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Studies in South Asian Film and Media Volume 1 Number 1 © 2009 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/safm.1.1.65/1

Looking for Love in All the White Places: A Study of Skin Color Preferences on Indian Matrimonial and Mate-Seeking Websites
Sonora Jha Seattle University Mara Adelman Seattle University Abstract
A preference for light skinned females is a global bias that affects all areas of human relationships, especially in marital mate selection. Further intensified by the meteoric rise in Internet dating and mate selection, this bias often serves an invalidating function for darker-skinned women. This study (1) analyzed ‘profiles’ and ‘preferences’ of brides and grooms (N=200), and (2) coded ‘success story wedding photos’ (N=200) posted on four Indian matrimonial websites. Results showed an overwhelming bias among males for brides lighter-skinned than themselves. Males were also more likely than females to state a preference for skin color in their prospective brides, and to use qualitative words like ‘beautiful’ and ‘lovely’ to describe their preferred match. Most significantly, the ‘success story’ wedding photos consistently had lighter-skinned brides than grooms. Darkskinned women were almost non-existent in these ‘success stories.’ This research points to a technology-abetted intensification of colorism. That is to say that the powerful profile ‘menu’ options and the visual imagery of predominantly lightskinned, ‘successful’ brides illustrated on current websites visually reinforce the invalidation of dark skinned women.

Keywords
Internet matchmaking Colorism Indian marriage market Technology and women Skin Color

Introduction
Mate-seeking preferences are significant for relationships, marriage, and family life, but those preferences also illuminate larger cultural themes, including our notions of status, beauty, and gender. These themes intersect when we examine the role of skin color discrimination on mate selection, particularly for women. Hunter contends that, ‘Little attention has been paid to how skin color operates differently in the lives of women’ (Hunter 2002: 177). For decades, the bias toward lighter-skinned females has been examined from feminist, anthropological, and sociological perspectives. In an increasingly visual and technocratic culture embedded in a globalized mass media environment, new information and communication technologies intensify these preferences, exacerbating skin color biases on a global level. Pervasive in the literature is the finding that skin tone bias debilitates women’s advancement. Globally, lighter skin tones equate with increased
SAFM 1 (1) pp. 65–83 © Intellect Ltd 2009

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social capital, becoming a symbol of beauty, resulting in higher earning capability and more resources (Hunter 2002; Glenn 2008). Popular media prolong this myth, and computer-mediated communication (specifically, matrimonial sites) possibly now creates channels for further discrimination. In examining the rapid growth of Internet mate-seeking and of Indian matrimonial websites, we seek to answer the call for international research on skin color bias, and, particularly, the role of technology in shaping gender politics. Margaret Hunter (2002, 2005), whose work examines skin color bias in African American and Mexican communities, has urged that scholarship on light skin as ‘social capital’ and as a site of oppressive gendered politics, must be extended beyond studies of white populations. In particular, she calls for research in diverse communities and countries that contrast and compare internalized and gendered racism, which leads to personal and private pain that a skin color bias creates in women’s lives. In his critique of feminist research, Mickey Lee calls for ‘global feminist political economic analysis of women and new communication and information technologies’ (Lee 2006: 1). In particular, Lee argues for feminist research to examine why certain technologies come into existence and how women come to interact with these technologies. Lee points out that when the social structure is dominated by a gender ideology, the role that women play in telecommunications becomes one of the most important areas of research for contemporary feminist scholarship. This study extends Hunter’s (2002, 2005) earlier work on skin tone bias into an international context and Lee’s (2006) call to focus on the ways virtual channels impact women, by examining the case of Indian matrimonial websites. Specifically, we focus on how a gendered ideology functions behind the production of those matrimonial websites to facilitate skin color bias that creates profound repercussions for women, in general, and for dark-skinned women, in particular. This international/technological focus is particularly critical for India, where a globalized modernism, coupled with advancing technological prowess, is possibly intensifying and institutionalizing a colorism that is deeply rooted in Indian history and culture.

Literature Review Colorism and Gender
Colorism – described as internal discrimination based on skin color that usually occurs within ethnic/racial groups – has had a long history within African American and Mexican American communities (Bryant 2001; Fears 1998; Hill 2000, 2002; Kerr 2005; Montalvo 2004; Banks 2000). Peter Frost (2005) argues that almost all human societies have always shown a cultural preference for fair complexions, especially in women, even long before Black slavery and European colonialism. However, Hunter (2002) specifically shows how the hierarchy of desirability based on skin tone creates standards of beauty for women that are seeded in the European colonization over Mexicans and the beginnings of African American slavery. Contemporary media strongly reinforce colorism, and multinational mass media promote a homogenized global body image that is being
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telecast the world over (Glenn 2008). Furthermore, media and advertising foster a hegemonic notion of skin tone that clearly privileges light-skinned women as more desirable than dark-skinned women. In romance films, African American women are often significantly lighter than their male counterparts. In contemporary U.S. advertising, lighter-skinned African American women are perceived as being closer to the beauty ideal than are dark-skinned women (Frisby 2006; Strutton & Lumpkin 1993). Similarly signaled by the term ‘white jade’ as a Chinese metaphor for fairness, skin tone bias is deeply entrenched in contemporary Asian advertising. (Leong 2006). According to Aaron Celious and Daphna Oyserman’s 2001 study of the heterogeneous race model, African Americans have struggled through skin tone discrimination, which is deeply gendered as well. Furthermore, Margaret Hill (2002) argues that a double standard exists for the role of skin tone and attractiveness among African American males and females, with females subjected to more oppressive pressure than males based on these qualities. In general, Hill found that lighter-toned African Americans have greater economic status, including higher levels of education and wealth. Darker-skinned women not only have lower levels of education and wealth compared to lighter-skinned African American women, they also are labeled as less attractive. Darker-skinned African American males do not have the same struggles as their female counterparts, as darker skin for males is viewed as more attractive. Considering that darker-toned African American women are viewed as less attractive, it is assumed that they do not receive the same treatment ‘in all settings: intraracial [within the same race] and interracial’ (Hill 2002: 161). Colorism has deeply personal and economic consequences for women. For example, studies of African American women’s self-image have shown that women dissatisfied with their skin color tend to be dissatisfied with their overall appearance (Bond & Cash 1992; Falconer & Neville 2000). Similarly, because skin color is highly coded, light skin functions as a form of symbolic capital, augmented or conflated with notions of beauty and femininity (Glenn 2008; Hill 2002; Hunter 2005) which can then be converted to other forms of capital. As Margaret Hunter explains, ‘Women who possess this form of (beauty) capital are able to convert it into economic capital, educational capital, or another form of social capital.’ (Hunter 2005: 37) Maxine Leeds (1994) refers to this privileging of light female skin tone as a pigmentocracy. When colorism becomes part of the cultural fabric, it promotes social stratification and exclusion based on invalidating preferences. This exclusion creates what Roksana Rahman calls ‘social closure,’ which occurs ‘when one group monopolizes advantages by closing off opportunities to other groups’ (Rahman 2002: 28) (e.g. a New England wealthy socialite community or inbreeding of royal blood), especially evident in the marriage market. The following section traces the ways colorism is mediated in India through cultural practices and media representation.

Colorism and India
India’s marriage system has consistently been studied for its patriarchal domination that disadvantages women financially, socially, and psychologically.
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Kakoli Banerjee (1999) documented gender-stratified marriage rules (such as lower marriage age for women, as well as the institutionalization of the dowry system) as operating in the context of hierarchical society and shaping women’s marriage opportunities historically and currently. Roy and Tisdell (2002) have examined the property rights of women in rural India to find several institutionalized impediments stacked against single and married women’s rights to property. Socially, over the past few decades, beauty and fairness ideals have also become increasingly institutionalized in the marriage market, once again, disadvantaging women. Skin color has functioned ‘as a visual agent’ in placing individuals ‘in a local social hierarchy, if not an increasing global one’ (Leong 2006: 167). The preference for lighter skin in South Asian cultures, particularly India, has been traced to the region’s early Aryan invasion and, later, British colonization (Berreman 1967; Moore & Eldredge 1970). Traditional and contemporary Indian culture show a preference for females with light complexion in marriage, given other considerations being relatively equal (Beteille 1981, 1992; Moore & Eldredge 1970). Over the past few decades, scholars particularly have pointed out how the caste system in India promotes the hierarchy of skin color, since lighter skin is more likely to be seen in higher caste members, Brahmins, with darker skin viewed as being of a lower caste (Ambedkar [1948] 1969; Beteille 1981, 1992; Sen 2001). Frost (2005) points out that Indian society and several Indian languages use words such as ‘beautiful’ and ‘lovely’ synonymously with the words ‘fair’ or ‘light-skinned.’ Hindi, the national language of India, has a specific word for coloring among women: Gourangi (which, literally translated, means ‘the one who has the coloring of a white cow’) or Gori, which means fair complexion/skin tone. Gori, however, means not merely fair-skinned but also beautiful, and, in fact, ‘girl/woman,’ thereby obliterating not merely beauty but femininity itself for those women who do not have lighter skin. Indian popular cinema (Bollywood), which has a significant impact on Indian consciousness (Mishra 2002; Vasudevan 2000), is riddled with references to skin color as essentially synonymous with womanhood. Bollywood film songs over the decades have made references to women as Gori. As an example of this bias demonstrated towards light-skinned women as embodiments not just of beauty but also femininity, female Bollywood actors consistently have been lighter-skinned than male actors (Glenn 2008). To compound the invalidating effects built into traditional cultural norms, the entry of Western media into the Indian cultural landscape, coupled with India’s economic liberalization beginning in the 1980s, has led to the pre-eminence of western standards of beauty in India. Globalization has changed India’s nationhood by intertwining India’s traditional cultural norms with Western norms, creating a mediated ideology that focuses on a ‘cultural standard for the global elite’ (Fernandes 2000: 620). In this mediated context, light skin signals the elite, whereas dark skin equates with lower status. What happens to darker-skinned women’s body image when western, white women set the dominant standard for beauty? Some clues may be available from a survey of South Asian University students in Canada
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(Sahay & Piran 1997). Skin-color preferences and body satisfaction among 100 South Asian-Canadian and 100 European-Canadian female university students showed that the South Asian-Canadian females were found to desire lighter skin than they possessed and had lower body satisfaction compared with European-Canadian females, showing that skin tone, in fact, embodies the body. However, globalized media effects, such as desire for whiteness by women, is no longer limited to diaspora communities of color living in the land of the white. The collective impact of globalized marketing and media is a packaged westernized, global body image telecast right into homes in countries around the world, including India. This telecast visual image of the ‘successful’ Indian woman is embodied in the 1990s Indian beauty queens, with an ensuing cultural impact that was to have reverberating consequences even today. In 1994, two Indian models, Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai, won the Miss Universe and Miss World pageants, respectively, and their victory propelled a frenzied celebration in the Indian mass media. Their victory also gave rise to a beauty industry that marketed cosmetics and more beauty queens. In addition to this, their presence in Bollywood films further entrenched the global ideal of the light-skinned, tall, westernized beauty (Glenn 2008). For example, Indian model Sheetal Mallar, who has been featured in Elle Magazine and has modeled for Maybelline cosmetic products, is presented in a Western ‘construct’ yet is labeled as an ‘international’ model (Chaudhuri 2001: 377). Scholars discuss this beauty obsession as the production of a cultural hero whose success, fitness, and grooming regimens are covered at length in mainstream media. This coverage lends strength to the consumptive ideologies of India’s middle class and celebrates the beauty professionals and beauty industry that forms a growing part of this emerging, liberalized global economy (Parmeswaran 2004; Runkle 2004). Indian female beauty is calibrated by Indian women’s magazine Femina (organizer of beauty pageants in India) through whiteness, brownness, and Indianness, as representative of the globalized Indian woman (Reddy 2006). Beauty queens who represent ideal Indian and globalized womanhood, in conjunction with economic liberalization in India’s markets, have generated a boom in beauty products. Within India’s cosmetics industry, fairness creams, with a growth rate of 12–14% per year, lead the market (Baxter 2000). These creams are known to contain bleaching and burning agents, which, in recent years, have resulted in widespread physical damage, such as an increased incidence of cosmetic dermatitis (Baxter 2000; Kumar & Paulose 2006). The most prominent fairness cream in India is explicitly labeled, ‘Fair & Lovely’; this product’s advertising and marketing has come under consistent vocal protests from feminist groups in India (Challapalli 2002; Chowdhury & Halarnkar 1998; Leistikow 2003). Discriminatory advertisements of this product show a female protagonist, unable to find not just a groom but even a job, all due to her dark skin. Implicit in this advertising of Fair & Lovely cream is the message that ‘fair’ is not only equal to ‘lovely’ but also to ‘successful’ in personal and professional life. These media images produce a hegemony of light-skinned beauty. According to Ronald Barthes (1972), myths are created by visuals signs
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linked with already present ideological assumptions. These myths then ‘perpetuate and reinforce the values and preferences of the dominant ideology’ (Leong 2006: 171). Therefore, the advertisements and visual signs of lighter-skinned beauty queens perpetuate the myth that fair skin is more desirable than darker skin. More than that, media hegemony perpetuates the historically ingrained myths of the ruling class (Chaudhuri 2001: 375). Desire for whiteness finds expression in the existence of intraracial discrimination (Gibson 1931; Russell, Midge & Hall 1992; Thompson 1994) in the use of skin whiteners and cosmetics designed to make one look more white (Buchanan 1993; Dansby 1972; Divakaruni 2000; Gawle 2002; Holtzman 1973). This desire also affects mate selection. The desire comes closer to fulfillment when given choices for intense selection in the online marriage market. A recent study of matrimonial advertisements in two prominent English language newspapers in India, Bahuguna (2004) found that the 1960s ideal of the pretty and virgin bride has given way to an enhanced emphasis on physical attributes and earning capability. In the 1960s, a bride’s beauty was idealized more in terms of talent (like singing) rather than physical attributes, and ‘decent’ marriages (implying dowry) were the norm. The 1970s marked the emergence of sought-after attributes such as the convent-educated (i.e. English-speaking), smart, working women, and also physical attributes, such as height and fairness. In the 1980s, however, physical beauty emerged as the dominant ideal, particularly skin color, which then became more important than talent, even though the working woman earning an income became desirable in the marriage market. By the 1990s, the media had ushered in the era of the super-bride, thus institutionalizing the ideal of women’s necessary physical perfection. In short, whiteness and a fair-skinned complexion became a form of social capital for females in attracting males. In India, a highly status-conscious society, this form of social capital is intensified through a complex, mediated, techno-facilitated marriage market.

Colorism and the Internet: Indian mate-seeking services
Globalization has ushered in new social networks for mate seeking across the world. In particular, because of the explosive global growth of the Internet over the last decade, online dating is booming in the United States, Europe, and Asia. As Smith has observed, the online dating industry is turning into a ‘multi-billion dollar love story for e-commerce customers’ (Smith 2005: 29). Revenues from online dating services in the United States for 2001 were $72 million, and by 2002, revenues had reached $302 million (Smith 2005: 21). Over the past five years, U.S. revenues have increased steadily at an average of 5 per cent a year and are projected to reach $932 million by 2011 (JupiterResearch.Com, 2007). European online dating services have had strong growth since 2003; in 2006, revenues were 243 million Euros and are projected to reach 549 million Euros in 2011 (Tracey 2007). Furthermore, online dating services in China (which has the second largest population of Internet users) produced revenues of $11.2 million in 2005 and are expected to grow to $81 million by 2008 (Zhou & Zhuoqiong, 2006).
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Between 2006 and 2007, India had the eighth largest Internet population (just behind France), with the number of users increasing from 33 per cent to 21.1 million (Mills 2007). Internet growth has been accompanied by increased online matrimonial websites. According to one report (www.australianIT.com), 15 per cent of Indians go online for matrimonial searches, and another study showed that more people in India are becoming Internet users in order to become matrimonial site users (Guenthner 2007). According to Guenthener’s 2007 study, this growing popularity of online matrimonial sites is seen not merely among Indians living in India but in the Indian diaspora as well. Overall, these sites have drawn huge investments: Yahoo! and Canaan Partners invested $8.65 million in BharatMatrimony.com, one of India’s largest dating websites. This website alone is expected to register 2.5 million users in 2006–2007, compared to 1.5 million registered in 2005–2006 (Guenthner 2007). The popularity of Indian matrimonial sites has been furthered by the ever-increasing number of success stories displayed on matchmaking websites (Pepper 2007). The growth of technological power in globalized India also illustrates the paradox of traditional biases superimposing themselves on modern culture. On the one hand, the Indian information technology sector leads India’s modern economy; on the other hand, these same Internet technologies present opportunities for traditional patterns of matchmaking and mate seeking. Beyond allowing people to browse profiles, build preferences, and ‘refine’ dream mate selection, these sites allow for excluding candidates on the basis of skin color. Drop-down menus for ‘complexion’ prompt users to choose the skin tone of their preferred mates. This menu design allows for social closure by allowing e-cueing for colorism (providing prompts that essentially cue the selection of skin tone that otherwise might not have been included in people’s preferences). In the West, Match.com, the world’s largest Internet dating site that originated in the USA (http://www.consumerresearch.com/winternet/online-dating,) uses race and ethnicity as categories for selection, but not skin tone. However, ‘success photos’ (images of couples who met and married through the Indian sites) may construct a skin-tone bias with preferences for lighterskinned women. Beyond its general impact on mate-seeking, online dating also has developed its own form of social closure. Mate-seeking sites offer an electronic means of interaction and attraction that bypasses face-to-face communication, but, ironically, does not bypass skin-color bias. As new technological advances gain substantial popularity, mate-seeking can bypass initial face-to-face interaction, leaving interaction, selection, and matching to the digital age (Ahuvia and Adelman 1991). In other words, the loss of interpersonal contact for initial mate selection converts the process into a form of e-order consumption, eliminating the potential for people to ‘discover’ attraction in the course of interacting with a potential mate. Finally, dating intermediaries, such as computer-dating services, matchmakers, and singles clubs, create a ‘shopping effect,’ or the perception that there is an endless supply of potential mates (Ahuvia & Adelman 1991, p. 282). However real or imagined the potential options may be, with
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search specifications, computers enable users to delimit a range of desirable (or undesirable) features for other people such as their education, religion, or body type, projecting that the greater the perceived supply, the greater the perceived possibility for upgrading. Contrary to the popular belief that dating service users are ‘losers,’ Ahuvia, Adelman and Schroeder (1991) found that users of the dating service they studied were very selective. The authors contend that dating service users, in fact, primarily are ‘choosers’ with a high sense of entitlement, who use computer dating to set up highly stratified personal profiles for what they consider to be an ideal search. On the surface, these specifications could represent a very discerning population, but these profiles also create a commodification for mate-seeking where one can order up a McDate with all the fixings, thus allowing for invalidating preferences to take hold and, consequently, becoming a form of marriage profiling. Today, despite the celebrated power of the Internet to empower women (Siddiquee & Kagan 2006; Kelly, Pomerantz & Currie 2006; Kort, 2005), with a click of a mouse, technological advances systematically can reinforce regressive practices rooted in colorism.

Research Questions:
The preceding literature prompted us to explore two research questions: 1. Do males on Indian matrimonial websites indicate a preference in their mate selection for females that are lighter-skinned than themselves? 2. Do males on Indian matrimonial websites ultimately marry females whose skin tone is lighter than their own?

Methodology
The websites chosen for analysis were four popular Indian matrimonial websites used by South Asian brides, grooms, and families in India, as well as within the Indian diaspora: Shaadi.Com, JeevanSaathi.com, and BharatMatrinomy.com, and RediffMatchmaker.com (Amar 2008). The home pages and profile menus of these sites provide some important indicators that merit noting. The home page of Shaadi.com (which advertises itself as ‘the world’s largest matrimonial service’) includes in its immediate drop-down search menu the choices of looking for a bride/groom by age range, community (42 possibilities of religion and sub-castes), and country. The categorization of country is an important indicator of the use of this site by Indian diaspora; the categories include India, USA, UK, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Canada, and South Africa. Each of the four websites lists ‘complexion’ as a category in the profile presentations. Two out of the four websites – ReddifMatchmaker.com and Shaadi.com – listed ‘complexion’ within the first five attributes displayed on each member’s profile.

Sample
This study drew upon two types of data sets from these Indian matrimonial websites. Data Set 1 consisted of 25 male and 25 female profiles posted online on each of the same four matrimonial websites, leading to
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an ‘N’ of 200 profiles, downloaded as pdf files during May 2006. Only those profiles in which the member had included a picture of herself/ himself were included. Similarly, for the purpose of providing a comprehensive analysis of each unit, only those profiles that included a section on ‘Desired Mate’ were included (some members choose only to provide details about themselves, leaving the ‘Desired Mate’ section blank). Each of these websites allowed for a function where a member could pick a ‘Desired Complexion’ in his/her ‘Desired Match.’ For analysis, details from the profiles of each category on the 200 sample profiles were noted. For the purpose of this study, the following attributes were noted from each profile: (a) self complexion stated in profile (each website provided a drop-down menu of complexions that included very fair, fair, wheatish, wheatish brown, medium brown, brown, dark, very dark, or not specified,) and (b) complexion desired in a mate. Finally, the descriptive essays in each profile, where present, were analyzed. This textual analysis looked for physical descriptions of a desired match. As noted earlier, Frost (2005) suggested that descriptive words signifying beauty become codes for lighter skin tones. Therefore, these descriptive words in the essays on the profiles were divided into categories, titled (a) superlative words, such as ‘beautiful,’ ‘pretty’ ‘lovely’ and ‘gorgeous’; (b) moderate words, such as ‘attractive,’ ‘cute,’ and ‘good looking’; (c) modest words, such as ‘homely,’ ‘presentable,’ and ‘average’; (d) no preferences; and (e) no description provided. It is important to note here the distinction between the latter two categories; whereas ‘no preferences’ suggests an indifference to skin tone, ‘no description provided’ could suggest other reasons. Data Set 2 included sample wedding photos posted online on the home pages of these four websites under links titled ‘Success Stories’ or ‘Successful Marriages.’ These photos were sent in by couples that found their mates online, through the website on which they now post their ‘success story,’ as visual, as well as verbal, testimonials presented on links accompanying the photographs. The first fifty success story photos were downloaded from each site, for a total of 200 photos. These photographs, downloaded as pdf. files during May 2006, were then coded by visually examining and comparing the skin color/complexion of the bride and the groom in the wedding picture. The coding was done by three coders: one coder was of East Indian ethnicity and the other two were Caucasian American. All coders were female. A coding protocol and corresponding coding instructions were created for analyzing the success story photos, which were the unit of analysis. A separate sample (not used in this study) was used for coders to familiarize themselves with gradations of skin tone (complexion). The grades given to skin tone were: 1 = very fair; 2 = fair, 3 = wheatish (a description used by Indians to describe skin color as likened to the color of wheat), 4 = dark, and 5 = very dark. Coders then indicated gradations of skin color (from 1-5) in two separate columns, for the groom and bride, for each of the wedding photos. The inter-coder reliability coefficient for these gradations, using Scott’s Pi was .91. Because matching of data pools (individual profiles matched to wedding pictures) is not possible under current configurations online, Data Set 2,
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the success story photos, did not consist of the same people that made up Data Set 1, the profiles of mate-seeking members. Hence, we could not track the same members on the profile to see if they ended up as ‘success stories.’ However, since these images were captured during the same period in time, Data Set 1 serves as a close representation of the pool of profiles from which the wedded couples chose their mates. Another important point to note is that, compared to the self-descriptions of complexions/skin color in the profiles, coders were provided with different coding categories for Data Set 2. This procedure was employed because each website used its own distinctive (and exhaustive) categorization for complexion/ skin color, ranging from ‘very fair’ to ‘dark dark brown.’ In noting the attributes in the member profiles, we found that none of the males or females declared ‘dark’ or ‘very dark’ as a self-description of their complexion. It appears that the default status was ‘wheatish,’ which seems to serve as a catch-all phrase, whereas the category of ‘dark’ is a loaded, often stigmatized and culturally-charged term with a negative valence. Therefore, coding the skin tones of brides and grooms in Data Set 2 required standardized categories. In standardizing these and including the dark and very-dark-skinned categories, we may well be accused of denying the self-identification of the members. However, in identifying these categories, we challenge the hegemony of needing to ‘pass’ and empower these terms as signifiers of color tone. We contend that the category of ‘wheatish’ as an umbrella term for a broad spectrum of tonal gradation, serves to deny the existence of darker skin tones and, in so doing, devalues and disempowers darker-skinned women.

Results
The first research question focused on males’ mate-seeking preferences for lighter skin tone than themselves in a prospective mate. Table 1 shows the findings from analyses of Data Set 1: member profiles of males and their stated ‘desired complexion’ in their desired mates. Sixty-six out of 100 men stated ‘no preference,’ twelve desired ‘very fair’ mates, 21 desired ‘fair’ mates, one desired a ‘wheatish’ skin-toned mate, and none desired

Stated Desired Appearance Stated Desired Complexion No Preference Very Fair Fair Wheatish Total Superlative 11 2 6 0 19 Moderate 1 0 0 0 1 Modest 12 1 0 0 13 No Preference 18 2 2 0 22 No Description 24 7 13 1 45 Total 66 12 21 1 100

Table 1: Comparisons of ‘Stated Desired Complexion’ and ‘Stated Descriptive Statements of Desired Appearance of Mate’ by Male Members on Matrimonial Websites.
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Stated Desired Appearance Stated Desired Complexion No Preference Very Fair Fair Wheatish Total Superlative 4 0 1 0 5 Moderate 3 0 1 0 4 Modest 19 0 0 0 19 No Preference 37 0 2 0 39 No Description 18 2 9 4 33 Total 81 2 13 4 100

Table 2: Comparisons of ‘Stated Desired Complexion’ and ‘Stated Descriptive Statements of Desired Appearance of Mate’ by Female Members on Matrimonial Websites.

‘dark’- skinned women. Table 2 shows the findings of analyses from Data Set I, this time for females. In the case of females, 81 out of 100 stated ‘no preference,’ two stated a preference for ‘very fair’ mates, thirteen stated a preference for ‘fair’ skinned mates, four for wheatish skin-toned mates, and none for ‘dark’-skinned mates. Although these results would suggest that color does not matter to the large majority of these mate seekers, a closer analysis of descriptive statements indicates otherwise. Table 1 and Table 2 also show the results of the coding of members’ qualitative, descriptive statements about the physical characteristics they prefer in their partners. When setting up profiles, male members were more likely than female members to use descriptive statements (of color), even when they had stated ‘no preference’ in the drop down menu available online. Moreover, males were more likely to use ‘superlative’ or ‘modest’ descriptions, whereas females mostly used ‘modest’ descriptions. The second research question focused on males’ ultimate marriage to females with skin tone lighter than their own. Analysis of Data Set 2 – ‘Success Story’ photographs of wedded couples – presents overwhelming evidence of the effects of colorism against women in the marriage market by comparing the skin color of grooms with those of their brides. ‘Very

Female Complexion Male’s Complexion Fair Very Fair Wheatish Dark Very Dark Total Very Fair 2 26 28 12 2 80 Fair 1 12 30 26 2 71 Wheatish 0 4 18 16 3 41 Dark 0 0 1 2 3 6 Very Dark 0 0 0 0 1 1 Total 3 52 77 56 11 200

Table 3: Comparisons of Skin Color of Brides and Grooms in ‘Success Story’ Photographs of Wedded Couples.
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fair’ grooms married ‘very fair’ (2 cases) or ‘fair’ (1 case) brides. The strongest result comes in the case of ‘fair’ grooms, who, in 36 cases, married ‘very fair’ brides; in twelve cases, they married ‘fair’ brides, and only in four cases did they marry women darker than themselves (‘wheatish’). Grooms with a ‘wheatish’ skin tone, too, tended to marry a woman who was either lighter-skinned than them (‘very fair’ = 28; ‘fair’ = 30) or similar to them (‘wheatish = 18). In only one case did a wheatish-skin-toned man marry a ‘dark’ skin-toned woman. Dark-skinned men married ‘very fair’ women in twelve cases, ‘fair’ women in 26 cases, ‘wheatish’ skinned women in sixteen cases, and ‘dark’ skinned women in only two cases. There was not one case of a dark-skinned man marrying a ‘very dark’skinned woman. Men whose skin color was graded as ‘very dark,’ married ‘very fair’ women in two cases, ‘fair’ women in two cases, ‘wheatish’ colored women in three cases, and ‘dark’-skinned women in three cases. Only one case emerged where a very dark-skinned male married a very darkskinned female. One disturbing finding that emerges from the results is that despite documenting several dark-skinned and very dark-skinned female members among the profiles online (Data Set 1), very few dark-skinned (6 cases out of 100) or very dark-skinned (1 out of 100) women were found in the ‘success story’ photos of wedded couples (Data Set 2). While we are cautious to claim a direct correlation between Data Set I and Data Set II, especially since the latter involves self-reporting and uploading of wedding photos by couples themselves and is therefore less random a sample, we believe that the very power of this reportage comes from the ‘success story’ aspect. That is, Data Set II is the outcome, or the married face of Data Set I, which is the ‘up for selection/marriage’ face. This is discussed in greater detail in the next section.

Discussion
Our study, although preliminary, suggests that dark-skinned women are falling through the matrimonial cracks. Despite the presence of darkskinned female member profiles on these online mate-seeking services; it appears that these women are rarely selected as marriage partners. Although dark-skinned or very dark-skinned women may not be completely eliminated in the marriage market, an obliterating effect online is occurring for the profiles that signals that these women are undesirable, or, simply, invisible. Most importantly, this obliterating effect comes from the construction of the self-descriptions for complexion and desired complexion within the menu of profiles placed online. A possible explanation of the influence of menu options is that they cue the user to engage in color discrimination. For example, by specifying ‘complexion’ (or skin tone) as an important criterion, offering a drop-down menu of options, such as ‘very fair,’ ‘fair,’ ‘wheatish,’ ‘dark,’ or ‘very dark,’ the mate-seeker is cued to indicate a preferred complexion/skin tone that perhaps he or she would not have otherwise considered noting. Even if ‘no preference’ is given in the menu of options, the very cue may replay itself in the description, where the user writes a narrative paragraph on what he or she is seeking in a mate. For example, the menu options may prompt a male to indicate that he is seeking
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a ‘fair-skinned’ woman, although he initially indicated ‘no preference.’ Thus, the cueing can be overt or more subliminal in its prompting effect. The menu function, then, serves not merely to reinforce existing biases but as a visual documentation, endorsement, and institutionalization of colorism. Such cues may possibly not have occurred to a mateseeker, but their inclusion in the menu may be a powerful suggestion, nudging people along portals that may not be of their own original choice (Williams 2006). Further, the virtual images of the lighter-skinned brides and darkerskinned husbands in the ‘success story’ photos inevitably invalidate the eligibility of dark-skinned women in the e-marriage market. Because identity is inscribed in skin tone, real or potential elimination in the computerized marriage pool models an invalidating self for dark-skinned women. In their study of identity creation in Internet dating, Jennifer Yurchisin et al argued that online experiences can validate or invalidate both ‘now selves’ and ‘potential, hoped-for selves’ (Yurchisin et al 2005: 740). Therefore, marriage websites that create desirable matches that systematically exclude people on the basis of skin tone affect the ‘now self ’ of darkskinned women, (e.g., by increasing their self-loathing) and also affect their potential hoped-for-selves (e.g. by reducing their self-perception that they have any value in the marriage market). As a result, these women may self-select out of the e-marriage pool, reducing their numbers and presence and, consequently, reinforcing their individual and collective invisibility. The contributions of this study are significant in three areas. First, this study expands the examination of the whitening effect to an international population, specifically, India. Although prior studies of other countries indicate a similar pattern of mate preferences, it is critical to document this widespread phenomenon across national boundaries as evidence of institutionalized, globalized colorism. Second, this study draws on natural data sets found on matrimonial websites, which is preferable to data obtained through surveys and interviews. In using natural data sets, this study moves beyond impressionistic commentary to empirical analysis of online matrimonial advertisements for mate-seeking and marriage announcements in India. Finally, this study considers the ways technology and other media aid and abet what we refer to as ‘invalidating preferences’: those preferences, regardless of potential compatibility, that work to discriminate between prospective mates on the bases of skin tone. As online matchmaking gains global momentum, what are the implications for dark-skinned women? The creation of communication through online matchmaking, although celebrated as a sign of liberalized, globalized modernism similar to the pageantry of global beauty contests, may, in fact, lead to a technological abetment of pigmentocracy. Future studies on mate-seeking are needed to grasp the interplay between technological and cultural practices and their sociological and psychological impact. For example, experimental studies could test for the cueing functions of menu options and other techno devices and stimuli that might trigger discriminatory responses. Studies that explore the angst of falling through the matrimonial cracks might include in depth analysis of narratives of women excluded from the marriage market, and narratives of males who
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seek women with skin tones lighter than themselves. Sociologically, network studies would be helpful in confirming the social closure argued in this paper. As our literature review indicates, the social construction of skin tone is a complex intersection of mediated images and technological abetment. Studies that triangulate findings from various sources of this construction, as well as critical studies, would be useful in understanding the tangled web of discriminatory practices. Russell et al argue that ‘people’s appearance and love lives are their own business, and should remain so. Yet, we share their conviction that an informed individual can make choices more freely and can better resist social practices and cultural attitudes that are meaningless and unfair’ (1992: 7). The authors’ conviction, however, has not been realized over time. In part, today’s people’s love lives are no longer their own business, but have become big business. As the Internet becomes a hegemonic matchmaker, we see a lessening of interpersonal or familial effects, such as a doting aunt orchestrating an arranged marriage match for a darkskinned niece. Today, some eighteen years later, discrimination based on skin tone remains a pervasive, technologically facilitated global force in the mate-seeking process. We believe that this increasing commodification of women’s bodies, and the far-reaching damage to those excluded from the mate-seeking pool, is a widespread phenomenon that needs to become central in discussions of globalization, media, technology, and marketing. Trivializing Internet dating services as a ‘fad’ does an injustice to their critical role in mate selection. We are not talking about casual dating practices, but new and pervasive forms of mate-seeking. In India, where marriage is critical for lifelong security and economic stability, discriminatory practices may disenfranchise a significant segment of the female population. More work is needed on the ways that digitalized mate-seeking can foster elitism and idealized uber-couples, diminishing any possibility of heterogeneity in dating, coupledom, marriage, and, ultimately, families. Unquestionably, Internet dating/mating services extend social networks in innovative and important ways. With their rapid growth, these services may become the primary sources for dating and mate selection. However, along with the celebratory romances and weddings, we need to ask the question, ‘Who does not get invited to the altar?’ Furthermore, as attraction to the-girl-next-door is replaced with the-girl-in-the-browserwindow, we need to understand how technological forces are shaping evolutionary and social forces (Buss & Barnes 1986; Howard, Blumstein and Schwartz 1987). Finally, because computer mate seeking is a private, but pervasive and increasingly popular affair, we need to question its exclusionary power as a tool of oppression. As a cultural force, imbued with techno-status, the discriminatory power of these virtual matchmakers is difficult to resist. As this study suggests, search tools and drop-down menu options abide and abet discrimination, institutionalizing racism with fashionable efficiency. Evidence indicates that computer ‘meetings’ do not merely augment more naturally occurring, IRL (in real life) encounters; these digital forms of meeting are becoming primary sources for initiating contact with potential dates. Disguised as evidence of modernism and laws-of-attraction, in reality, virtual mate-seeking may well cloak a seductive, but blatant hegemony of colorism.
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Suggested citation
Jha, S. and Adelman, M. (2009), ‘Looking for Love in All the White Places: A Study of Skin Color Preferences on Indian Matrimonial and Mate-Seeking Websites’, Studies in South Asian Film and Media 1: 1, pp. 65–83, doi: 10.1386/safm.1.1.65/1

Contributor details
Sonora Jha (Ph.D., Louisiana State University) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Seattle University. Dr. Jha’s research is on the intersection of journalism, social movements, and the Internet as well as on issues of communication justice. Her research has been published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, Electronic Journal of Communication, The Journal of Networks & Civil Society and The Seattle Journal of Social Justice, among others. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Jha was a journalist

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for over a decade in India and Singapore, covering politics, crime and issues of social justice. Her last assignment was as special correspondent and a chief of bureau with The Times of India. She also worked as Communication Manager for Actionaid, a U.K.-based development funding agency, for which she was editor of Changes, a journal on issues of rural poverty. She writes a media analysis blog for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer at : http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/mediamockingbird/ Contact: Department of Communication, Seattle University, 901 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122. E-mail: Sonora@seattleu.edu Mara Adelman (Ph.D., U of Washington) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Seattle University. Her research is on social support systems & AIDS; communication and community development; intercultural communication; cross-cultural adaptation/expatriation; service industry and interpersonal communication; communication networks and restorative solitude. Dr. Adelman is a co-author on four books and her research has been published in Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Journal of Health Communication and Journal of Marriage and the Family, among others. Contact: Department of Communication, Seattle University, 901 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122. E-mail: Mara@seattleu.edu

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