Filtered Faces, Real Pressure: How Beauty Filters Are Feeding Colourism In India

Ever opened Snapchat’s “enhance” filter or tried one of Instagram’s beauty presets and thought, wait, why is my skin suddenly lighter? What begins as just a fun selfie often leaves you staring at a version of yourself that looks slimmer, fairer, and not quite like you. For Indian women, that’s not harmless; it’s the digital echo of the biases we’ve always been told to live with.

When Fun Turns into Digital Pressure

Filters were supposed to be playful, add puppy ears, a bit of sparkle, maybe a vintage tint. But the “enhancement” ones go much further. They smooth out blemishes, slim your jawline, sharpen your nose, and even make your skin lighter. Scroll through Instagram and you’ll notice how everyone starts looking uncannily similar: pale, poreless, sculpted. That’s not random; it’s the algorithm deciding which version of beauty gets pushed forward.

The Indian Obsession with Fairness

India’s obsession with fair skin isn’t new. We’ve grown up seeing it pushed through endless ads for ‘Fair & Lovely,’ in Bollywood, where fair-skinned heroines are celebrated as desirable while darker women are often pushed into side roles, and in matrimonial classifieds that still slip in ‘fair’ as a preference. Even Alia Bhatt faced her share of criticism during the promotions of Gangubai Kathiawadi, when people pointed out how her noticeably lighter look appeared crafted to match a certain cinematic ‘standard.’

Beauty filters are simply the latest way that old biases show up, only now they’re built right into our phones. With a single swipe, centuries of colourism get disguised as ‘technology,’ turning a fun selfie into a reminder of what society has always told us is ‘beautiful.’

On the surface, filters seem harmless. But the effect runs much deeper. Many women start preferring their filtered faces over their real ones. What once came from magazine photo spreads or celebrity endorsements now shows up in your own selfies. The message is subtle but powerful: your natural skin, nose, or face shape isn’t “enough.”

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Around the world, studies have found connections between heavy filter use, dissatisfaction with appearance, and even an increased interest in cosmetic procedures. In India, where skin tone already heavily influences how women are judged, these filters don’t just make you look “better”; they can actually hurt.

Unfiltered and Unapologetic

Not everyone is buying what these filters are selling. Snapchat’s “enhance” filter has been criticised all over the world, including in India, for making skin tones appear lighter. At the same time, many influencers are posting raw, no-filter photos, trying to show themselves as they really are and reclaim some authenticity. Campaigns like #FilterDrop have gained attention globally, calling on platforms to be transparent when filters change how people look. Even in India, feminist meme pages are poking fun at the absurdity of filters that make everyone look like clones of the same fair-skinned “ideal.”

Women are also fighting back with a sense of irony, sharing filtered selfies alongside captions that call out exactly what’s been changed. The pushback may be small, but it’s a clear sign that more and more people are refusing to let algorithms decide what beauty should look like.

The Real Cost of a ‘Perfect’ Selfie

This debate is about more than just filters; it’s about control. When every app keeps nudging us to look lighter, thinner, or more “perfect,” beauty stops being a choice and becomes coded pressure.

Filters could celebrate individuality and diversity, but most don’t. Instead, they flatten differences, strengthen colourist hierarchies, and reinforce insecurities that women have been dealing with for decades.

The next time a filter promises to make you “beautiful,” stop and ask yourself: beautiful for whom? And at what cost?

Because if empowerment means erasing freckles, dark skin, or textured hair, then these filters aren’t celebrating women, they’re censoring us.

Views expressed by the author are their own.