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on 31-07-2002 17:44
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Dear Fellow Coconuts,
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, the following dialogue ensued hundreds of times all over Pakistan.
“Ah my beloved, she has hair like liquid night, pouring down her shoulders…”
“And her skin?”
“Creamy, deep, and rich brown!”
“And her eyes?”
“Her eyes! They are lustrous black, bottomless pools of passion, they shine like diamonds…sigh…”
Once upon a time, not so long ago, the dialogue changed.
“Ah, my beloved, she has hair like straw, brittle and dry, but a lovely shade of Burnt Sienna 47.”
“And her skin?”
“White like milk, a little flaky, but I suppose that’s what foundation is for…”
“And her eyes?”
“Her eyes! They roll like gray, glazed marbles in a pinkish sea…she ought to wash her contacts more often…sigh…”
As you may have guessed, the traditional Pakistani tribute to his traditional Pakistani beloved has changed over the years. Since the introduction of colored contact lenses, cream bleach, and hair-dye, Pakistani society has basically been anglicized. Or, to put it more bluntly, it’s been white-washed.
The greatest insult to Pakistanis does not come from neo-nazis, xenophobes or fools who call us Gandhis, Pakis, Packers, etc., it comes from our own people. When our sisters put out thousands of rupees for fake blue eyes, for blonde hair, for itchy, dry, well bleached but creamy white skin, they are making a screaming statement; Whiter is better! British is beautiful! Desi is undesirable!
When a Pakistani man wants to look good, what does he put on? A suit. Who wants to be an Anglo? Me! Me! Me! I used to assume that Western Dress in Pakistani workplaces could be blamed on the 150 year British occupation of Pakistan, and then I remembered that that British had been gone for over 50 years. The young men of Pakistan, instead of being a force of positive change, have been sheep following Western fashions blindly.
For women, it’s mostly only models who abandon their rich cultural heritage; but for men, it’s nearly every man who wakes up in the morning and puts on jeans and a t-shirt, and turns his baseball cap backwards even when the British aren’t around to make him. It seems doubly foolish when you remember that Pakistan is a hot place, temperatures of 107-120 are common here, and jeans are just not conducive to keeping cool and comfortable. It seems plausible that prickly-heat powder manufacturers have been controlling the fashion industry. What better way to sell powder than to ensure that every young man has a rash? It’s brilliant!
(By the way, somewhere, on a dark shelf, wherever it is that unfashionable beauty is stored, two dark-eyed Pakistanis with their own hair and skin color wave a Pakistani flags and cautiously whisper…proud to be Pakistani…?)
Once, beauty was divided between Eastern and Western. A doe-eyed Desi could hold his/her own against an ice-eyed, flaxen haired supermodel because both East and West were beautiful. But now, beauty has been divided into two different categories; Western and Ugly. This is quite obviously reflected in the new modeling shoots in the Sunday papers, where the most famous models languish in….allow me a pause to increase dramatic tension…t-shirts and jeans.
Yes, that’s it, a t-shirt and jeans. Never mind attempting High Western Fashion, low Western fashion itself is more than sufficient to replace High Pakistani Fashion. It’s the ultimate insult. See? Even American grunge is better than then noble sherwani or the splendor of a flowing sharara!
Dear Coconuts, I warn you of this because I want you to run screaming from the white-wash phenomenon. When you see a marble-eyed model with blond hair and black eyebrows, I want you to wonder who let that woman out of her house looking so phony. I want you to laugh at her pasty-white face and brown neck. I want you to feel insulted that Western is wonderful, and Eastern is ugly. Get angry! I am, everyone on TV is telling me my skin is ugly. I’ve been born in the wrong color scheme! I can’t look good unless my eyes are bluer than smurfs and my skin whiter than bone.
Pale faces are exquisite, and rich brown ones must be bleached off the face of the earth even at the expense of dry skin, chemically scarred faces and the price of maintenance. The whole bleach-cream trend can be summed up in thirty seconds of a commercial that airs on PTV (Pakistan Television).
A young woman sits in a dark room, her face carelessly painted over with brown foundation and fake freckles. (Much to my own freckled indignation, freckles are seen as blemishes here, hmmph!) She puts her sad, brown chin in her hands and moans to the heavens, ‘My skin is a black as my destiny…why?’
Just then a light shines on her from above and a tube of herb-based skin bleach is revealed unto her not unlike divine revelation. A short montage follows, and after ten seconds of music and rubbing yellow cream onto her face, brown skin is replaced by pale, rather unhealthy looking yellow skin. Then lights flood the screen, the girl leaves the house, flips her hair around and becomes the apple of every man’s eye. Women turn their heads and say ‘Wah!’, the Urdu equivalent of a sophisticated ‘wow’. Then she turns, snaps her fingers at the screen and says ‘Wah!, this is the magic of just one tube!’ -end commercial-
I’m hoping, that like all trends, the White-wash phenomenon will die out. Women have to get tired of constant eye-infections and over-dry hair and irritated skin sometimes. And really, jeans aren’t for everyone, the beauty of Pakistani clothing is that it’s flowy, flattering and most important, figure forgiving. Maybe when the stick-thin models start getting chunky again, they’ll look for something to cover their less -ahem- stream-lined anatomy. Maybe someone will perhaps realize that beauty actually comes in two forms, natural and unnatural, regardless of its color scheme. Cream bleach sales will plummet, and, tired of holding in their stomachs, women will go back to the flattering clothes that their wise grandmothers always recommended.
Maybe, just maybe, the traditional Pakistani tribute to his traditional Pakistani beloved will make a come-back, with a few alterations to account for the changing times….
“Ah my beloved, she has hair like liquid night, pouring down her shoulders…it is thick, soft, unmarred by ammonia and other harsh chemicals!”
“And her skin?”
“Creamy, deep, and rich brown! Her color is true, and since it’s natural, it won’t ever wash off or fade! ”
“And her eyes?”
“Her eyes! They are lustrous black, bottomless pools of passion, they shine like diamonds…They are clear and free from the frequent eye-infections that plague contact lens-wearers. She is true in every sense, pure of heart and too smart to buy into Western superiority, Pakistan Zindabad!”
Last update : 31-07-2002 17:44
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