Vogue India Dispels Dark Skin Stigma With Beach Babes (PHOTO)

Vogue India's April cover featuring five darker skinned models is meant to tackle the stigma surrounding darker skin color in the country, Vogue UK reports. Gia Johnson, Nethra Raghuraman, Tinu Verghis, Ashika Pratt and Esha Gupta posed in bikinis for the "Dawn Of Dusk" spread.

The editorial reads:

"Every generation has its share of beauty myths. Perhaps it is time to bust this one. Time to say that as a magazine we love, and always have loved, the gorgeous colour of Indian skin...dark, dusky, bronze, golden--whatever you call it, we love it."

Comments

[joceeco]

08:57 AM on 04/22/2010

Beautiful women, but not really that dark. I think real dark-skinned Indian women are so sexy and beautiful, with that smooth black skin, and that black, thick , long, wavy hair!

[ECB]

05:04 PM on 04/15/2010

Nice.

[ReesieKitty]

02:50 PM on 04/15/2010

These girls don't look 'dark' skinned at all to me. They mostly look like they could be of almost any European ethnicity with a tan from going to the beach! Wow, Vogue, what a tease...

[abdallac]

06:24 AM on 04/15/2010

uhhh...scuse me....where are the dark skinned models?? most people in India are several shades darker than any of these lovely ladies.

As the line from the movie (Mississippi Masala) goes -" You can be light and you can be poor OR you can be dark and can be rich BUT you can't be dark and poor."

[mairs]

01:26 AM on 04/15/2010

What countries that have darker skinned variants don't have any prejudice against them? I have a friend from Chile who was darker skinned than the rest of his family. He said there was definitely a stigma against it among his upper middle class friends. I'm just wondering if any country is immune from that attitude.

[Erudite Goddess]

09:58 PM on 04/15/2010

These cultures didn't wake up and say out the blue, "hey I want to hate myself and look the total opposite of me." A lot of the countries that do have color issues experienced imperialism or colonization at the hands of white Europeans or paler Arabs. The desire to be lighter was a result of the desire to be associated with the new ruling class, which were the lighter-skinned invaders. There's a whole lot of psychological damage at work here. The truth is that no matter what you look like you should love and appreciate yourself. And a person who loves and appreciates themselves doesn't have to make others feel less than they are. Period. Something for all of us to remember!

[veritas88]

12:10 AM on 04/15/2010

i was fortunate enough to go to India on spring break in March for the 1st time....and I was really taken aback by the prevalence of skin-lightening tv commercials. also, interestingly enough, there were ads promoting products that would help one GAIN weight. very different culture, compared to the US.

[goodmarina]

11:19 PM on 04/14/2010

So this is India's idea of representing their darker-skinned models? All this manages to do is endorse our mania of anorexia = covergirl beautiful.

[Whizz Bang]

10:42 PM on 04/14/2010

How many years did it have to take for the Indian Model or Fashion Establishment to buck the trend or accept the injustices caused for the sake of being dark. I only hope this is not a one off fashion or a bikini spread, because there'll be millions of aspiring models of similar shade or colour, waiting in the wings. Congratulations and good luck!

[dct1999]

07:12 PM on 04/14/2010

Where are the dark-skinned models?

[Aesthete]

05:18 PM on 04/14/2010

I once had an ebony-skinned indian co-worker. She was absolutely gorgeous with flowing wavy tresses that fell nearly to her waist. These women have some of the most beautiful hair, skin, and eyes on the planet! While the women pictured above are lovely I still feel that the editors of Vogue must need a vision adjustment.

[maggiee]

04:13 PM on 04/14/2010

What a pity. Indian women are so beautiful Too bad they didn't put any in the picture...well, maybe one.

[bloodorange]

01:57 PM on 04/14/2010

But all of these women are nearly the same skin color . . .

[impatient]

08:02 PM on 04/14/2010

Yes and not tht dark either. If you are going to say "See? This is what you all have been prejudiced against all of thes years" then it seems to me you'd want to go dark.

This seems to support the prejudice.

[chillwind]

10:46 AM on 04/14/2010

Not very dark, and only one of them looks particularly Indian.

[meetoo]

12:25 PM on 04/14/2010

Yup, I noticed. But then, mngazines like Vogue help to perpetuate the lack of other than the blonde image

[Mister Biggles]

07:48 AM on 04/14/2010

India couldn't even handle a little cartoon porn.

They are far more conservative than most realize.

[zeppelingirl89]

03:13 AM on 04/14/2010

Other than the one girl on the left, they don't really look that dark. Most of the indian girls at my school are darker...But I guess at least Vogue is trying.

[Aesthete]

10:24 AM on 04/14/2010

The girl on the left is the only one that looks Indian at all.