Kannammaa Writes

I was introduced to Fair & Lovely as the ideal “skincare regime” when I was 11 years old. Since then, I’ve thought about some things when I used the cream and watched fairness cream ads. I’ve never had the courage to say them. Until now… Yami Gautam applies the cream only on her face in the ad but her whole body turns white together with her face.💀 Epudraaa… Of course, neither my face got lighter colored nor my body. I wasn’t even dark (just tanned coz I was active in outdoor sports). However, I bought the propaganda that a girl can’t be white enough - the whiter, the better. Why do you need to have light and flawless skin for a successful law profession?😂 I thought, why bother studying anyway if lighter-colored skin can win cases for you when I watched this ad. Why is the judge looking at the color of the female advocate’s skin and not her arguments? I used to use Fair & Lovely to school and I wondered if I could pass my exams with flying colors if I was whiter. It was a non...

  I am a self-proclaimed feminist. I actively speak feminism on Instagram under the tutelage of my Facebook page, Karutthu Kannamamaa which is also managed by co-admins who are also my friends. I recently learned that my pictures are on lewd Tamil pages, captioned “Sexy Feminist Bitch waiting for customers.” LOL😂😂😂. This is the only way right-wing people can extend counter-narratives. It is also the easiest way to shut a woman up, leveraging age-old patriarchy that fixes a woman’s dignity and honor on her body. But I won't shut up.😈😈😈💅💅💅  In the initial days of Karutthu Kannammaa, Malaysian Indian men issued rape and murder threats against the admins, my ex-schoolmate, and me😄😄😄. My friend and I persisted and today, the page is famous in India and it is the Indian men’s turn to slut-shame us💤💤💤. I have received numerous slut-shaming texts in my Instagram DM.  If we want to break patriarchy effectively, we must first break the patriarchy within us. I...