But in India, there were all these advertisements about it,” says Kaur, who runs the popular Instagram page The Indian Feminist. “There were Garnier and L’Oreal – companies that I’d never seen promoting those products in New Zealand. Television advertisements for skin care products emphasised that the fairer a woman’s skin, the more likely she is find a job, a husband, or happiness.
The first time New Zealand resident Harsharin Kaur visited India, the country of her ancestors, as an adult, she was struck by the amount of pressure there was for people to change the colour of their skin.īillboards of upcoming movies seemed to show that only light-skinned men and women could make it in the country’s film industry.
