PROJECT VARNA

Constructed Beauty and Social Hierarchies

Research Question

How do historical systems like caste and colorism shape modern beauty standards for South Asians, and what solutions are most effective in reducing colorism today?

Colorism in South Asian societies is not a natural or fixed cultural preference but a socially constructed system shaped by historical interpretations of caste, religious texts, and colonial influence. While ancient texts and epics often present skin tone as diverse, symbolic, and non-hierarchical, modern institutions such as media, advertising, and film have reinforced lighter skin as a marker of beauty, status, and opportunity. Addressing colorism today requires dismantling these modern systems of reinforcement rather than attributing hierarchy to ancient origins.

"People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anybody who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster."

— James Baldwin, Stranger in the Village, Harper's Magazine, 1953