Just walk into any cosmetics store in Asia and you will instantly notice the continent’s obsession with pale skin. Every kind of skin care product on the market includes a variety of options that claim to help lighten or whiten the skin. This includes everything from face wash to toner to a vast array of moisturizers. Furthermore, skin whitening and lightening products saturate the entire range of price points, filling shelves of the most budget-conscious beauty aisles to the most expensive and exclusive day spas.
This obsession with fair skin has landed Elle India in some serious trouble. Its December, 2010 issue features Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Indian actress and former Miss World. On the cover, the beauty queen, who often goes simply by Aishwarya Rai, wears a resplendent dress in gold tones and wears an updo that accentuates her long swan-like neck that would make even Audrey Hepburn jealous. The most unusual feature, however, is the fact that Aishwarya Rai skin color looks caucasian. It is far, far lighter than it appears in candid photographs and of stills that have been taken from her movies.
This is not the first time that Elle has come under fire for lightening the skin color of ethnic cover girls. In fact, the magazine was recently criticized for lightening the complexion of Gabourey Sidibe, the young actress who became famous after her performance in the title role of the movie Precious. This was in October and Ms. Sidibe graced the cover of the American issue of Elle. Of that controversy, magazine representatives insisted that standard airbrushing techniques were used to prepare the photograph for print. Elle reps have not yet commented on the responses to the Aishwarya Rai cover and it will be interesting to see if they, again, insist that the cover reflects nothing out of the ordinary.
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