Brown Girl Like Me by Jaspreet Kaur

Author:Jaspreet Kaur [Kaur, Jaspreet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK
Published: 2021-12-27T17:00:00+00:00

Saying bye to beauty standards

Even when skin-whitening products get left in the past, there might be another obstacle to tackle or another crappy ideal to fight, so it’s more important than ever that the brown sisterhood has each other’s backs. Sooner rather than later, we’ll have to have conversations about how the digital age and the likes of filters on social media are also contributors to our facial dysmorphia. Obviously, these are issues experienced not just by brown women, but women of all races, and, increasingly, many men. I’m talking about the ‘beauty’ filters that lighten or darken your skin, depending on what’s in fashion, smooth out your pores, gloss and plump your lips and zap away your eye bags. What once consisted of funny animal masks, dogs drooping their tongues out or a bedazzled crown on your head have now morphed into unrealistic face filters. In Chapter 9, I’ll be discussing why reducing our screen time might be a way to tackle these never-ending obstacles. The point is, every time we remove one toxic product targeting women’s bodies, and especially brown bodies, another one pops up, just like in that whack-a-mole game that you used to play at arcades.

Do you want to know the irony in all this colourism malarky? As the rich get richer, they want to get darker and more tanned. As we get richer, we cry to be whiter. In the West, skin-tanning has now come to signify the privilege of having leisure time and luxury in the sun’s rays on the beach or, alternatively, the money to pay for a sunbed visit. It just goes to show that beauty trends are forever changing, and there will always be people trying to capitalize on it. Be it skin tones, be it hair or no hair, be it thin eyebrows or thick eyebrows, be it curvy or thin, beauty standards get invented, altered, recycled and changed again. There are more contortions in the beauty myth standards than in a jalebi. It’s so confusing. Anything to do with aesthetics can change over time or according to the cultural context, so if the trends are forever changing, what can we brown women do? Do we keep changing and morphing our bodies every time the trend changes? Because I don’t want to feel like a jalebi.

Isn’t it about time that I tell little Jaspreet, getting ready for her friend’s birthday party, to disrupt the lessons that taught her that pain is beauty and beauty is pain, and to redefine her own beauty? And that the brown body, in all its forms, shapes, colours and sizes, is also a normal body. So far, I hope this book has started to help us all figure out how to give ourselves – and all women – a strong sense of identity that has nothing to do with our physical appearance. Remember, it’s never too late to learn and unlearn. Your identity is full of treasures. Maybe some of that treasure is sitting in

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