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Business News/ Opinion / Blogs/  Cosmetic beauty’s new frontiers
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Cosmetic beauty’s new frontiers

Cancer drugs for skin lightening, vampire facials for anti-ageingthere are many stories to be found and told here

There is still room to understand what makes women play with their lives to look fairer, younger or rob drugs from cancer patients. Photo: GeloKorolPremium
There is still room to understand what makes women play with their lives to look fairer, younger or rob drugs from cancer patients. Photo: GeloKorol

Forty five years after Fair & Lovely, the market-altering, top-selling fairness cream was launched by Unilever, the Indian obsession with fair skin continues. Whether it is Bharatiya Janata Party minister Giriraj Singh’s recent comment about Sonia Gandhi’s “fair skin" as the reason behind her current position in the Congress or that some Indian women go so far as to use drugs meant for cancer patients to achieve lighter skins, we can’t seem to have enough of it.

A story published in the Hindustan Times of 5 April reported how Glutathione, an anti-oxidant prescribed for cancer patients to deal with the toxicity of chemotherapy is used as a skin-whitening agent. “Glutathione capsules come in strengths of 100mg and 500mg, which lightens skin tone by two shades when taken once a day for two to three months. Even more dangerous is the off-label use of the drug in injectible doses of 1,200mg usually prescribed for 10 consecutive weeks after which people are asked to switch to the capsules to retain their newfound lighter complexion," says the HT story.

Like most drugs, Glutathione has some serious side effects including a couple of life threatening ones like Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis. But shoppers of fair skins are reportedly fazed—just like consumers of anti-ageing treatments and surgeries, the invasive ones of which can even lead to severe paralysis of the face or limbs. The popularity of such surgeries continue to grow.

Outrage and shock are common reactions to these choices. But we don’t understand why women are obsessed with youthfulness and fair skin. There must something deeper, beyond finding a “suitable" match, a better job, more social acceptability through fairness or plump lips.

Despite bitter debates on racism, conservatism, prudishness or human vanity, there is still room to understand what makes women play with their lives to look fairer, younger or rob drugs from cancer patients. We may have some idea behind the volume of marketing done for such treatments and cosmetics but have we wrapped our head around the psychology and sociology behind it? So yes, it is obviously a very profitable business territory. But which economic classes are buying into it? Aren’t these rich people also privileged enough to have good education and global exposure that helps alleviate mere social or personal insecurity?

The curiosity to ask more and read more struck me during a conversation I heard at a recent fashion event. It was about skin treatments and fairness remedies that “older girls" opt for. Somebody spoke highly of Thermage, a non-surgical cosmetic facial procedure used for wrinkle reduction and correction of sagging skin in the neck and brow area. Reportedly, it costs Rs1.5 lakh for one sitting. “But that’s a decade old fad," added another lady, saying that “vampire facials" were in now. These work on taking platelet-rich plasma from the client’s own body which is then injected into her face. “Nothing wrong with injecting your own body fluids," was the apologist’s argument. We were told that vampire facials are expensive treatments done by trained, precision surgeons and reportedly cost upwards of Rs2 lakh, hospital charges included. Faces look botchy and surgically tampered for a while, but it settles down. Of course, some must live with botchy rashes for a long time or damaged skins forever if the procedure goes wrong.

This conversation started with a gossip-chat on the facial treatments that Shahrukh Khan’s wife Gauri Khan (now a Satya Paul designer) had allegedly opted for. Khan’s appearance at the Satya Paul fashion show at the Lakme fashion week recently in Mumbai was the context. Someone also brought up the mention of the extremely odd-looking puckered lips of Bollywood actor Nargis Fakhri. “But let’s not be too harsh about these girls," commented a fashion stylist. “Bollywood is not an easy industry to survive and some actresses must pay their own bills and rent their own apartments. They must surrender to what gets them brand endorsements and work. If its pouty lips, who are we to question their choices to find employment?" she said. Unverified reports about Priyanka Chopra’s visits to a Los Angeles cosmetic expert were brought up in the same breath.

After this freewheeling chat, I began to wonder if the quality of a woman’s relationships really changes once her skin becomes fairer. Does she have better sex because her boobs are a cup size bigger? Does her employer give her a big raise if she turns up without wrinkles but with the same competence (or lack of it) as a worker?

Such questions on the non-cosmetic take-backs of fairness and artificial youth haven’t been asked yet in the Indian context through a sturdy field study. As commentators, we skid into a dozen different directions from anti-ageism, beauty capitalism to disempowered womanhood or deep seated misogyny to crack the obsession. But we know little about how it enriches a woman’s life, and if at all it does. Even less whether it helps an actor’s profession or fame. Behind every Botoxed or artificially-lightened woman scooping away a drug from a cancer patient is a story that waits to be found and told.

Understatement is a fortnightly blog on popular culture seen through actions or words. Shefalee Vasudev is the author of Powder Room: The Untold Story of Indian Fashion.

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Published: 14 Apr 2015, 12:11 PM IST
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