The other night William said, “I hope our baby girl has dark skin and looks just like you.”  (Btw, we haven’t had the ultrasound yet but he thinks we are having a girl).  As cute and adorable as that comment was, I couldn’t help thinking about a blog I had read on Mad Momma which talked about how, in the Eastern culture, dark skinned people are considered less attractive than their light skinned counterparts.  It’s sad but true.  The Eastern cultures’ perception of beauty is based on the color of a person’s skin.  Basically, one can have the most ghastliest of features but as long as the person has a milky complexion, then s/he is considered beautiful.  How funny is that? 

However, I must admit that in my youth I was a victim of such thoughts.  I would often look upon my lighter skinned friends and wish that I was one of them.  I have since grown out of that phase.  Although it didn’t help me feel any better when, a couple of years ago, while visiting my grandparents in Sri Lanka, a family friend of theirs stopped by.  She had the audacity to say, as she looked at me with pity, “I thought you were fairer.”  Of course, politeness refrained me from replying back, but if I had my way, I would have given her a piece of my mind and maybe a foot up her a** too as I kicked her to the curb. 

Since I am on the topic of skin color, I have to mention a little anecdote about my honey colored cousin living in Canada.  In an attempt to give her hair “natural highlights” she spent her summer sitting out by the lake, her hair soaked with henna and beer while the rest of her body, from shoulder to feet, was wrapped in towels and blankets so that she did not get “black.”  (I have no idea how she protected her face from the sun.)  The image that was conjured up when she told me what she was doing was hilarious and is one that words cannot adequately describe.  Just goes to show that you can take the girl out of the East but you cannot take the East out of the girl.  On her behalf, she does live in a part of Canada that is populated with Asians and Southeast Asians.  So, if she wants to be considered pretty in their eyes, I can see why she went through all that work to protect herself from getting dark.

As for me, it wasn’t until I moved to the States that I learned to love the rich chocolate color that I have been blessed with.  It helps to know that there are people out here who spend hours getting baked in the sun and/or spend millions in tanning salons just to get close to my beautiful coloring.  I now view those who judge a person’s attractiveness based on their skin color as shallow and small minded.  And for my baby, no matter what skin color it is born with, it will be gorgeous… especially if it looks anything like its dad.