Belief that only fair is beautiful and its impact on teenage girls
Keywords:
adolescent girls, fairness cream, colorism, skin color satisfactionAbstract
Background: Young minds are being driven towards wanting fair skin by the quest of only ‘fair is beautiful’. Adolescent girls who are going through this vulnerable phase of puberty are highly prone to fall prey to this mindset they are being exposed to everyday and may develop body image issues, lack of self-esteem and low confidence. Material and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 500 adolescent girls in 10 senior secondary schools of a rural block of district Rohtak, Haryana from April 2019- Jan 2020. Results: Out of the 500 participants, 138 (27.7%) were not satisfied with their skin color and among them, nearly half (44.6%) were using fairness cream. Among the study subjects who had body image issues, 65% were dissatisfied with their skin color and this association was also found to highly significant. (p=0.000). Association between socio-economic status, age group and skin color satisfaction were also found to be significant. Conclusion: Fairness cream market and social media perpetuates the ideology that being fair will secure you jobs, get you appreciated by the opposite gender and in general make you happy. T
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