26/06/2020 04:01 PM
Of S. Pavithra and standards of beauty
By C. Vinoothene
KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 26 -- We need to talk about YouTuber S. Pavithra’s recent modelling debut.
The internet was set abuzz when behind-the-scenes images from a photoshoot featuring the 28-year-old housewife-turned-YouTube star recently surfaced across social media platforms.
Pavithra looked absolutely stunning in the photos, but what was more interesting was that the make-up artist chose to accentuate the beauty of her skin colour.
The Asian culture typically equates fair skin with beauty and while not all Asians adopt the mentality, it is the prevailing belief across fashion industries.
Local advertisements and fashion shows feature predominantly light-skinned models while darker-skinned ones would have their skin edited - during makeup or via software afterwards - into a lighter shade before their photos are broadcasted to the masses. Skin-lightening creams and treatments are regularly promoted in the media.
It was thus refreshing to find Razzi Musa - the make-up artist working with Pavithra in the photoshoot - dismissing the needless practice.
“I find no need to change Pavithra’s skin colour. I should instead be appreciative of the colour of the skin she was born in, as we should all be of our own,” he told Bernama in an interview.
And the internet agrees.
Pavithra’s breathtaking beauty evoked excitement and positivity across social media.
Twitter user Muhammad Adham tweeted “She is so beautiful” while Instagram user @parames_01 commented, “ Wow! She doesn't even need to try. So elegant and effortlessly beautiful.”
Instagram artist Haris Rashid even drew a portrait of her inspired by the photos from the shoot.
Meanwhile, Razzi said the inspiration behind Pavithra’s look was her soft-spokenness and gentle demeanour, as could be seen from the series of YouTube videos she did with her husband, M. Sugu.
“There is no need to turn a person into someone else (via makeup transformations). I want Pavithra to be Pavithra.
“I employed minimal makeup because I wanted to highlight the sweet and polite side of Pavithra that we have seen and come to love. I want to show Pavithra, the way she is,” he said.
Razzi acknowledges that ultimately, it all boiled down to a matter of taste.
“It can be a little difficult to educate the masses to appreciate different skin colours because everyone has their own taste when it comes to measures of attractiveness and beauty. What I wanted to relay was that we should just be proud of the skin we are born in.
“This is 2020. Skin colour should not be an issue. What’s more important is taking good care of our skin and loving it.”
--BERNAMA
