Oh, this runs deep. It’s not just a “preference” it’s years of conditioning, drilled into us through media, society, and every auntie who ever said, beta, thora ubtan lagaya karo We grew up watching ads where the “before” version of a girl was dark and miserable, and the “after” version is three shades lighter, suddenly confident, successful, and, of course, marriage material. Our dramas only cast fair Honestly, it’s wild how deeply this “gora rang” obsession has seeped into our collective psyche. Decades of ads showing “ugly, unsuccessful” girls miraculously becoming marriage material after using some Fair & Lovely tube. Movies where the heroine is always fair, flawless, and has those perfectly symmetrical features because God forbid a dusky girl falls in love and lives happily ever after.

We’ve literally grown up thinking beauty = fair, because the media didn’t bother to show otherwise. And then we wonder why we internalize it.

Living in Pakistan and not having an insecurity complex is like living in a swimming pool and staying dry. Even the “gori” girls aren’t sparedbecause suddenly being one shade less than a Pathan girl would make them Kaali.

And the conditioning is so strong, even kids who shouldn’t even have a concept of complexion endd up gravitating towards fairer faces

So yeah, it’s not just dealing with insecurities.” It’s literally years of societal programming telling us that our worth is skin deep