Post your cultural presentation and what you have learned from this assignment.
I really enjoyed researching and presenting my cultural presentation for this week, as I focused on the "Snow White Syndrome" in India (colorism, or the preoccupation the media has with skin color). I learned a few words related to colorism, including:
beauty (सुन्दरता)
beautiful (खूबसूरत)
pale (gori)
dark (kala or kali)
face (चेहरा)
skin (चमडी)
It is a very interesting issue to examine in that the issue of colorism integrates history (colonialism and the caste system), contemporary economics (BBC reported that in India, skin lightening cosmetic products outsell Coca-Cola!), and gender stereotypes. I also watched and listened to five "Fair and Lovely" Hindi commercials without subtitles, and interestingly, by using the context clues of the ad (each ad is a little story), I was able to understand most of the dialogue, although not the post-positions. The ads are very disheartening to watch because of the blatant colorism, but interesting to observe this aspect of Indian/Hindi culture. The link is posted below.
I have posted my cultural presentation below as well.SimrunBal_Colorism_CulturalPresentation.pptx
Link to "Fair and Lovely" Hindi commercial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a1iXt1yPsk):
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