pakistanis are any different

 

[Slog]

Very interesting that of all people Pakistanis are criticizing India for racism.
Remember they were racist towards darker, Dravidian looking Bengalis so much so they refused to honor an elected mandate to be ruled by 'inferior' Bengalis that even caused the country to be split.

Two wrongs do not make a right

And this logic used by Indians has never made sense. If it was followed than Indians won’t have right to criticise anything

 

[Slog]

lol Like Pakistanis are any different

Just coz Pakistan May be same Does that make it right that a traditional looking mallu won’t be allowed in this pageant?

 

[Romali_rotti]

Just coz Pakistan May be same Does that make it right that a traditional looking mallu won’t be allowed in this pageant?

Nope...

 

[Pakistanian]

Even Punjabis tend not to be very light skinned. Only kashmiris, Pashtun and some Baloch tend to be light skinned. It is misconception about Punjabis or "North Indians" to be fair skinned.

Punjabis are generally on the lighter side of Desi spectrum, Bollywood is dominated by Punjabis. Punjabis also tend to be bigger, hairier and more rugged looking just like other northwest Desis.

 

[shaz619]

Punjabis are generally on the lighter side of Desi spectrum, Bollywood is dominated by Punjabis. Punjabis also tend to be bigger, hairier and more rugged looking just like other northwest Desis.

Really, I always felt they are considered a tad darker the Punjabis well from Pak anyway

 

[Pakistanian]

Really, I always felt they are considered a tad darker the Punjabis well from Pak anyway

Well yeah among all the other Pakistani groups but lighter than most other indian ethnic groups.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Really, I always felt they are considered a tad darker the Punjabis well from Pak anyway

Punjab is very mixed. You get some who are really light skinned, almost white looking, and then on the other spectrum you can get very dark skinned as well. Most are probably in between. I would imagine it's the same in Indian Punjab.