Publication

Abstract : India is a country which has been influenced significantly by foreign cultural influences due to foreign rulers, interactions through trade, and other cultural exchanges. As a result of these influences, the concept of beauty in India has become intertwined with fairness of the skin colour. Recently, since the economic reforms which started in 1992, globalization has started to influence Indian socio-cultural life via increased influx of foreign ideas through various media, increased business and trade with other parts of the world without any barriers etc. Because of the upsurge in the Western influence on India, the various Media spaces are filled with the Western pop stars, actors, models etc. who don't belong to the Indian racial stock, and show unrealistic images of beauty which are influencing the Indian concept of beauty. The people who were born before the economic reforms are less likely to be influenced by this trend as compared to the youngsters born after, as they were exposed more to these global influences in their formative period. This study examined the various factors that influence the beauty perception of South Indian women born both before and after the economic reforms started in India. This study was conducted in South India as the people here are mostly of a dusky skin tone and medium body size and height. So they are more likely to be influenced if the cultural norm of beauty shifts towards greater fairness of skin tone as well as lean and tall body features. Also, no such studies have been done in the South Indian context on this topic. The data for the study was collected using an online questionnaire which was filled by 333 women from different parts of South India.