Sarees, jewellery, and secret recipes—when you think of Indian heirlooms, a romantic montage comes to mind. Within these legacies lies an inheritance that’s often overlooked–aesthetic trauma. As the years roll on, it does rear its ugly head. Think of this phenomenon as the gold beauty standard set years ago and passed down the generations—from fair skin to lightly coloured eyes to poker straight hair—resulting in unrealistic societal expectations that impact mental health drastically in the long run. Although not a commonly used term in the field of mental health, Mumbai-based psychologist Sanam Devidasani says aesthetic trauma is often related to body image issues and the insecurities that come with it.
“Any difficult experiences related to one’s appearance that led to some kind of trauma. It could be appearance-based bullying, discrimination, pressure to look a certain way and sexual abuse,” she says. Explaining it further, Devidasani says that this caucasian obsession dates far back to colonialism, followed by globalisation and consumerism. “Even now, when you look at the media and entertainment industry, a lot of the women who are in the forefront are all light or even-skinned, thin, tall, or are simply not Indian,” she describes. This repeats the pattern of setting unrealistic beauty standards, resulting in a vicious cycle.
Rooted In Insecurities
For 32-year-old solutions consultant Anupriya Khare, being dark-skinned set the narrative for most of her life. From being described as the lead of a pencil by her schoolmates to being placed at the back of the stage during her dance performances, she recounts the impact her skin tone had on her growing up. She says, “I was actually boycotted for being dark in school. That, paired with the advertisements of fairness creams, I used to always feel like maybe because I am dark, people won’t like me. For me, this was always in my subconscious mind for years until I made a conscious effort not to let it define me anymore.” We’ve been striving to achieve ‘fair’ skin to become confident and successful for far too long now.
According to the India Fairness Cream & Bleach Market Overview (2018-2023), the Indian fairness cream market is expected to hit a whopping Rs 5,000 crore by 2023. Weighing in on this further, Dr Kiran Sethi, MD and founder of ISYA Aesthetics, states that despite being one of the fastest developing countries, India still has a different mindset about skin colour. “The obsession with fair complexion and the use of skin-lightening creams and treatments is significant.
The dangers associated with skin lightening solutions include common side effects like thinning skin layers, photosensitive skin, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation and burn marks.” Other than fairness, aesthetic trauma also extends to hair. Recounting her journey with curly hair, actor Ismeet Kohli says, “Everyone back then wanted straight hair, and because I didn’t know how to take care of my curls, I would also straighten my hair because it was always messy,” she laughs. “Obviously, then my mother didn’t know better—the rules were all the same, no matter your hair type.
It’s only in the last three to five years because of social media, people are talking about the curly girl method.” That being said, Kohli feels like she still gets typecast as the quirky girl or negative lead because of her curls. It’s not surprising that one of the requirements for the protagonist’s role is often straight hair. This goes to show that while the narrative is slowly evolving, as a society, we inadvertently continue to fall back on pre-established beauty standards.
Deep Impact
Aesthetic trauma of any kind can be damaging emotionally, physically, and mentally. “When you look at these almost unachievable standards of beauty, you do feel inadequate,” Devidasini explains. “It could lead to insecurities in relationships, impact sex life and libido, give rise to eating disorders, and so much more. I’ve had people talk about being afraid of meeting new people because they will find out that the way they look does not match their pictures. With that kind of discrepancy between your real self and social media self—it’s no wonder people feel like they don’t match up to what they ‘should’ look like.”
Reclaiming Beauty Standards
According to Devidasani, aesthetic trauma isn’t so much of an individual issue, which makes it hard for one person to just break out of it. The expert believes that it requires a lot of moving factors to actually change. “It’s hard to heal from something that everyone, everywhere around you, validates and perpetuates,” she says. On an individual level, however, she does believe that through conscious effort and awareness, one can attempt to make a sustained change. Healing from any kind of trauma can be a tumultuous journey, and aesthetic trauma is no different. While the individual narrative is slowly changing, as a society, we still have a long way to go when it comes to breaking these norms.
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