The Unfair Selection: A Study on Skin-Color Bias in Arranged Indian Marriages

Abstract

Underlying the growing popularity of skin-lightening or fairness cosmetics in India is one of the most baseless biases experienced and practiced. Yet, the overriding importance of skin-color especially in context of marriage has been largely unaddressed. This exploratory study examined the influence of skin-color on preference for potential marriage partner. A 2 × 2 (gender × skin-color) between-group experimental design was used. Mothers (N = 108) of individuals of marriageable age group were presented with an option of five marital profiles containing education and work information only. The participants were shown profiles of either males or females depending on whether they had a son or a daughter. Once a profile was chosen, the participant was either shown a photograph of highly attractive fair girl/boy or a highly attractive dark girl/boy. The light-skinned and dark-skinned photograph was of the same person, except their skin tones were manipulated with the use of computer software. Participants were asked to rate how strongly would they recommend the girl/boy as potential bride/groom for their children. As expected, fair-skinned highly attractive people received higher ratings than dark-skinned highly attractive people. However, contrary to our expectations, ratings received for dark-skinned woman were not significantly lower than the ratings received for dark-skinned man. This study shows that the color of skin has the potential to even overpower traits such as general competency and physical attractiveness in both men and women.

Cross-cultural perception of female facial appearance: A multi-ethnic and multi-centre study

“…This may reflect the influence of socio-cultural factors, namely “colourism” (i.e. a preference for lighter skin colour, possibly dating to colonialism) [ 66 ] (but see Wagatsuma, 1967 [ 67 ]), on face perception, as darkly pigmented skin in India is perceived negatively, partially due to the hierarchical caste system [ 68 , 69 ]. Similar “colourism” has been reported for S. Africa where lighter-skinned migrants have been treated more positively than darker-skinned migrants [ 70 ].…”

Colorism as Marriage Capital: Cross-Region Marriage Migration in India and Dark-Skinned Migrant Brides

“…Studies on preference for marriage partners in India reveal a clear gendered skin-color bias, with darker-hued women facing higher rejection in arranged matrimonies (Nagar 2018). In the instance of cross-region marriages, a handful of works discuss caste and ethnocentric discriminations faced by cross-region brides in their conjugal homes (Chaudhry 2019; Kukreja 2017, 2018).…”

Skin colour dissatisfaction in South Asian-Canadian women

“…These articles provide vital context for my research, however, while their findings can be applied to South Asian experiences theoretically, data are needed to confirm that their claims are true for this specific population. Similarly, many of the articles focusing on South Asian women were conducted in South Asia (Bakshi & Baker, 2011;Nagar, 2018;Shankar & Subish, 2007;Shroff, Deidrichs & Craddock, 2018). These articles are necessary for depicting the roots of shadeism in South Asian communities, but cannot speak to the influence of living in Western society.…”

“…Articles that did discuss the impacts of colonization often failed to address it thoroughly, choosing instead to focus on the behaviours of the colonized community (Bakhshi & Baker, 2011;Nagar, 2018;Paul, 2016;Shaikh, 2017). Bakhshi and Baker (2011) emphasize that participants in their study claimed their mothers were the driving force behind their desire to be light skinned.…”

“…Similarly, Nagar's work focuses on the South Asian community's fixation on marriage (2018). Both Nagar (2018) and Paul (2016) explain that marriageability is a large motivator for South Asian women to be attractive and that attractiveness means fairness.…”