Considering the fact that I run a Startup that offers an online platform for Indians to create their private marriage biodata, I am always browsing through matchmaking websites to benchmark my product and also find out how people describe themselves and their expectations online.
Here is what I did recently.
I logged into a popular online matchmaking website for arranged marriages.
I then searched for profiles of women by using a feature called Keyword search. This is supposed to throw up all profiles on the site that has the keywords included.
The first search term I used was “fair”. I ended up with a list of 11384 profiles to sift through.
Then I randomly opened some of these profiles and almost every profile I ended up reading used the word to to describe their skin colour. I did not find anyone use it to say they are “openminded” or “equitable”. I never had a chance (or the time) to open every profile one by one to confirm my conclusion, but instincts tell me, it’s all the same.
Then I cleared the search term and searched for the keyword “wheatish”. If you wondering what “wheatish” is, you can read about it here in my blog post.
This time, I ended up with just 703 profiles.
Once again, I started randomly opening the profiles from this search result and was not suprised to find everyone of the profiles referring to their wheatish complexion. Of course, some of them used redundant phrases such as “wheatish brown”. I am sure, I can come up with a list of 50 shades of wheatish If I ever open and read every one of the profiles.
Finally, I punched in the search term “Black” and was positively surprised to see 431 search results!
However, when I started reviewing the profiles, I quickly realised that all these profiles are using the word “black” in every possible context other than complexion!
For example, I found a lot of profiles that had chosen “Blacksmith” as their caste. I also found someone who likes “black tea”.
There was one exception though. I found a woman who had a dark complexion in her profile photograph and also had the guts to to declare that she considers herself to be a “black beauty”.
However, that was just an exception.
It appears all Indian women with a black skin tone or dark complexion have completely boycotted online matrimonial sites. I am pretty sure it’s the same case with Indian men as well! And I guess the “black beauty” I found online did not get the memo.