South Asian Beauty Trends vs Eurocentric Beauty Standards

By Ashi Gottumukkula

THE BRITISH RAJ exerted its colonial rule on India from 1858 to 1947. In those 89 years, the crown imposed its language, beliefs, and beauty standards on the subcontinent. Due to the strong colonial influences, Indian beauty standards remain affected to this day. 

Indian women are seen as more beautiful if they appear more European, and there is a certain obsession with lighter skin, thinner lips, straighter noses, and colored eyes. The beauty market is saturated with harmful products to help women achieve this impossible standard: fair and lovely creams and other skin-bleaching products are sold to women alongside lipstick, mascara, and eyeshadow. Many Indian women also buy and use lighter foundation, concealer, or powder colors in order to make themselves appear whiter. 

These standards affect the diaspora as well. In America, South Asian women are seen as less desirable due to their natural features. They often face ridicule for their skin color, body shape, or body hair. A lot of this criticism surfaces early in their life, which has long-term effects on their perception of self and beauty. Watching media in which they are portrayed as undesirable or media in which only white women are portrayed as love interests is also damaging to their psyche. 

Despite this, many white women use artificial means to achieve the innate features South Asian women are born with. For example, they go to tanning salons in order to get the perfect golden skin tone. This is an especially fascinating phenomenon considering that many South Asian girls are told to stay inside when it’s sunny to avoid getting darker. Current beauty trends also call for big lips and thick eyebrows, both features that brown women were called undesirable for having, while women of other ethnicities pursue them through lip fillers or brow pencils. 

The disconnect between the narrative of Eurocentric beauty standards and current beauty trends is a complicated space to navigate. When one grows up hearing that they must stay indoors or pluck their eyebrows every week, it’s hard to reconcile with the truth that these features are celebrated when seen on other women. Even if they are complimented for their own features, it’s hard to unlearn years of trying to adapt to Eurocentric beauty standards. I still find myself straightening my hair for every important event or growing uncomfortable if I don’t get my eyebrows done for too long, and I know this will take me years to unlearn.