Magazine advertisements and television commercials for cosmetics and personal hygiene products in India illustrate a cultural bias toward lighter skin, according to the findings of a study published in the fall 2009 issue of Journalism and Communication Monographs.

In their monograph, “Melanin on the Margins: Advertising and the Cultural Politics of Fair/Light/White Beauty in India,” Radhika Parameswaran and Kavitha Cardoza first provide context for “colorism,” or skin color discrimination, in India. They explain that the nineteenth century colonial attitudes that considered the science of race looked at physical characteristics of natives in order to prove their inferiority. Likewise, colorism has roots in the caste system of India, as well as in the country’s ancient history when lighter-skinned tribes invaded around 1500 B.C. [Read more...]