Colourism within the Kollywood industry.
colourism
Dictionary result for colourism
/ˈkʌlərɪz(ə)m/
noun
US
- prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group.
Growing up with a Tamil family I spent a lot of time watching Tamil movies. I began watching Tamil movies for many reasons, one of them being because the storyline would actually be really good,for example classics such as Sachein and even Ghilli that I can watch about 500 times without getting bored but also because it helps improve my Tamil. But as I became older and more aware of things, watching the new Tamil movies is enjoyable but not as enjoyable as it used to be. It honestly has been evident, for some time, that the heroine in Tamil movies would always be much lighter than the hero and to be fair, when I was younger I didn't pay too much attention to it because I was still enjoying the movies and happily watching them with the rest of my family.
However, as I grew older, I became more aware of it and I started wondering more, and more why the actresses were always light skin. It also made me feel uncomfortable with my skin at one point in time, wondering why I wasn't as light as the girls in the movies. Why the heroes always thought that the light-skinned girl with long, dark hair was beautiful and chased after her. We would hardly ever see a dark-skinned heroine and even in 2019, we still don’t. This has set unrealistic beauty standards amongst many young, impressionable girls. I know that it did for me, and I’m pretty sure that many girls could also say the same. For the longest time, one of my biggest insecurities was the colour of my skin. I felt as if I was ugly because I didn’t have fair skin and that meant that I didn’t meet beauty standards for me to even be considered as pretty. It sucked, to say the least. I remember going through great lengths so that I wouldn’t become any darker, wearing hats, constantly layering my face with sun cream and even not going outside when I saw that it was too sunny. Because in my mind, the darker that I got, the uglier I became. That’s the impression that was given to me when I watched movies and saw the hero chase after the beautiful fair skinned heroine and I don’t think the rise of Amy Jackson in the Tamil film industry over the last few years has helped the situation either.
The use of a Caucasian woman, such as Amy Jackson, who has no South-Indian or Tamil background at all, to act as a Tamil girl who speaks Tamil fluently honestly just baffles me. Why is she getting praised for lip-syncing when you could cast an actual Tamil girl to speak the language instead? Do we not have enough Tamil actresses in the industry or the world? Are we that unattractive or untalented that you have to use a Caucasian to act as one of us? So many questions can be raised, because truth to be told, there’s no place for Amy Jackson in the Tamil film industry, especially not when there are so many beautiful, talented dark-skinned Tamil girls that could easily do the job but unfortunately the Tamil film industry does not agree. It also does not make sense to set these unrealistic beauty standards when the majority of Tamil women range from tan to dark brown skin complexions, the fact that the Tamil film industry doesn’t seem to accept that is just wrong in many ways. I have constantly seen comments defending Amy Jackson, saying that she can act or that she’s just doing her job as an actress. If she’s just doing her job as an actress, she can do it in Hollywood. We have more than enough Tamil women who can act as a Tamil girl in the Tamil film industry, we don’t need her to put on some tan foundation and act as Tamil girl.
As much as I love our heroes such as Vijay, Sivakarthikeyan, Suriya etc.. I don’t see Tamil film directors casting white men to act as a Tamil hero in the films nor do I see our heroes all having to look a certain way in order to be considered as attractive. The heroes all have different skin complexions and it makes you wonder why it isn’t the same for the heroine’s.
Colourism in the Tamil film industry is a problem that has been going on for too long and is something that needs to come to an end. Unrealistic beauty standards being set by such a large industry is very toxic and can have a very negative impact on the current and future generations.
Despite what the Tamil film industry believes, I believe and I know that we’re all smart, powerful women, whether you’re fair-skinned or not, that are going to go very far in life and be successful and also, we’re beautiful no matter what. As a community, it is our duty to support and encourage each other to be the best version of ourselves that we could be. Don’t bring people down, don’t talk badly about others and just support one another. We strive when we’re one and we do remarkable things and that’s one of the many things that I love about the Tamil community. Support one another, be kind and believe in yourself as well as others.
Have each other’s backs and stay cool B-)
-Love Sweena xxxxx
P.S: Thank you to everybody who's read and even shared my 'Embrace your culture' post. The amount of positive feedback that I had gotten on it is honestly amazing. Never did I think that it would get the amount of attention that I did and thanks to all my lovely family and friends who have been extremely lovely and supportive xxxx LUV YA :-)
However, as I grew older, I became more aware of it and I started wondering more, and more why the actresses were always light skin. It also made me feel uncomfortable with my skin at one point in time, wondering why I wasn't as light as the girls in the movies. Why the heroes always thought that the light-skinned girl with long, dark hair was beautiful and chased after her. We would hardly ever see a dark-skinned heroine and even in 2019, we still don’t. This has set unrealistic beauty standards amongst many young, impressionable girls. I know that it did for me, and I’m pretty sure that many girls could also say the same. For the longest time, one of my biggest insecurities was the colour of my skin. I felt as if I was ugly because I didn’t have fair skin and that meant that I didn’t meet beauty standards for me to even be considered as pretty. It sucked, to say the least. I remember going through great lengths so that I wouldn’t become any darker, wearing hats, constantly layering my face with sun cream and even not going outside when I saw that it was too sunny. Because in my mind, the darker that I got, the uglier I became. That’s the impression that was given to me when I watched movies and saw the hero chase after the beautiful fair skinned heroine and I don’t think the rise of Amy Jackson in the Tamil film industry over the last few years has helped the situation either.
The use of a Caucasian woman, such as Amy Jackson, who has no South-Indian or Tamil background at all, to act as a Tamil girl who speaks Tamil fluently honestly just baffles me. Why is she getting praised for lip-syncing when you could cast an actual Tamil girl to speak the language instead? Do we not have enough Tamil actresses in the industry or the world? Are we that unattractive or untalented that you have to use a Caucasian to act as one of us? So many questions can be raised, because truth to be told, there’s no place for Amy Jackson in the Tamil film industry, especially not when there are so many beautiful, talented dark-skinned Tamil girls that could easily do the job but unfortunately the Tamil film industry does not agree. It also does not make sense to set these unrealistic beauty standards when the majority of Tamil women range from tan to dark brown skin complexions, the fact that the Tamil film industry doesn’t seem to accept that is just wrong in many ways. I have constantly seen comments defending Amy Jackson, saying that she can act or that she’s just doing her job as an actress. If she’s just doing her job as an actress, she can do it in Hollywood. We have more than enough Tamil women who can act as a Tamil girl in the Tamil film industry, we don’t need her to put on some tan foundation and act as Tamil girl.
As much as I love our heroes such as Vijay, Sivakarthikeyan, Suriya etc.. I don’t see Tamil film directors casting white men to act as a Tamil hero in the films nor do I see our heroes all having to look a certain way in order to be considered as attractive. The heroes all have different skin complexions and it makes you wonder why it isn’t the same for the heroine’s.
Colourism in the Tamil film industry is a problem that has been going on for too long and is something that needs to come to an end. Unrealistic beauty standards being set by such a large industry is very toxic and can have a very negative impact on the current and future generations.
Despite what the Tamil film industry believes, I believe and I know that we’re all smart, powerful women, whether you’re fair-skinned or not, that are going to go very far in life and be successful and also, we’re beautiful no matter what. As a community, it is our duty to support and encourage each other to be the best version of ourselves that we could be. Don’t bring people down, don’t talk badly about others and just support one another. We strive when we’re one and we do remarkable things and that’s one of the many things that I love about the Tamil community. Support one another, be kind and believe in yourself as well as others.
Have each other’s backs and stay cool B-)
-Love Sweena xxxxx
P.S: Thank you to everybody who's read and even shared my 'Embrace your culture' post. The amount of positive feedback that I had gotten on it is honestly amazing. Never did I think that it would get the amount of attention that I did and thanks to all my lovely family and friends who have been extremely lovely and supportive xxxx LUV YA :-)
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| My face when I see Amy Jackson trying to act as a Tamil girl |
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| Lovely little comment from my younger sister who wrote this whilst she proofread my post :) |
Hopefully you can read these extra thoughts .
Amy Jackson is trash. I want dark skin and thick actresses please!!!!!!!
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