Model Mushk Kaleem recently called-out our society’s unreasonable obsession with fair skin tone with an Instagram post where she complained how Pakistani designers and brands are engaged in colourism.
The model is dark-skinned and proud of it as she wrote an open letter to all the clients who want her to lighten her skin colour so as to appear ‘acceptable for lawn’ campaigns.
“No, I’m not a pearlescent white-skinned girl, I’m dusky and bronze. To all the clients who book me for shoots and then expect me to douse myself in lighter makeup to make me look ‘acceptable for lawn’, I’d rather you not book me at all,” she wrote in the post.
Mushk proudly states that her skin colour defines her and those who have a problem with it, should not book her shoots.
“My skin colour defines me, it’s who I am, so if you feel like you need to whiten me up so that I match the ‘requirements of the brief, or the shoot’ or ‘because Lahoris have issues with dark models for summer lawn’ or whatever, please don’t consider me for your shoots,” she added in the post.
The model was left with no choice but to post about it as in the last few weeks she has been told by photographers and designers alike that they need to whiten her skin as they need a ‘pretty’ feel for the shoot.
“In the past few weeks I’ve had photographers and designers tell me that they’re only making my skin whiter ’cause ‘the brand can’t afford to get hate comments on luxury collections’ because ‘we need a ‘pretty’Â feel for the shoot’,” Mushk’s post read.
She further wrote, “Book me because I look good in my own skin, if you want to Photoshop and edit my face till you wash out the dark of my skin, then find yourself a fairer model. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble. Thank you.”
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