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Hania Aamir preaches 'owning your skin' while using an Instagram beauty filter

Hania Aamir preaches 'owning your skin' while using an Instagram beauty filter

Naturally, people were quick to call her out for the double standard.
03 Mar, 2021

After years of being ruled by the British, a 'gora complex' has permeated our society, perpetuating a culture of discrimination against people with 'darker' skin. Never mind the fact that we're all just shades of brown.

Lots of people have spoken out against this culture and the latest celebrity to bring it up is Hania Aamir, who recently took to social media to share her two cents on colour shaming and how flawed beauty standards need to be done away with.

"One thing that has been bothering me for a while is colour shaming," the Ishqiya star began, stating how the realisation came to her soon after a friend pointed out she needed to get a tan.

"Gori hai tou chitti hai, dark complexion hai tou gori kyun nai hojati?! [If she has a dark complexion, why doesn't she get fair]. I think it's high time we start having these conversations because... till when will we get insecure about the way we look?" she asked in her video.

"We need to own ourselves, we need to own our skin tones," she added. "We don't have to wear two tones dark foundation or two tone light foundation that oh, these are our beauty standards. These are terrible beauty standards and we don't need to follow them because we have a responsibility for the next generations to come [sic]."

Aamir said if we talk about this phenomenon more and eradicate this mindset now, then our future generations won't have to go through what we're going through today.

Ironically, she throughout the video she had an Instagram filter on her face, one that plumped up her lips, added a rosy tint to her cheeks, elevated her cheekbones and added a row of false lashes — defeating the purpose of everything she said.

It was difficult to not see the hypocrisy in her rant, where phrases such as "accept yourself" were carelessly thrown around like fashion statements instead of self-reflective motivations for fans who could use the help.

Naturally, people were quick to call her out on the double standard, asking her to practice what she was preaching and begin by taking her own advice.

Funnily enough, Aamir removed any acne, scars, wrinkles, lines or pores from her face — features reflective of real raw skin — to preach that people should 'own' themselves. What about owning herself first?

How the excessive use of beauty filters has made people feel uncomfortable in their own skin is a discussion for another time. Blurring out blemishes, flaunting poreless skin and unnaturally narrow noses, and smoothening out your face with the help of filters in order to meet social media expectations is anything but owning your own skin.

As a public figure, it is ignorant to talk about responsibility while simultaneously promoting unrealistic and unattainable standards of beauty.

Hania Aamir, your activism feels disingenuous when your actions are not reflective of your words. It's 2021, and we can only hope that public figures realise the damaging ramifications of their choices, hold themselves accountable and strive to do better when it comes to chanting slogans about body positivity and diversity — and actually believe them while they're at it.

Comments

M. Emad Mar 03, 2021 05:00pm
Glow & Lovely (Fair & Lovely) is the best-selling skin-fairness cream in Pakistan.
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A Bostonian Mar 03, 2021 05:52pm
Pardon my ignorance but who is this lady?
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Browngirl Mar 03, 2021 06:38pm
I don't think we should make fun of her because she's got severe skin problems.
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Guest2020 Mar 03, 2021 06:40pm
Great article.
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truth Mar 03, 2021 07:47pm
LOL the truth ..in fact all pics of celebs here are filtered never seen a real face
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Imran Mar 03, 2021 08:41pm
Yes white is right, is that the message?
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M. Saeed Mar 03, 2021 09:23pm
In the profession of show business, makeup is the first and foremost requirement. You must have a saleable base to be augmented by makeup, like most of the Bollywood stuff. But, natural beauty almost ever remains hidden and not marketable as such. We must appreciate this and leave these ladies in show business to their own devices of existence.
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Igloo Mar 04, 2021 01:46am
Is it because of colonialism? Didnt Asian Subcontinentals always favour northern skin tones?
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sk9595 Mar 04, 2021 02:06am
Well she got a nose job and lip fillers on top of that!! No one seems to notice.
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Abs Mar 04, 2021 04:21am
Fake celebrities
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Robby Mar 04, 2021 05:18am
Not interested
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Syeda Mar 04, 2021 05:53am
All these women benefit from fair skin and beauty as these are their main tools for making money. Change in Asian community is far away for several more years because viewers enjoy shows with fair-skinned women only and the problems they get into. Recently shows have insane levels of lighting on the actor's face to make them whiter than white, and none of the stars protest knowing well the intention of the directors. Social media talks, blogs and tweets are just fluff words to sound 'woke', while actually benefiting from their skin color.
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Asif Mar 04, 2021 06:00am
@N.Emad, you forgot to mention Bangladesh and India
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Malik Mar 04, 2021 06:08am
@M. Emad ...India has 97% of population with major dark skin, so don’t even talk about fair n lovely in Pakistan.
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White Noise Mar 04, 2021 06:17am
what is happening to Pakistan?
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kashif Mar 04, 2021 08:22am
Aren't we tooo judgmental? I mean let people breath. some like it fair, some like it tanned or not so fair etc.
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Mike Mar 04, 2021 08:44am
Who?
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Maria Mar 04, 2021 10:43am
@Malik Its 99% in Pakistan. We need to ban fairness creams.
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truth Mar 04, 2021 11:41am
@Malik Why? have u seen documnetaries in BBS abt pak? all indian subcontinent ppl look same to westerners, they dont find a Arab gene anywhere
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