A Brown Nepalese Girl’s Guide To Beauty
I am literally amused by the Nepalese society for their obsession with fair skin. Being a brown girl, ever since my young days, I was taught by society that fair skin is beautiful.
From my nursery rhymes books where B stood for beautiful and had a picture of the fair, petite girl to all the people surrounding me, I was subtly reinforced to believe that I should have had that fair or pale skin to seem beautiful.
Our society has been built on the belief of judging people by their skin tones rather than their personality. It has developed an inferiority complex among the young brown girls and I was and am one of the victims of that plebeian mentality.
I have had hundreds of tips given to me just to have “Fair skin”.
Many people suggested me to either use different whitening creams or bleach my face, do different kinds of facials, put on makeup, home remedies just anything that could satisfy the standards they have set for people all around.
They never encouraged me to feel beautiful in my birth skin. Even beauty parlors gave me multiple tips to “Scrub out my tan.”
I remember getting gifted different kinds of whitening products on my birthday which made me realize how judgmental we are on each of the smallest things.
Imagine just feeding someone with the information that they are incompetent in society just because of their skin color.
Society has been the biggest challenge for me in the way to love myself. From the different advertisements that blatantly show fair skin girls as beautiful to different neighboring aunties suggesting me to apply varieties of so-called whitening remedies, I went through them all.
I have had many people worried about how I will get married to my darker skin tone.
I was ignorant to the fact that they have a stagnant skin complexion tone for the marriage. It had nothing to do with my feelings or emotions. The distressing remarks went to the point that I was mentally harassed for being “Ugly” in their social standards made by the double standard society.
The internet is filled with multiple videos or articles on ‘how to whiten your skin.’ From applying toothpaste to different kinds of mud, they have all kinds of absurd suggestions and yes this society forced me to watch those at one phase of my life giving me the belief system that I will turn beautiful after applying those.
I just don’t understand why I need to fit in the so-called social standards they have for me and why I can’t cherish myself the way I am. Why can’t I love the skin my mother gave me but rather use the whitening products without caring about my skin health?
This has lowered the self-esteem of many women around the globe and I have been on the verge of struggling with the deception of society and my own inner voice who cries to not hear their grim thoughts and adore myself the way I am.
It feels like a continuous agitation and clash of thoughts.
They make you feel bad in every way and then end up saying “She’s pretty for a dark-skinned girl…..” and I’m left to wonder what is that supposed to mean.
It has always been porcelain and perfects but now’s the time we forget snow-white and start embracing other skin tones. The color of our skin tone dictates our beauty and that’s just so unfair. Everyone has the right to feel comfortable and blessed in their own skin tones.
Now, I am comfortable and in love with my melanin but ‘sorry not sorry‘ society for not being your typical porcelain petite girl. I am a brown girl without an apology. It’s time we love all shapes and shades.
Celebrate beauty beyond color!!
Photo by Dmitry Shamis on Unsplash
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