by Sian Taylor

In my last blog post I would like to examine once again the Global Market and what it is doing to people. Initially I would like to refresh the arguments of these new influences from the Western world in India and what this is doing to arranged marriages. In a second moment I would like to talk about what marketing is doing in Asia and the developing countries and the absurdity of what companies are trying to sell to people.

By broadcasting American and European films and series in India, the 20% of the upper class and middle class, either try to westernise themselves as much as possible in the first case, or would like to follow the western lifestyle, but don’t have the money to do so.

By watching these kind of television programs, women want to copy what their idols do, and marry for love, but unfortunately, in most cases, they won’t be able to do so and they will probably live in dissatisfaction.

But what to do? The answer is not simple: On one hand people western people look at the arranged marriages as something barbaric and feel that they should help India to become more Westernised and “civilized”. On the other, this globalization and this will to copy globalised countries is bringing India many problems. Women want to be like the western women, free to do what they want, men want to continue with the traditions and think of the western culture as something that brings disruption and un-harmony.

India is trying to adopt globalization to try to improve its level of poverty, but I think it’s just the wrong way to act about things. Trying to change India into another copy of America and Europe, is just really the wrong way to try to resolve issues, that will bring many other, more complicated issues. By trying to make Indian women become American, in order to improve their lifestyles, will just bring many marriage disruptions and tensions in the society.

Related to this is the globalist marketing that is creating in people problems and dissatisfaction with themselves, and the need to spend loads of money to look like a western person. Girls all over Asia put their bodies through traumatising experiences in order to look thinner, with bigger eyes, bigger breasts etc, to look like something that they will never look like, and that, to tell the truth is neither pretty or sexy, but, in most cases, just artificial and fake.

Finally the most shocking example of how global marketing is playing with people’s minds, I think is the skin lightening and darkening creams. More and more common in Asia, are these lightening creams, because it is thought that the lighter the skin is, the more beautiful and successful you become. The “funny” thing is though, that in Europe and America, it’s exactly the opposite!

People spend more and more money on these fake tan, darkening skin products, to look more beautiful. I think this should really make us think about what we are doing to ourselves, and start to think with our own minds, instead of what people want to make us think.

There are many different types of beauty, at least one for every different person in the world, so trying to all become the same person, appears to be the wrong way to go about things.