Beyond the pale?

Skin lightening is a major cosmetic industy throughout the Indian sub-continent hundreds of products are available that claim to lighten the skin.

It's not only women; now a major bollywood actor has accepted a lucrative advertising contract to advertise a men's lightening cream.

Those ads started showing throughout india today. But is skin lightening also a passion for British Asians? And is it any worse than Westerners wanting a tan?

The ad is part of a £160m industry that capitalises on what many South Asians dread about their skin tone: being too dark.

There has always been a cultural obsession in India to favour those with a fairer hue.

Comparisons have been made to the West's desire to tan but India's obsession goes further; many girls are known to be told from an early age not to go out in the sun because no man would want a dark bride.

And it seems that at least here men are feeling the pressure too. Many of these prejudices stem from a feear of being perceived as an outdoor worker or a farmer - in other words being poor.

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