Women Of Colour Champion The Beauty Of Their Skin Tone In 'Unfair And Lovely' Campaign

"It's time to stop degrading people according to their skin tone."

Women everywhere are taking part in a global movement targeting colourism, discrimination on the basis of skin shade.

The 'Unfair And Lovely' campaign takes its name from a skin whitening product called 'Fair And Lovely', which is sold in Asia and Africa.

The social media campaign, which was kickstarted by photographer Pax Jones, encourages women to share selfies with an explanation of how colourism has affected them.

So far, the inspiring hashtag has garnered almost 1,000 posts.

Many of the women, the majority of whom are from south Asia, say that they have felt under pressure to whiten their skin - from both society and their own families.

For years, skin whitening products have pushed white Western beauty ideals.

In fact it was only recently - within the past two years - that India's advertising watchdog banned any adverts suggesting that dark skin was inferior or undesirable.

Despite this move forward, adverts plugging these skin lightening products still exist - and people aren't happy about it.

One woman who took part in the #UnfairAndBeauty campaign described how she would be recommended skin whitening products by her family members so she would "be more acceptable for them and society".

Another woman called Pricilla explained that she'd spent her whole life wishing for a certain skin tone.

"I was surrounded by relatives who kept throwing whitening home remedies at me because hey being dark was a disease," she explained.

"It's time to stop degrading people according to their skin tone."

The campaign coincides with 'Reclaim the Bindi Week' which ran from 8-14 March and focuses on fighting cultural appropriation.

Dusky girls. #unfairandlovely

A photo posted by Abirami Ravichandran Pillai ☺️ (@abiii_18) on

Supporting #unfairandlovely I am Dark...and I love it...... That's why I am Kalindi 😘

A photo posted by Manoj Kalindi (@iam_kalindi) on

#unfairandlovely | art by @prettymuchkavi

A photo posted by Unfair & Lovely (@unfairandlovely_) on

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