After clicking the upload button on her latest TikTok, sophomore Aeshna Chatterji was greeted by an influx of comments. While scrolling through them, a couple of them caught her eye, reading, “You’re attractive … for an Indian person,” and “You’re Indian? I wouldn’t have guessed.”
She says these comments aren’t rare on social media. The recent surge of comments like these on TikTok seem to come from a place of recognition, but the backhanded nature is especially insulting to girls like Chatterji.
TikTok’s “The Great Shift” trend, where people of various cultures and ethnicities comment this phrase under Indian girls’ posts as a way to recognize Indian beauty on social media, gained popularity in November of 2024. Although seemingly supportive and good-natured, many Indian girls, including Chatterji, feel that this trend is insulting and disrespectful to themselves and their culture.
“When I first heard about the trend, I was like, ‘Oh, at least we’re getting some recognition. People are starting to change their mind about Indians and Indian culture,’” Chatterji said. “But then I thought about what it stems from, and it’s disappointing.”
While it is easy to think that “The Great Shift” serves as recognition for Indian culture and beauty, in reality it implies that Indian girls were not pretty beforehand, demeaning the Indian community as a whole. According to Chatterji, “The Great Shift” is yet another form of thinly veiled racism, as people don’t understand that ethnic features, like different noses, eyes and facial structure, can also be conventionally attractive. She explains that since ethnic features are so different from the West’s, acknowledging that they are attractive can be difficult for some.
“If people don’t like to believe that attractive people are Indian because it makes them feel worse about themselves, I view that as one of the causes of racism itself,” Chatterji said. “Indian people have always been beautiful — it’s just now that people are recognizing it and I think that’s a systemic problem.”
MVHS ‘24 alum Aashi Venkat agrees, stating that the trend downplays Indian features, contributing to the underappreciation of ethnic beauty in general. She explains that the insinuation that Indian women have not always been pretty is untrue and insensitive, continuing to uphold Western beauty standards where white features are preferable.
“Creating a concept like that is really toxic,” Venkat said. “So now that it’s a trend, they’re like, ‘It’s cool now, so we can proudly find them pretty.’ You wouldn’t be saying that about a white person. Why are you saying it about us?”
Venkat explains that the notion that Indians have not always been pretty is an idea that was furthered by today’s media representation, especially in the West. Characters like Ravi Ross from the Disney Channel show “Jessie” perpetuate the stereotype that Indians can only be nerdy and undesirable — a misconception that has only started to change recently. As more TV shows give recognition to Indian women by creating characters like Devi Vishwakumar from “Never Have I Ever” and Kate Sharma from “Bridgerton,” people start to view Indian women as desirable and beautiful, and this shift in perspective likely contributed to the creation of this trend.
“In their minds, at least, they saw Indians in general as a source of humor,” Venkat said. “They saw their looks as a source of humor because their looks were supposed to be so awful.”
However, this shift of people’s perspectives of Indians due to the media doesn’t align with the historical context. Throughout history, Indian women have always been considered beautiful, winning numerous Miss Universe awards, a pageant in which girls from 127 out of 195 countries compete. The fact that Indian women have always been perceived as beautiful in Western media makes this trend that much more insulting to them, as many Indians believe that they don’t need this recognition to remain confident with their appearance.
Research teacher Kavita Gupta also disagrees with the idea that Indian women weren’t pretty before, as historically, Indian women have always cared greatly for their beauty. By utilizing natural products for their skin and hair, accessorizing with extravagant jewelry and recognizing Indian beauty in Bollywood movies, Indians have consistently aligned with their cultural idea of beauty. She explains that the insinuation that Indian women have not always been pretty doesn’t make much sense, as they have always taken their beauty into consideration.
“Beauty is so contextual and so cultural,” Gupta said. “When I was growing up in the ‘70s, beauty standards were who had the thickest braids or the longest hair. In that time, beauty was fair skin. That’s how we defined beauty at that time.”
As a first-generation immigrant who moved to the U.S. in the ‘90s, Gupta explains that while she did face racism in America, it may not have been due to her looks, contrary to Chatterji and Venkat’s experiences as second-generation immigrants. When reflecting on the differences between beauty standards in India in her childhood versus now, she believes that the change is largely due to the exposure that India now has to other cultures, through immigrants and social media. She explains that, with the rise of the internet, Indian women learn about other types of beauty and start to question their own as a result.
“In India, because of the advent of multinationals, Indian people have become more aware of different cultural beauty standards, and maybe that has shifted their own idea of beauty,” Gupta said. “People might say, ‘Oh, maybe you used to look like this. You look like this now,’ And I would ask, ‘What if I liked myself more then? What if I thought I was prettier then?’”
The nuanced perspectives of beauty correspond to the differing perspectives on “The Great Shift.” Growing up in the U.S. amidst the cultural diversity in the Bay Area despite the white majority, Chatterji and Venkat attribute the disrespect of the trend to the widespread idolization of white beauty standards and the misrepresentation in the media. Gupta’s perspective differs, as she believes that, in general, beauty is subjective and that whole cultures cannot be categorized.
“How do we put judgment on it?” Gupta said. “How do we say, ‘Oh, this is good beauty, this is bad beauty?’ I don’t know. I’m very perplexed with this whole idea of ‘The Great Shift.’”
Gupta, while not being extremely familiar with the trend itself, believes that regardless of culture and heritage, beauty cannot be shamed. All cultures have different standards, and despite the overlap due to the spread of ideas, people should stay true to themselves when it comes to what makes them feel beautiful.
Gupta agrees with Chatterji and Venkat that it comes down to recognizing beauty and giving compliments. Eliminating the backhanded nature and instead, showing real, authentic appreciation to commemorate people’s natural beauty is important to foster inclusivity within our diverse communities.
Having an unbiased and respectful perception of beauty is necessary, especially given the plethora of different ethnicities with their own respective standards. As people expand their horizons with the rise of social media, understanding that people’s features aren’t something that can be categorized into desirable versus undesirable can serve as an important reminder.
“What you can just do instead is merely compliment them as a person, instead of creating this whole terminology to define an entire race,” Venkat said. “I think that boiling people down to their race is very toxic and shouldn’t be done on social media unless there’s context referring to it.”
This story was originally published on El Estoque on February 2, 2025.