Goa's Beauty Contest: Miss Natural
When Goa's CM Parsekar made his now infamous remark regarding skin color to some Goan women advising them to stay away from the harsh sunlight as they might get too dark and lessen their success of finding a suitable marriage partner the media and public went haywire, a typical Goan reaction. When will we ever learn to respond? CM Parsekar was showing concern for the potential brides, and instead of receiving praise and compliments all he got was brickbats. Are we Goans generous in our criticism and miserly in our praise? Skin whitening and skiing lightening creams are extremely popular in India, and Goa in this way, is part and parcel of the country. India is of course two countries geographically, and consequentially aesthetically too. In the north the country has four distinct seasons unlike in the south where we have a lot of sun and rain. The sub-continent is also racially made up of two countries, Aryans and Dravidians. Since melanin is necessary for human beings to fight against strong sunshine, it is not surprising at all to see the majority of people in the south have dark skins. Unlike in the south, the north of the country has a lot of fair skin people, especially in Kashmir, Punjab, and so on. People who visit Kashmir can easily see how the Kashmiris resemble people who live in Afghanistan, and other surrounding areas. Alexander the Great visited India 2500 years ago and some of his soldiers married locally and settled down in the Punjab. Much later people of mixed heritage were born in British India and Portuguese Goa, some of whom have fair skin although they are fewer in number nowadays. The fair skin people in the north in the last millennium have lived in cold countries and were in power in most of the countries. The harshness of the climate and their ability to adapt to it has given Darwin's survival of the fitter a meaning much beyond biology and evolution to include hard-earned civilization and culture. People in the south have generally been less aggressive as it was easier to survive unlike in the cold countries. The dominant imagery of popular Indian culture nowadays is north dominating, as is obvious from dark skin peoples' obsession with skin whitening creams. Models and movie stars, by and large, are fair. Rarely do we see an Indian in the limelight who has dark skin. Unlike in the USA where there was a conscious color movement where Afro-Americans loudly proclaimed 'Black is Beautiful' there has not been a similar movement in our country which is not to say a lot of dark skin Indians don't dream of having a light skin or fair complexion. Consumer images come in packages. Miss World and Miss India contests showcase a majority of winners who have fair skin. I'd better at this point mention Reita Faria, the first Asian, Indian and Goan to win the Miss World pageant in 1966. I did it as a safety precaution, not wanting a diehard Goan to start screaming at me louder than the high decibel music we hear at the electronic music festivals in Goa. One, two, three or a few more people is still if not the exception to the rule, a very small percentage indeed. Uneasy lies the head which wears the crown? Even when dark skin women are in the limelight, compared to movie stars and women who are used extensively in advertising to sell all kinds of products, they are in embarrassingly small numbers. Our daily newspapers and other publications tell this story visually. With regard to aesthetics there is a gap as big as the seasons in the north and south of India when we compare dark and fair skin people. A lot of the haute couture clothes and jewelry are designed not for dark skin people and, in fact, it looks terrible! The same goes for make-up. People with dark skin need to reject this package of fashion and make up and create an aesthetics which is free of the dominant fair skin ideology. Make up, for example, does not go well on dark skin and a lot of women appear as though they are working in bakeries. Dark skin does not need this kind of make-up. Dark skin women in fact are attractive without any make up and certainly better than when they use cake mix. Fair skin women need make up otherwise they might scare a lot of people even though it isn't Friday the 13th. Unlike dark skin women, they need it. It is time for people from the south of India to create new aesthetic values which will proclaim 'Brown is Beautiful'. The whole package of fashion needs to revolve around the idea that brown is beautiful as it is the natural state of the majority of women who live in the south. Wendell Rodrigues is not only a well known fashion designer who has researched the history of Goan fashion but he can also navigate Goan fashion aesthetics into the future in an entirely new direction. Goa's Miss Natural can demolish the until now dominant white skin aesthetics of the north on the south of India. What they have been doing is natural for the people of the north but is not suitable for most of the people in the south. We need commercial support for Goa's Miss Natural. The established companies will not be interested as they are quite happy with the status quo. New companies and manufacturers of ayurvedic products, ethnic jewelry, and natural clothing materials will support it as a dark skin approach to the fashion industry in the south will create a revolution in the way we think of fashion and beauty as well as opening up of new massive markets. Miss Natural will walk down the aisle without make up, wearing clothes made of natural materials only. All she needs to add to her beauty is pure water from Goa's Dudhsagar's waterfall. Anyone interested in challenging the status quo and sponsoring a beauty contest for Goa's Miss Natural?
