A Brown Girl's Guide To Beauty Poem by Anonymous India

Since the age of 9, I've been slapping my ace with fairness creams.
Every face wash a slap in the face because I was a skin tone that was ugly
My chest was too small for a girl who just hit puberty
And my skinny waist and unhealthy thigh gap was the only thing I wore confidently around
I had a voice and sound which where muted
Probably because I was told, boys only like girls who are fair and lovely

My cousin brother starving himself because skinny abs were easier to obtain thanhealthy diet
He read about actors doing juice diets and wanted to try it
All because there wasn't a single GQ or Man's world that didn't have abs embossed on it
We forget that beauty for men comes at a cost

An I'd ask you for a penny for your thoughts
But I've heard that being healthy and wealthyand its both that we've watched

I am the color of the strong fragrant tea aunty sips while nonchalantly remarking "Bipasha would be prettier if she was fair
The color of our kin dictates our beauty and that's not the only thing that's unfair
When we brown girls revolt against our own reflections
Every single time an Indian Magazine puts a light skinned girl on the cover, calling her brown
I ask my mother to get me haldi, yellow paste over yellow paste because anything is better than brown, anything is better than being dark
Only the light skinned European features are considered art

My friend's face is covered more with creams than his girlfriends kisses
He flinches everytime she says she accepts him for his true colors
How do I teach him to embrace the color of his skin when she keeps gifting him fairness creams
His daily baptism with sunscreen to protect him from sun tans
Men lathering themselves with the same behind closed door because apparently being insecure make you less of a man

When I was asked to be an ideal body type, I was taught they want the curvy chick but not cellulite
They want the big but but not the big thighs
They want the talk small but the waist smaller
They want to hart big but the chest bigger
And often women of gender reiterate these thoughts
But you see its, internalized what we've been taught

So I ask my ma, instead of looking for grooms who art fair, les look for grooms who treat people fairly
Because the color of someone's skin isn't what we should choose to marry
Values, beliefs and opinions and decisions scale larger than his stand on a fairness scale
Forgot snow white, say hello to chocolate brown. I'll write my own fairy tale

There isn't a single person who isn't pulled apart by these expectations
Brown girls struggle getting the right foundation
Boss constantly doing weight calculations

We're all more than our coloration and body types
Cause you and I we are all alike. with the hope of being able to somebody love another
Let's begin by being your own lovers
Because people aren't made fit or custom made
ts time we realize love comes in all shapes and shades
Its time we loved all shapes and shades