People in India and abroad are beginning to use humor to protest bias against darker skin tones, said professor Radhika Parameswaran in a lecture Friday afternoon as a part of the gender studies colloquium series.
“There are voices of protest,” Parameswaran said. “Do they amount to a revolution? Certainly not, but there are voices of dissent.”
Hierarchy based on skin tone, called colorism, emerges when people view those with darker skin as unattractive or even dirty.
Colorism exists across the globe but in India, this mindset is rooted in colonialism and the class system, Parameswaran said, where lower classes were associated with darker skin.
The transfer of American media to India today contributes to colorism as well, Parameswaran said.
Bias against darker skin has created a large industry of skin-lightening creams as well as perpetuated cultural practices aimed at keeping skin light, such as telling women to avoid outdoor activity.
“It’s a spectrum of practices that people do,” Parameswaran said.
In her current research, Parameswaran said she examines how people “culture jam” colorism, or take mainstream media forms, such as commercials, and modify them to create a cultural critique.
Activists in India are now beginning to use parody and humor to criticize colorism and embrace skin of all tones.
These people use online resources to create content that riffs off of well-known media, such as famous commercials, in ways that show their disapproval of light-skin standards.
In one example YouTube video from Parameswaran’s presentation, a woman went to the doctor asking for help with lightening skin, saying no creams worked.
People with Indian or South Asian heritage residing in other countries also criticize colorism and practices aiming to make skin as light as possible.
“They look at South Asian colorism and connect it to hierarchies of racism,” Parameswaran said. “It disrupts the nostalgic view of the homeland.”
The talk was a part of the gender studies colloquium series, organized by the Gender Studies Graduate Association and the gender studies department.
The series brings in speakers who research topics related to identity or gender and sexuality studies from a variety of departments, like Parameswaran, who is a part of the Media School.
“We started this a few years back to create an academic community around issues of gender and sexuality,” said Lindsey Breitwieser, former chair of the colloquium series. “Our purpose is to get the knowledge out there.”
The series will have more speakers throughout the year, but Jiling Duan, current chair of the series, said the series is always looking for more people who would like to give a presentation.
“If there are faculty or graduate students interested in presenting research, they are welcome,” Duan said.
