posted by Laurie Mulvey
Girl suffers burns over seventy percent of her body after lying 16 minutes in a coin operated suntanning bed.
Let’s not forget about skin darkening practices—and the premature aging, painful burning, sun poisoning and skin cancer that result because light-skinned people often don’t feel good about themselves when they’re “too white.” As a white person myself, this is a refrain I’ve heard many times—and one that taught me that it was normal to put oil on my skin and swelter in the summer sun even though the act made me cranky and uncomfortable. But I thought I was moving closer to a standard of beauty that I needed to attain. So I did it—as do many like me.
Collage of skin cancers
And let’s not forget about the orange-y complexions that result when white people bake themselves in space age tanning ovens all winter to maintain their “color.” What do we make of this? What do we think white people are trying to accomplish while dark skinned people have the idea that they should be lighter? Who are white people emulating?
And what keeps all of us from ever really juxtaposing these practices of whitening and darkening our skins? Are we afraid to conclude that human beings are just sad creatures who are never satisfied with what they have inherited no matter what the power politics and hegemonic context in which they live?
I think as humans, we have this never-ending desire in attempting to enhance our beauty, as if we’re truly never satisfied. That horrible reality show “Addicted to Beauty” displays an example of the kind of people that go to the extreme to change their look. They get all this surgery done and spend thousands of dollars to just be continually unsatisfied with their image. I also believe media effects have a huge affect as to why we strive to look different from our natural selves. TV advertisements go to any extent to sell their products, and making women feel like they are not beautiful enough UNLESS they invest in particular beauty products. It’s quite sickening. America has become so materialistic and consumed by appearance that women go to any length to make themselves feel beautiful. But in the end, after all the treatments, the tanning, the money spent on their looks, do they feel happy and satisfied? NO. And I know this because it’s a huge cycle that never ends. The dark-skinned girls will think they should have lighter skin, and the light-skinned girls want darker skin because we all want a little bit of everything. I am a white girl and will admit that I like to get tanner in the summer, but I have never gone to a tanning bed because this “beauty” image is not worth skin cancer to me. When I see NATURALLY dark-skinned girls, I think it is beautiful and something to admire, because that’s who they are. I wish we could all just embrace the way we look and try not to be something we’re not, because it will only result in being let down. That quote “you always want what you can’t have” completely describes the human race. Tall people want to be short, short people want to be tall. I walk down the street and I see girls wearing the same exact outfits, because we want to be like everyone else. Imagine if we all just walked around campus as ourselves, not trying to impress anyone but feeling confident in our own self-beauty and expression. We would all look original, unique, and it would be SO refreshing! I think the problem is that many women don’t feel confident in their beauty, so they run to things to “enhance” their image. If we all just embraced our own individual styles, we wouldn’t be so quick to change things about ourselves. The way we look does not represent our worth or value, and its sad to see that many of us feel that way. We all come from different cultures, and I think the curiosity about different races triggers us to believe that we need to look more like someone else. Inner confidence and a great personality stretch farther than most people could believe, and its time that it actually showed.
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So I have to say that it is not that white people have a problem with the way they look, but it is that girls think their bodies look better tanned. I feel that it also gives you more confidence, if you like how you look then you will walk around with your head held high. I do not have a problem with tanning being that I absolutely love the sun. In the summer I am outside all day being that I am a camp counselor so I get a nice golden brown. Also, I could lay on the beach all day in the sun and not even bleak about “changing” my color. One of my best friends is extremely white being she is from Ireland, and we always make fun of her because no matter whether we are tan or not we are always darker then her. I mean we were sitting in my convertible one day and we were in the car for about 15 minutes and she was already burnt on her one shoulder. I am one of the lucky ones that don’t get burnt, so I don’t have that factor to turn me away from tanning. I don’t necessarily have to tan everyday of the week or even during the winter but if the chance comes up I will definitely take it. Though I think it is pretty interesting that as was mentioned in class other countries are buying products to make them lighter. Why would you want to change how you look like or your appearance? You are made to look a specific way and you should not want to change that. Yes, I want to tan but I do not over completely over board like some girls and I can’t really say anything about whitening products. People always say you want what you cannot have, so I guess that is why people tan or try to whiten their skin. I work with black people in the summer and they do always say after being in the sun to long that they don’t like to be that dark. It is funny that we want to be darker and they want to be whiter.
I think when you tan too much you start to look fake. That is something I personally would not want to look like. Also, I am truly scared of getting skin cancer and with what I do that definitely does not help me. When you get older and you tan more you get wrinkles quicker which is not something a lot of people want. Even though this stuff does scare me, I still do it anyway which probably is not a good thing.
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Many people think that skin coloring has to deal with comparing races but it also occurs within colored races. I remember growing up I dealt with being made fun of because I was too black when in reality I was only brown skin compared to other people. I have nine brothers and sisters and when I was growing up I was called burnt crispy just because I was the darkest child. People of color always made fun of me because of my skin color when I wasn’t even that dark compared to other people. I feel like race not only depends on skin color but it also depends on the status that you have with people. Because if they don’t like you sometimes they won’t even like the way you look based on being a hater meaning envy they envy what you have and they want it. Racism isn’t just based on different nationalities its based on merit and the status that you have. It’s based on color too and sometimes it’s based on what you have and the way you grew up. I model part time and since I’ve been modeling I do little side contests that make me use the internet and have people vote for me and since I have been in the contest I have been called a black nasty and a nigger just because I am against a bunch of white people and I was ahead of majority. People hate on others because they see potential in others and they see competition I feel like racism shouldn’t be intended but because of the way we grew up it has a huge affect on the way that we think and feel because we get all our knowledge and intake from our parents and our siblings and that’s because of the environment we were raised in.
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The Other side of skin coloring
Whenever I hear about people that go tanning, or spend hours outside during the summer simply to get a nice tan i can never understand why people put them though such a task merey to appear as if they had darker skin. The idea that darker skin looks better or “hotter” is something that I may agree with but I also feel that some people are born to be darker and others are not. Some people feel that making their skin darker will make them better looking, or make them feel better about them selves but the reality is that just changing the outside of someone doesn’t change much. Tanning is an expensive unnecessary habit that far to many people that I know partake in. The fact that when you do tan or go and sit outside in the sun for hours it feels as if your skin is actually burning is something that should tell people it in not good for you. And if nothing else not worth the time or sunburn. I stay away from tanning simply because I just don’t see a need for it and I’m just not into that kind metrosexual/guido style. But even if I was one of those guys I would think that I would start to smarten up about how I take care of my skin. All of the reports of skin cancer and the increased risk from sun exposure and tanning beds. There is no need to put yourself into more danger than you have to especially if our OV laywer is getting thinner and thinner the UV rays from the sun are just going to get more and more dangerous. People need to understand what they are doing to themselves. I feel as if our entire society just feels that they are above any danger, everyone has a “it wont happen to me” mentality. And that is true with this whole tanning craze. People don’t care what will happen to them later they just want to look good today.
I even have friends that I try to talk to about the dangers of tanning but no matter what I tell my friends or what they see on the news they continue to tan, they continue to buy expensive lotions and spend hours of there day baking in the suns rays. And for what, to look a little browner, a little sexyier. This habit may say something about our culture or society. We are never happy with what we get or what we are given and any opportunity we are given we are trying to change our appearance at any cost. Hopefully we will start to realize the things we do to stay young and beautiful are really just not worth it in the end.
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As you can infer by the name, Snow White, I am pale. By pale I mean “glow in the dark,” ghost white. I don’t know the exact date when the criteria for beautiful went from pale to golden brown in the United States definition, but I would’ve been considered far more attractive back when it was considered to be more beautiful to be closer to the color of snow.
I never went tanning in high school because I knew it was stupid and caused cancer, but I will admit to going tanning as frequently as a couple times a month last winter here at Penn State. Why I am not comfortable with my pallor complexion, is beyond me because I’m sure if I asked some of the people who spend their money to be “pristine white,” or whatever that label that Sam showed us for the skin whitening cream said, would trade with me in a second.
I hear my white friends remark that they are “going to be black by the end of the summer” as they lay out on their beach towels under the sun, cooking themselves, and can’t help but think about the many people who strive for the exact opposite. I think about the people who hide in the shade because they are trying to get as minimal sun exposure as possible, and the people who wear long sleeves and pants in the islands when it is 100 degrees and hotter to avoid getting darker. The people who believe that being lighter will help them succeed or make them more beautiful.
I remember the first time I was in the Bahamas. I saw a local men and women wearing long sleeves and pants on the beach. I was four and didn’t understand why they would be wearing that type of clothing in the scorching weather. I was extremely confused and asked my parents why the people didn’t just cut the sleeves off and trim their pants into shorts if they didn’t already own them. My parents explained to me that it was because they didn’t want their skin to get darker. I still didn’t understand, but I let it go. I still don’t entirely understand. I mean, I understand why, but at the same time, I am clueless to why it is that way. The grass is always greener on the other side, I suppose.
Now I tan to make my skin darker without even considering that across the world people are buying creams to attempt to bleach their skin to make it look more like mine. Before class that one day, I had no idea that creams like that even existed. The standard and definition of beauty changes over time and varies as you move from one geographic location to another to such a great extent. If peoples’ idea of beauty can vary THAT much, who’s to say what beauty really is. Does beauty even exist at all?
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There are many people that seek ways to make themselves look physically better. Girls especially feel insecure about their bodies and direct their attention and money to beauty products and tanning. Female magazines also put them down by telling them there are 101 different ways to get skinnier, more attractive or get healthier. Girls are having their lives controlled by the media and press. Girls walking around holding these magazines read them religiously as if it was the bible. Their minds get corrupted from these magazines that make them feel worse about their appearance every page they turn. I have picked up one of these popular girl magazines to check out what contents are presented to an average vulnerable and gullible teenage female. All the magazine contains are images of women that look amazingly gorgeous advertising for random beauty product or advice on how to become more attractive. The editors and writers of these magazines are in no way shape or form better or more fashionable than the people that read it. Women get put down with these images of beautiful women and begin to compare themselves to the models. Many harmful or unnecessary procedures are done on women that feel that by doing so, they are one step closer to fulfilling perfection. Girls need to stop and realize they are all beautiful in their own special way and that cosmetics and tanning are only temporarily there to shield what beauty really lies under it all. Plastic surgery has sometimes been considered as a solution to their disgusting face or body feature but those that feel that way will never be satisfied.
Do not get me wrong, I am aware that men can also be like this. Although most men might not use beauty products, surgery and tanning is no surprise. Men are also bombarded with images of big muscular athletes and movie stars, but are not as easily affected. Women are just more likely to be pulled into these temptations than guys.
People that reside in different locations of the world are exposed to different people, environments, and perspectives. I know that in Asian countries, people from Korea and China especially, like to have a very pale skin tone. In these countries, that is found attractive and therefore many young people like to go out and purchase whitening creams to lighten their skins. Advertisements of different products are stressed in different parts of the world depending on what is “in” and what is not. Surgeries to widen the eyes are also popular in some Asian countries. Girls want to possess that European look by widening their eyes more. Practices such as these are inevitable because there will always be people that want to look the best and do whatever they can to achieve it.
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People always want what they can’t have and I think that there are many people in this country who always try to improve upon their looks- constantly.
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Being as how I am a white male from the united states, the whole idea of skin whitening seems very strange to me. In fact, I had never even known that it was a popular practice until Sam told us about it in class. I suppose that in some ways, the idea of whitening your skin makes sense. Whether that be in order to integrate into a predominately light-skinned population or if it is to change their bodies to better suit the western version of beauty.
As for white people in a sense I understand why they would feel the need to darken their skin through tanning or creams. Most people believe that a tan makes you look “healthy.” It is a sign of youth and living an active lifestyle. I notice myself feling more confident and content with myself during the summer months or after a vacation when I get a tan.
Additionally, I feel like most people associate pasty, white skin with computer / video game nerds who have limited social interactions and rarely go outside during the day. During the winter when my skin get lighter I notice that I can more easily see my veins and it looks kinda weird. That’s why once the sun starts coming out I try to be outside as much as possible so that I can have a tan.
But despite the fact that I understand reasons why someone might want to slightly alter their skin tone, but it seems like it can be something that is easy to get carried away with. I have seen way to many girls with that unnatural orange tan in December and honestly it not only looks strange but is unattractive. That type of tanning is not only obsessive but also unhealthy. Many people, myself included, are quick to disregard other people warnings of too much sun. It can lead to a variety of skin disorders including melanoma.
People need to stop being so concerned with their outer appearance. It seems that almost everyone has a feeling in inadequacy about their skin tone, facial features, or bone structure. I think that much of this is due to human nature, but a good eal of it could be blamed on the way people are portrayed in the media. Advertisements always show pictures of people who look perfect. People seem to be obsessed with the idea of making themselves look perfect which is very unrealistic..
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What is so ironic is that in early Europe, being pale was viewed as “in” because the palest people were the ones who could afford to stay inside all day instead of working out in the fields. Now, it seems as one of the coolest things to do in our society is going to warm, tropical places—and only people with money can afford to a) take those lavish vacations, b) own a vacation home in a warm environment (like on the beach or in Florida) or c) live there all year long. The pale people are the ones who are stuck inside all day doing work—the ones who don’t have enough money to just take a week’s vacation. While looking for a home in Florida to rent with some friends for a week during Spring Break, most of the places were over $1,000. A family living paycheck to paycheck can’t afford to do that. Not only that, but normally tanning sessions are $40 a month, so that adds up in the winter. But our society has become obsessed with being tan—only recently has being pale started to become “in” again. However, hopefully the trend of being pale will continue to increase because researchers have reported that indoor tanning is a direct link to melanoma and is being compared to arsenic (I did a speech persuading people to stop indoor tanning over the summer). But, as much as I am against people putting themselves at that much risk, I love being tan. When you classify a Russian Jewish person, you either sort them into pale skin with dark hair or dark skin with dark hair. In class we talked about our skin color depends on where our ancestors lived. According to my cousin, my relatives emigrated to Russia and Poland from the Middle East more recently than her ancestors, which would explain why I am of the dark-skinned group and she is of the pale-skinned group even though we share blood. Okay, so you’re probably wondering why does that make me love being tan, but it’s because I am naturally tan to begin with. So for me, I feel like I look like I am sick when I am pale, and I hate the feeling. A nice, healthy glow makes me feel both healthier and prettier. I feel like when I am pale the bags under my eyes get so much darker and I look washed out. Plus, there is nothing I like better than lying outside with the sun beating down on my face—my mom tells me I’m like a flower because my face always follows the sun. So this topic is hard for me because I hate how people feel the need to be tan because everyone else Is and society tells us you are better when you are tan, but I love being tan because of the way it makes me feel. Am I just following my own desires or am I subconsciously doing what society tells me? All I know is that whether or not being tan is “in” I know that I love being tan because I like looking healthy and feeling good.
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Tanning. Most teenage girls go through the tanning phase where they feel like they need to be tan to fit in and that being tan means that you’re beautiful. I myself have gone through that phase in high school, especially around Semi-Formal and Prom time. For some reason, girls feel the need to darken their skin to “enhance” their beauty. How did this idea get into our heads? Where did this idea start? I don’t think anyone knows the answer to this question for sure. Tanning is one of the many things that girls (and actually some guys, for that matter) do to change or enhance their looks. Even make-up, for example, is a way in which young girls and women try to change their looks. Why do we do these things? Are we trying to impress ourselves or impress the people around us? Are we secretly looking for approval from others and feel like the only way we can do so is if we are wearing a pound of makeup and look as though we rolled around in orange paint? It’s a sad thought that some girls and even older women aren’t secure enough to show their “real” selves around others. What is the message we are trying to portray to the next generation: that beauty is a processed thing? That there is no such thing as “true beauty”, but only store bought beauty? On another note, most of the practices that women engage in to enhance their looks are detrimental to their health. Tanning, for example, has been linked to a very high risk for skin cancer, among other things such as premature aging. Make-up also causes premature aging if worn too much or too heavily for long periods of time. Some women feel it’s okay to sacrifice health for beauty and that is a very sad thing. We go to so many extremes to try and make ourselves feel better about our looks, even going so far as to permanently change our looks with plastic surgery. Some people feel like they cannot live to their full potential in life if they have a nose they don’t like or breasts that aren’t big enough. They pay thousands upon thousands of dollars to change their natural selves into something artificial and almost “plastic”. Beauty is a hard thing to describe, and it is very true that it is in the eye of the beholder. So as much as we bake ourselves in ovens to change the color of our skin, and as much as we spend hundreds of dollars on make-up to try to change our facial appearance, and as much as we spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to permanently change our appearance with plastic surgery, sometimes we are still not satisfied. And many people wonder why that is, but to me it’s obvious. If you’re not happy with yourself to begin with, you will never be satisfied unless you learn to love yourself, as cliché as that may sound. Beauty comes from within and needs to be realized before it’s too late.
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Ever since the beginning of society, people have wanted to show their wealth through their appearances and how they carried themselves. Whether it’s from learning to walk with books flat on their head for straight posture or by wearing elegant fabrics, appearances have always, and will continue, to matter in society. To me, it is definitely not surprising there has been a new turn in the way people want to display their wealth: through the color of their skin.
When the United States began to turn towards skin color as a factor which can display wealth, no one said anything about racism. The only people that spoke up about this growing trend negatively were people who were well aware of the damage that could be caused from the sun and artificial light. The trend with darker skin in United States society probably started from people of affluence being able to have the time and/or money to travel to places in the sun when their hometown was experience colder months. This trend grew rapidly, whether that was the initial start of it or not, and became sort of a status symbol.
Now I find it interesting that people with naturally tan or dark skin in other countries throughout the world are looking to bleach or lighten their skin, and subsequently, the trend has been ostracized as being racist. Similar to the trend that took over the United States, this trend has a goal to display affluence. Just like the video stated in the previous blog, people now have disposable income which they can spend on items to display their wealth. Skin whitening crèmes just happens to be the new trend in their culture. Although the commercial shown for these skin whitening crèmes does seem much more extravagant with its “promises” of results, the basic idea is still the same. In the United States, tan skin is in while in countries with tan skin, white skin is in.
There has also always been a mystique which came along with having skin color different than the “norm” in an area. In the United States, typically people with tan or darker skin carry a certain presence with them which is desirable to those who do not have darker skin. Although I have never been to another country (besides Canada, which does not have substantially different ideals than us), I would assume this same basic idea occurs in all countries. Interestingly, I have never heard anyone call the United State’s craze for darker skin racist, which to me means that it would not be fair to call out other nations’ trend for lighter skin. Appearance is very important, no matter the country. All areas of the world carry themselves in different manners with certain fashion trends which are not always popular in other areas. I do not think it is fair to call the skin lightening trend racist, just like I would not call the United State’s trend for skin darkening racist.
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I find the use of tanning in this country weird. The U.S. has the lost grips on what reality really is. People use tanning as a means of perfecting their body image and improving there self confidence about there body. What!!!!!! When has it been for cool to start deceiving yourself and people with an image that you didn’t naturally obtain. What ever happen to being proud of what you have and not idealizing the feature that other people have?? Oh yeah I forgot that people are forgetting there no such thing as a perfect body. I feel that the media and parent are not doing there jobs to direct the minds of the youth about body image. I saw a story on the news about a mom teaching here teenage daughter hot to sun bathe, using cooking oil as sun block a couple months ago. The reason why the was her daughter how to do this was because she want her daughter to feel preety This country is a very informative in term of how to taking care of the body, but yet no one listens to warning about effect of tanning. Why is is cool to jeopardize your health Human being body are not meant to spend long period of time in direct sun light. In matter of fact the proteins that make up the skin start to denature at 50 degree under direct exposure to UV rays. ligh
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Tanning always struck me as one of the many things I will never be able to do. My skin could very well count as albino in some parts. However, aside from its cruel mocking of my genetics and casting the sun as my immortal enemy, tanning always struck me as something people did to show how leisurely they are. Or something to that effect. I argue this mainly because full body tans which require significant amount of effort to obtain and maintain are considered “attractive”. By most standards. Yet farmers tans, blue collar tans, ect, aren’t considered a symbol of attraction, in fact I generally hear people admit they have one as a a sort of guilty secret. At least people whom I consider to care about their looks. I’m not sure why farmers tans aren’t considered attractive, unlike a full body tan. I’m sure I’ll hear a lot of reasons for why one is better than the other. But from where I’m standing (pale) it seems that its a case issue, and maybe a race issue as well.
It says something to me that what is considered beautiful by a majority of people comes from essentially emulating a darker skin race. Entirely. Granted, I could be over thinking the issue but I could construct a fairly logical argument stating that white people associate darker skin with leisure and so on and so forth. I just can’t imagine working that hard on some aesthetic if it weren’t for either a social message. I wear suits to job interviews, because I’m trying to make a point about who I am to my employer. Just considering the way I hear Hispanics being talked about as lazy and steal our “American” jobs. It vaguely reminds me of urban wear, for people middle class and up. Pre-ripped, pre-faded, and designed to make someone look like they aren’t living in a wealthy neighbor hood. The person with the tan, while they know it or not, is indicating that they aren’t hard working and can spend vast amounts of hours harnessing skin cancer rays.
I am a big fan of the writer Richard K Morgan, if only for the fact I can use this example constantly. In his book, market forces, a major trend in the book is to look poor if you’re rich. The example is a guy who in this world retains having glasses even though lazer eye surgery is easy, effective, and readily available to the well off. Yet, this guy, keeps the glasses. Its this idea of poor chic. Or lower class chic. This emulation of a poorer social group isn’t malicious, at least from where I stand, its just that these issues seem to all go together to make it an interesting race issue. Not racist.
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We are all born with a certain skin color and I’m sure there is a naturalistic reason for us being born with that pigmentation. The reason would be that the skin tone you are born with came from generations of human evolution and adaptation to our environment. The region where your ancestors and mine spent the majority of the time building their lives influenced the physiological make up of them and their descendents (us). Meaning if your ancestors lived closer to the equator where the sun was a constant presence and the heat was always a factor then their skin pigmentation would be on the darker side because the extra melanin in their skin was a natural barrier to the sun’s UV Rays, thus protecting them from harm. Now the further you move away from the equator the lighter the skin tone becomes because the sun is not an ever present factor as it was before so there is no need for that extra melanin thus having lighter skin is the result. With this being known, why do we still go through the painstaking and at times deadly process of attempting to change the skin we are in? Attempting to either move more towards the light or more towards the dark. The only answer I can think of is the sociological pressure of being perfect in the eyes of our peers and usually steps of attaining that perfection are seeded in superficial values such as the perfect skin tone. The shocker is that there isn’t a perfect skin tone. Your pigmentation—as I’ve said before—coincides with your environment, err, coincided with the environment of your ancestors. Attempting to change that pigmentation just about means you’re slapping your ancestors in the face; truly just disrespecting and disregarding the natural process of survival. Many of us don’t consider this when we are using those whitening creams or spending the whole day sweltering in the sun. What we are thinking about, once again, is getting that perfect skin color so we go to all sorts of extremes to acquire that perfection. The thing is white skin isn’t perfect, dark skin of any shade isn’t perfect either and orange skin is most assuredly not perfect. I can’t imagine having the complexion of a pumpkin being attractive. Now while many white people tan for the aesthetics, many people of color use whitening agents as a means to gain acceptance and to gain a more comfortable position (usually financial) in the society. It’s sad that some individuals of color would believe that the only way of making it “made” in the world would be to have lighter skin. What’s even sadder is that in some circumstances this warped way thinking turns out to be correct. It shows just how screwed up our society is as a result of the racial issues—both past and present—that have led these to such superficial and detestable values, leaving many of us with no sense of worldly respect and/or understanding.
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In my life i had the chance to meet people from different culture and different countries with different skin color. Me myself I have a prospective that each one has the skin color that suits him. Although I like my brown skin, I prefer to have it darker. I used to go tanning with my friends just because I always wanted to be like Bounce. I feel it’s really attractive to have a bronze skin color. Well, back home; the United Arab Emirates, the sun really burns the skin and very easy to get tanned so quickly. Because of that I always go tanning. Also many foreigners who come to visit my country, tanning would be one of their entertainments.
Even though people are familiar with the disadvantages of exposing to the sun for a long time, the only thing they care about is beauty. I was really wondering why many people like to have the dark skin color??? I thought about how we think about white people. Many people think that white skin is not any more a beauty, so that they go tanning in the beach. The most interesting thing I have ever heard from one of my friends, some “ Tanholik ” go to tanning beds in the winter so they can keep their skin tanned the whole year. They also know that these tanning beds emit UV radiations which really harm the human body. But what’s really funny, they give you a tanning goggle not to have the radiation reaches the eye. They left the whole body and care about the eyes. Everyone think they don’t have enough beauty, so they search for a solution to be beautiful.
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Let me just get something off my chest. I am pale. Not albino pale but because my ancestors decided to reside in Norway among the ice and snow, I am cursed with being white and pastey 9 months out of the year. I understand the dangers of constant tanning such as skin cancer and severe sun burn but these are dangers that I tend to ignore between the months of May and August. I know these are dangerous because my grandmother had skin cancer just a few years ago. I just feel that when I have a nice golden tan (It is physically impossible for me to reach a dark brown) that I have higher confidence and I look the best that I can possibly look. Last week I wrote about how ridiculous it was for dark skinned people to try to alter their skin tones through creams or surgery. Now I feel like the world’s biggest hypocrite. I never thought about it from their prospective. Maybe darker skinned people wish to be lighter just like the millions of people who flock to the Jersey Shore every summer dousing themselves in baby oil and laying out in the sand for days at a time. Now I realize maybe it isn’t racist that skin whiteners promote being whiter, just like during the summer we see advertisements from Hawaiian Tropic telling us the latest formula to achieve that much sought after dark brown glow.
I think that the real problem is actually that the majority of human beings are so insecure of themselves that we feel the need to transform our skin tone to whatever is “popular”. If people could only find the confidence to be happy with their God given appearance, maybe it would be contagious. Not only with skin color, but also body shape, height and a million other things. Imagine you are at your local grocery store patiently waiting in line to check out. You look over to the magazine stand and instead of seeing Lindsay Lohan or some other manufactured drug addicted pop star, you see a 300 pound man pale as a ghost lying on the beach. The real message I am trying to get out is that skin isn’t the only issue. People will always judge each other and this will always lead to people hurting/starving themselves trying to achieve that perfect look. Unless people can overcome their insecurities it really doesn’t matter what their trying to change or distort. In the meanwhile I will be lying on the beach trying to get every last drop of those UV rays to add just a bit of color to my milky white skin. Hey, I said people had to change, but I’m not leading the change.
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The other day my roommate turned to me and said, “I can’t believe we haven’t been tanning at all this semester! That’s crazy, we’re doing so well!” Unfortunately, a month of not tanning at Penn State is actually doing well for us. Last year we all had tanning packages at Hollywood Tans. It cost us $40 a month for three months. We had this package for the majority of the school year. None of us have jobs at school, only the money we made over the summer at our various jobs, one of those jobs being working at a tanning salon. So why did we convince ourselves that spending money we didn’t really have on tanning packages was okay? My roommates and I are intelligent girls who are well aware of the negative repercussions that tanning has on our bodies. Yet we didn’t care. We wanted to look and feel better because tanning has that affect. When I’m tan I truly believe that my clothes look better, I have to wear less makeup and my facial features are more prominent. But this is just me defending a bad habit. Cancer tears families apart and kills so many people. So why would I voluntarily do something to myself that I knowingly could get cancer from? To me, tanner skin is more aesthetically beautiful than pale white skin but vanity should never come before health. It all comes down to comparison to others and the constant desire for perfection. At Penn State and I’m sure schools around the country, there is a high standard of beauty for girls to live up to. Being tan is definitely a quality that guys look for in girls even though this is completely superficial. We just convince ourselves that skin cancer won’t happen to us and we won’t go tanning after college so it’s okay. It’s really not okay because girls tan in high school and middle school too. When is the obsession with how we look going to stop? Why do we always want what we can’t have? The media and our society teaches girls at a young age what is beautiful. Even if magazines feature articles on how bad tanning is and how “pale is the new tan,” the majority of girls would agree that being tan is favorable to being pale. Tan is sexy, pale is sickly. On the other hand, I also thought it was weird that black people would buy whitening creams to lighten their skin. I wish we lived in a society where sin color just absolutely did not matter at all, but unfortunately I don’t think that is ever going to be completely possible. There will always be judgments made and close-minded people that cannot see the world without seeing skin color.
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As a white person I have never thought of my skin tone as too pale or that I needed to be tanner, I’ve always been content. I’m also not an advocate of people who tan excessively when they know it can cause skin poisoning and even eventual skin cancer. This summer though, I worked on the beach as a lifeguard and obviously being in the sun all day, I became tan as hell. It sounds queer but for the first time I realized it was kind of sweet being tan, and I mean Italian tanner then other white people tan. I embraced it…and dare I say loved it for some weird reason. Here at Penn State though, the happy valley doesn’t always have the best of weather and make it hard sometimes to find a nice day. The nice summer tans dwindle, so I understand why people enjoy being tan but I don’t understand how they can willingly force themselves to go tanning just to burn as much as naturally possible. How do people pay money over and over again to keep a steady “bronze”, when really the tanning salons are just turning peoples skin color into a burnt orange glow? Peoples skin pigments are all different and many people aren’t predisposed to getting a lot of sun exposure to their skin, so why force it? Here at Penn State, where the weather is always overcast to say the least, countless people go tanning all throughout the year to feel as though they are acceptable amongst our American college culture. It almost turns into an addiction where they don’t ever want to loss the satisfaction they get out of being tan. Thousands of years ago the whiter/paler the individual the more beautiful and sophisticated they were portrayed. Higher-class individuals many times were more obese showing that they had wealth. In our current culture the skinnier and tanner you are the more “respect” you get.
I had no idea and never would have thought that a skin whitening cream existed. I’m guessing Michael Jackson was hooked on that. In the same sense that people go tanning to get darker I could understand why people of other cultures, especially in Asia, would use creams to try and whiten their skin. Maybe in there culture some feel more comfortable the whiter they appear.
When it comes down to it who cares what our skin colors are, we were all created equal and with equally different skin tones. If someone feels they are too pale or too dark and decide to change that in whatever way they see fit then they should be able to. If people know the consequences of trying to alter your skin color then who’s to stop them, it’s not illegal. Everyone’s going to have their own opinions and that’s just human nature everyone has their own views.
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I feel that the extremities that people go through in order to either darken or lighten their skin, is a saddening reflection on societies views about beauty. It seems that the people that make it their mission to alter their complexion, fail to stop and think about the consequences they will be presented with for their actions. When they lay out in the sun without sunscreen or lay in tanning beds regularly for long periods of time, they don’t realize that what they’re essentially doing is baking themselves. When one regularly does these actions they are setting themselves up for premature aging, burning, sun poisoning, and skin cancer, all because some people with lighter pigmentation don’t believe they are beautiful as they are. They call their pale skin “pasty” and “ugly”.
White people are not the only people that struggle to embrace they’re natural skin complexions. Some minorities suffer with the same issues of insecurity but in reverse. They don’t view their naturally darker hues as beautiful. Unlike white people who will go out of their way to take in the suns U.V. rays, minorities will sometimes make it their mission to avoid them in fair of darkening their complexion. Some even go as far as purchasing dangerous skin bleaching kits to lighten their skin because they feel that dark skin is not what the world envisions as beautiful. It’s amazing how contradictive two communities can be on the discussion of beauty.
This extreme behavior makes me wonder, “is skin color really that important?” What I find interesting about this is that the saying the phrase “someone once told me the grass is much greener on the other side” comes to mind when I think of this issue. People with kinky/curly hair wish they had straight hair, and people with straight hair wish they had kinky/curly hair. It’s human nature to sometimes envy the characteristics and traits of others, which we do not possess. The rules of beauty, which different communities inflict upon each other, are absolutely ridiculous. It’s almost as if people are blind to the fact that somebody in the world is envious of their features. White people want black features, and black people want white features.
When people go to extremes to alter their appearance in the name of vanity, it does not speak favorably about their confidence. It’s unfortunate that human beings never seem to be satisfied with their appearance. As a result the world of cosmetics rakes in billions of dollars each year because people aren’t happy with the way they were born. Some individuals would go as far as risking losing their lives than to be safe by properly taking care of and embracing the skin they were blessed with.
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This journal is in response to two blogs: the one on skin whitening and the one on tanning. I’m glad that both blogs were posted back to back because it shows that no matter how different people may look, we are all the same. Isn’t it funny how people with dark skin and people with light skin strive to change themselves? No one can be happy with what God gave them and everyone always wants what someone else has. These two entries show that this is a sad but common theme that links different people together.
The first blog entry spoke about the clearly racist message that the skin whitening companies are sending to the public in India. When I saw the commercial for the skin-whitening product in the video clip, I was completely shocked. How could a company blatantly advertise that they think dark skin makes you less beautiful? Did they really try and say that having dark skin is something that you should change? I found that offensive, and more importantly, I think it’s a false statement. Having white skin does not make you a better looking person. I believe that you were born with a certain skin color because that is what fits you and that’s what you were made to look like. How dare those advertising companies try and influence people to change themselves just so they can make money. I think that these ads and products are using people’s insecurities just to make a quick buck. It makes me worried that self-conscious pre-teens and teenagers could be watching this. If they have dark skin, their self-confidence may go down and that puts them at risk for many issues. These companies are encouraging people to feel bad about themselves and promoting the idea that their product can make life better. I also think that these products probably don’t work and if they do work, there is no way that they are good for your skin. How can anything that removes pigmentation from your body be healthy?
On the other side of the spectrum are the processes used to darken your skin. I’m glad that there is enough evidence to prove that tanning,, whether natural or artificial, is absolutely not good for you. It is proven to put you at a higher risk for skin cancer, yet people still do it. They justify this by saying that they just want to glow and look healthier. I compare tanning to smoking: people know it’s bad for them and causes cancer, yet they still continue to do it. In my opinion, tanning is much easier to stop than smoking is. I really hope that all of these people addicted to tanning realize that they are damaging their skin. Even if they look “more beautiful” now, by the time they are 50 years old they will look like they are 65 because of the skin damage! If you are pale and have very light skin, you should accept the fact that it is part of what makes you beautiful!
I really wish that everyone would stop thinking about their own “faults” and take a look around. Maybe white people should stop and realize that there are people who are dark that are trying to bleach their skin. Conversely, why don’t dark skinned people stop to think that white people are giving themselves cancer just to look dark? Obviously there is something appealing about light and dark skin if people are doing crazy things to try and change themselves. Whichever color you are, you should realize that there is someone in the world who wants what you have!
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The policy of tanning has always been intriguing to me. I have never gone to a tanning salon before and I never intend to either. I would consider myself to be fairly pale. I just find it interesting that people are willing to pay money to waste their time being “baked” in a tanning bed. I have no problem being pale and if people really care about my pale skin, then they are shallow and they are not people I want to associate with anyway. I understand people feel that being tan is more attractive, but all it is doing is showing that people are insecure with the way that they look. Tanning is not necessary and I really think people need to become more comfortable in their own skin and not worry about what others think. I understand that some people believe that looking pale is not a good look, but honestly tanning just seems like a waste of time and health.
I know a lot of people that do go to tanning beds and tan in the summer as well. A lot of the ones that go to the tanning beds often come back with an orange complexion. I would rather be pale than have an orange complexion. I have seen many people around campus in the winter and they stand out because they have an orange complexion. They do stand out, but it is not in a good way. Tanning just seems like it is not worth the time and health one often gives up. If a person is pale, who cares? It is not a big deal at all. When it comes down to it, I think everyone is unhappy with at least something about the way that they look, but it is up to us to live with it and move on with our lives.
Similarly, the idea of skin whiteners also seems ridiculous. Trying to whiten your skin just sounds wrong to me. Why is it that people feel the need to look a certain way? What is so wrong with the way we are? There is no need to ever feel inferior just because your skin is not the “ideal” look as others. People need to have a better outlook on life and realize that skin color is something we should not have to worry about. It is something we should just accept and move on with our lives. Putting creams or laying in a tanning bed or outside for hours just doesn’t make sense. All of these practices just seem very unhealthy and wrong. It just shows that we put more focus on impressing others that worrying about ourselves. We should see ourselves in a higher light and try to become unique by staying away from these skin changing practices.
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The reason that all of this lighting and darkening of skin color is about people idea of self worth. In the societies the skin color that people want is the one that is seen as the coolest. In other countries people of lighter color is seen as more important and superior than all other. While on the other hand in America black people are seen as the in race so people who are insecure about them self try to emulate them. That is why this entire skin coloring is happening. I have people in my school who all through the winter tan just so they in there own mind look good. While to them self they look good to other people who have darker skin color they look funny because they just look orange. To me personally one of the funniest thing to see is a girl walking around orange thinking their greatest thing in the world. I personally don’t think people need to change their skin color. Just do it the old fashion way of staying in the sun or staying out of it. I also wonder what happening with the want of people to skin would color if the race in charge changed if in America when white people became the minority race. Will they become cool and everyone will try to stay out of the sun and get lighter? People should just like being the race that they are and if they don’t like the race that they are then gain power and make then the top race then everyone will want to become like them. I know that this means of getting color acceptance is harder then just wiping a lotion over the body. This all seems to be connected to the self esteem of the people. If people were happy with who they are then people wouldn’t worry so much about their skin color. That is human nature to try to blend in the group that is in control. It also seems that’s the color choice is based on the status of the nation. If it’s an industrialized nation then the culture is more focused on darkening because it’s more of a rarity while in third world nations or developing nations the goal is become lighter because it is a rarity in those types of nations. This is what will make the date of 2050 interesting because it’s the date for white people to finally become a minority. Will the trend change to something else? While black people start to try to lighten and white people stay out of light like emo teenagers. I person would think I would be proud to say that I say this change of mind set in society.
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Personally, I am a fairly tan person. Even when I am at my “whitest” I seem to have a tan compared to most of my friends. I am from Louisville, Kentucky where everyone is outside at the pool or going to the lake all summer to get tan. And when the winter rolls around everyone runs to the closest artificial sunlight they can find. I never used to be one of those girls who went to the tanning booths, I was always had a really nice tan from being outside and going on vacation. However, that wasn’t from lack of trying. Often times I would totally by pass the sun tan lotion and go straight for tanning oil. Which I know had to have been terrible for my skin especially when I vacationed with my family down in the Caribbean. I do not know why I thought it would be a good idea to forego the sun tan lotion and roll with straight oil, I guess I have always just wanted to have an awesome tan. I do not know where that spawned from seeing as neither one of my parents pushed me to be tan. I can think of two reasons I always wanted to be tan. The main reason is because I like the way I look when I am tan. Call me vain, fake, artificial whatever you will, but that is just my opinion, I think I look much better with a tan glow than pale white skin. Secondly I think the people I grew up around had an influence on my wanting to be tan. I went to an all girls catholic high school, and you can only imagine the things that went on in that school. Being tan was one thing everyone wanted to be. Although I did not start artificially tanning until I came to college, I think secretly I always wished I could have gone while I was in high school. Once I came to college in this lovely town, I quickly realized you could count the sunny days on one hand. I am a firm believer of the so called “winter blues” and that is one reason I started tanning. I missed the sunshine and the warm weather, and being tan, so one way to fix that problem is to go tanning. It feels great, it is an escape from the cold gloomy days, you feel amazing like you are on the beach while you are tanning, and you come out with a slight tan tint. I do not see any real problem with tanning, and I am definitely not trying to be black, or any other race for that matter, I just like have a little darker tint to my skin, and I like the way the tanning bed makes me feel. As far as skin whitening creams and treatments go. I had never really heard about it, except from what I knew about Michael Jackson until I came to this class. I don’ t really understand them, why do people want to be whiter? I guess it is extremely hypocritical of me, but you should be happy the way you are, or I guess do what makes you feel good? If dark people want to use skin whitening creams because that is what makes them happy, then go for it, and I will continue to go to the tanning bed, speaking of which The Bronze is calling my name.
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Yes, it is very clear and evident, that the word “racist” is overused. Now, I do believe that there are indeed people who are racist and a have an extreme hatred for no “real” reason. I think this will always be the case. Yes, in a perfect world, racism would not have to exist. But we also don’t live in a perfect world. I am going to use two blog posts to respond to, I feel these two are very similar, but also bring different issues to the table. Skin whitening, I find very odd. I can see the need to be “whiter” to both be accepted and to avoid discrimination. Do the risks outweigh the reward? Isn’t this sometimes one of the questions we must ask our self when we make decisions. Personally, my skin is very white, and I wish I could darken/tan my skin, so I don’t look like a ghost walking around campus. I prefer to be easy on the eyes instead of reflecting light, as if I were a mirror. This blog post mentions that the definition of racism, does not specify a race as racist or exempt from racism. This is a very interesting point. Typically, someone tagged racist, is white and makes a comment that is deemed racist. We have learned this semester that people choose to be offended. Yes, sometimes white people will say some hurtful comments and the quick and easy response is to call it racists. Now, people of color, can say things too that can be identified as racist and don’t admit that they are being racists as well. Skin whitening can be dangerous, and you’re right we cannot legislate this. It would be the same if we made tanning or bronzer illegal. People still have the freedom to make their own decisions, good or bad. I am all for the choice of individual, even of things I am sure are wrong. “Different strokes, for different folks”, seems to align with that pretty well. The funny thing is these people are trying to be similar and use that need to damage their skin and their health. Maybe, one day being white won’t be the way people want to look. Everyone is looking to be different and stand out, in some way. Even the people, who seem to be very main stream, will still seek something that will make them different. This is natural and just shows their level of comfort with whom they are. There is nothing wrong with different, whether that is based on race, orientation, hobbies, and interests. Again, we need to celebrate differences and individual views. I believe we are stronger together, but still need the different people to bring different perspectives to everyone.
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I am one of the people that swelter in the hot summer heat trying to attain a darker skin color. Being posed the question of why white people do this?…I have no idea. I guess the reason I would say that I do it is because it is what is more attractive (but the reason I think that is because its what the current trends have dictated.) I don’t think a society as whole has created this idea of a darker skin being more pleasing. Rather, I think the reason white people have followed this trend is because trend setters heading the fashion industry decided tan skin is another trendy thing to be. Just like anorexic skinny models have been glorified as the ideal body.
Ironically, all these new trends would’ve been considered hideous a few hundred years ago. Behind pale meant that you weren’t working out in the fields, suggesting you were of a higher class. In addition, being fatter meant that you were also of a higher class because you could afford enough food to keep yourself full.
It is interesting that our society encourages the unhealthier side of the spectrum in most physical attributes. I think there is a prime tone to be though. Being fake orange from tanning spray or a tanning bed is looked down upon. I think it might all just be a ploy to get people to spend more money; whether it be on tanning salon, or vacations to the beach. Making a look be almost unattainable, people will try anything and spend lots of money to feel better about themselves. I also think its just human nature that whatever we’re dealt in life, we automatically believe that we need more, or something different. Its just common to be dissatisfied with what you’re given. A gorgeous girl will always think that someone else is more gorgeous and vice versa.
Views on the subject are also very different depending on the generation. Whenever I go to the pool with my mom’s side of the family, I have my grandmother there to pester me about putting sunscreen on. The difference is that when she was growing up, they didn’t know about the harmful effects of UV rays, and as a result, a lot of her generation have ended up with melanoma and other skin diseases. Its odd that we are so concerned with our beauty in the present, but as a result, let our beauty for the future fall by the way side. Even with all this information at my fingertips, I fail to change my habits. My mom discourages me from going to tanning beds, and yet, being away at college, I am tempted. I don’t know what it is that makes us unhappy with ourselves and so reckless with our bodies, and I don’t understand it at all, and yet, to change-seems impossible.
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Unfortunately I am no stranger to tanning. I have gone many times before. However, I am by no means like those crazy people who go every other day, turning themselves orange and wasting hundreds of dollars at the tanning salon.
When I used to go tanning I would go for a special occasion. My first tanning experience is sad, disgusting and entirely true. My family and I, yes, my mom, dad, and sister, all went to Hollywood Tan before my Bat Mitzvah. I was in the seventh grade and we all thought it would be nice to be tan for the picture. We did it maybe three times and to be honest we all looked great. I continued to randomly tan, maybe twice during the entire school year until Prom season. For both my Junior and Senior Prom I did go tanning, in addition to the many hours I would spend lounging around the pool at my friends’ houses. I knew it was bad for me, all my friends knew, but it didn’t stop us. Some of my friends tanned way too much and often approached the crazy orange glow, but that was never me.
Thinking about my history with tanning and what you said in your blog makes absolutely no sense. I’m white, I am a white girl that often will go on vacation and come back looking like I could possibly be a different nationality, and in our society, that is beautiful. Yes high fashion models may have that creepy pale look going for them but in general those who strive for “perfection” prefer it tanned. To think that people of darker races and skin tones would prefer the opposite, that’s crazy.
I believe it comes down to society and its never ending want and need to change something. I believe no one, in any culture is every truly satisfied with themselves or their self -image. Why do you think we have crazy plastic surgery and fad diets? Although people would not group tanning and major plastic surgery in the same category they really are the same. It’s changing something about yourself to become what others consider beautiful. In addition, with recent studies and statistics, tanning is just as dangerous if not more dangerous than plastic surgery. I believe I heard something in the news earlier in the school year about tanning raising your risk of skin cancer by 38%!
Since hearing this news I have not gone to the tanning salon, however my aunt did purchase me self -tanner from QVC. I have used it and like it. Its definitely safer and maybe some day I will be able to put down the bottle of self tanner and just be happy pale; and the same goes for those of dark skin tone trying to turn themselves whiter.
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It really is true that we are never satisfied with what we have. This is especially true in the materialistic, vain world that we live in. I will admit that I like to get a tan in the summer. I personally think that I look better with a tan. I do not go to tanning salons during the winter, but the main reason I chose not to do so is because I hate the smell of the salons. Even so, my sisters and I would still spend hours out on our deck putting oil and lotion on our bodies and laying the sun. And then at the end of the day it would be like a contest to see who had gotten the darkest or the strongest tan lines. My younger sister has a lot of Irish in her, and her fair skin just won’t tan. She gets so annoyed that her summer tan was usually equivalent to the color of my skin mid February. I think that while white people do enjoy the fact that their skin gets darker in the summertime, I wouldn’t necessarily say that we are trying to emulate black people. I think that bottom line, white people look better with a tan, myself included. Even knowing what I do know, which is that tanning strongly increases the risk of skin cancer I still love spending hours in the sun. I suppose that it is just like any other bad habit. You know it is bad for you, yet you continue to do it anyways.
The issue of “skin darkening” is kind of just the tip of the ice burg. There are so many different beauty products out on the market designed to change your appearance. And we, as consumers, totally buy into it. Although, I think this applies mainly to girls and women. For instance, if you don’t live in a sunny place or have the money to go to the tanning salon, just buy some sunless tanner. Also, women dye their hair to different colors and spend hours either flat ironing or curling our hair. We can buy colored contacts to change our eye color and special toothpaste to whiten teeth. And don’t forget about the cosmetic industry. And those are only the skin-deep things! In today’s culture, if you don’t like something about your body, it can be changed through plastic surgery. Have a big nose? Its okay, just go buy a new one. It just all seems a little silly if I really stop and think about it.
Even with all of that being said, I know that nothing is going to change come Friday night, when I flat iron my hair straight, put on make up, and wear outrageously uncomfortable heels, because it will make me feel better about myself. Oh, the things we do for beauty.
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I was very surprised to learn that people in other countries buy skin whitening cream as a cosmetic product for beauty. It seems so odd because white people try to darken their skin for a perfect bronze tan. I guess I never really realized how envied my skin color is to other people. At the same time I spend a lot of time in the sun during the summer and usually build up a good tan that I think makes me look more attractive. It seems that most people are always trying to change their appearance to what they think will make them most beautiful. I do not think there is anything wrong with trying to be better. I think the issue is that too often people are unhappy with their appearance, and for the case of many worldwide, it is to make their skin look lighter. But for people who already have white skin, they want to look darker, because they are trying to look better. I never understood why people go to tanning beds when it makes their skin appear orange. I am willing to speculate that these people are not happy with their skin color because they try to change it so drastically that it ends up making them look worse (of course this is my personal opinion, maybe some people actually like looking orange). I have always thought that it is natural for people to want to change the way they look to become more attractive. This is why darker skinned people want lighter skin. This is why lighter skinned people want darker skin. They do this because it is a way for them to change their appearance, to feel like they are doing something to become a better person, a more beautiful person. I think everybody has some self doubt about their appearance, because as humans we compare ourselves to one another. It is natural to see somebody else and want a part of his or her physical features for yourself. I see no problem with this. It becomes a problem when people are damaging themselves to attain beauty. This is why it is puzzling that white people significantly increase their chances of skin disease just to appear darker. Moderation is key here. While I never expected there to be skin whitening cream, I really cannot say that I see anything wrong or weird about using it. These people just want to look better, but it is important they are doing it for themselves and not for other people. I guess the way I see it, there is nothing wrong with wanting to change your skin color, but there is something wrong with hurting yourself or losing your identity to make that change happen.
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I think so much of what people “want” or think they “want” has to do with the media, and what is put in front of us and told “this is beautiful”. The long nails with white tips? Beautiful. Skinny bodies where bones can be seen? Beautiful. We are constantly being told by society and by the media what is “in” or “out” or what is “hot” or “not.” Tanning goes right along with that. Everywhere you look in the media, there are beautiful girls with this tanned skin. The celebrities are tan and glowing, the exotic super models are tan and glowing and the next thing you know, you look in the mirror in the dead of winter in good ole Happy Valley, and within seconds you’re on your way to The Bronze or Hollywood Tans. The tanning industry makes million, banking of off girls just like me who see there skin getting lighter and lighter, and have it in our heads that we look so much better tan.
Where does that idea come from though? that tan is more beautiful than pale? Before, if your skin was tan, that meant that you worked outside because you didn’t have enough money to hire workers. A tan back then was negative and made you seem poor, same as in the Asian culture. Same goes for skinny women. Before, skinny was seen as you did not have enough money to eat, and the more curves you had, the more money you had. When did these ideas all shift?
Many Asian girls walk around with umbrellas on a sunny day because they do not want their skin to get darker. I remember having a friend of mine who was going to visit her grandparents (she was Asian) and she said she had to stay out of the sun for a while. She said they would have been furious because she had gotten so much darker. Why do we love the color and other people want to stay light?
And with the health risks! It’s ridiculous. With the studies these days, it’s more dangerous to go tanning than to inject yourself with poision! Yet just a few days ago I was complaining to my friend about how pale I was and how I just NEEEDED to go tanning.
Its funny because its also not just girls- its guys too. Not the guys tend to be like “lets go tanning” type, but because they notice the difference too. Whenever I’m tan my boyfriend always comments how good it looks, or in the summer when I’d come back from the beach and he’d say “You look so tan! It looks great!”
Skin whiteners seem absolutely crazy to me! I know nothing about them, or if they have any health risks but its funny to think that these people who gorgeous tans that any girl who tans would love to have, would trade their bronzy skin for our pasty white skin anyday. Hey, I guess it goes to show the grass is always greener on the other side.
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I love this blog because it basically talks about me. I want to say I really like being tan. I consider myself tan than other people in my race. My status being tan started from 3 years ago. I went to both elementary and middle school in Korea. All the teenagers wanted to be white and so did I. I have so many funny stories about me trying to be white. (not like racial white but brighter so I would look like I have a good and young-looking skin) Before me and my friends had lunch, we washed our faces and put whitening lotion on our faces. When Dr. Richards showed the whitening lotion advertisement during the class, I was like ‘Oh, that’s the lotion I used to use!!’ It was both hilarious and interesting when he even tried to find out if that lotion was really effective or not. Oh well, those lotions are mostly temporary. It only worked about an hour for me. I originally have darker skin color than my peers so that might’ve been the reason why it was that temporary. Just like westerners want to be tanner, easterners want to be whiter in the same way.
I personally don’t think that people shouldn’t be tanning. If that is the social trend and if people want to go with the flow, they should be able to what they want to do. I easily get tanner extremely easily than others for lying under the sun for only several minutes. So I get the same amount of tanning as others lying under the sun for over thirty minutes. The reason that I am agreeing with tanning probably is because I get tan without stress. It is little childish of me to think this way but people who are not likely to be tan don’t understand and criticize about people who go tanning.
Honestly, I’ve never been to a tanning shop before. The tan I got is all from nature. (I’m not saying it’s still good though.) I did outdoor track and went to beaches. I wouldn’t say the way that I got tan is very proper, but people shouldn’t be mocking for that. Agreeing with tanning on one side of my brain, I still think peoples shouldn’t be too insane about it. For those people who go tanning regularly, they should be ready for the skin cancer. They shouldn’t be making any excuses or regrets when they face the following consequences.
I definitely feel confident and skinny when I am tan. And being tan seems like being more of me now and became part of my life I would say. I still think being tan is totally up to that person who are responsible for the circumstances.
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I just don’t get why people can’t be happy with their bodies. Tanning has been proven to cause skin cancer and yet people still do it. I guess it’s similar to the idea that people still smoke even though it kills people. Body image is a subject that I don’t think we have fully faced the issue of body image in our society. I mean girls the ages of eight are going to tanning beds. Women still starve themselves to emulate the images they see in magazines and on television. However, this isn’t a new phenomenon. Whatever the desired appearance of the time, people adapt to it. For instance, women during the 16th century used to put deadly nightshade in their eyes to dilate their pupils because dark eyes were considered beautiful. Women also use to put arsenic on their skin to make it lighter. It’s interesting because as other cultures use skin lightening creams, white people are trying to become tanner. I have very pale skin, and while sometimes I would like to have a golden tan, I have embraced the fact that I am one of those almost translucent pale people.
I think that people dissociate themselves from their bodies and don’t really think about what these things do to them. It seems that people are never happy with what they are given. I was watching Cho Revolution the other day, and Margaret Cho has some interesting experiences with both race and body image. She discussed everything in her comedy set from eye widening surgery and eating disorders to the racism she has endured.
Body image is something created by the media in order to sell products. They make people feel bad about their bodies, fear getting old and fear being left out just so they can sell their products. Throughout time, people have never been satisfied with their bodies, I mean people used to die from misaligned organs from wearing corsets from a young age during the 17th century. All of these fix-yourself remedies don’t actually fix the outside. People try to fix what’s on the outside just to mask how they are feeling on the inside. In society today, people focus on their appearance to avoid dealing with what’s inside.
I’m just as guilty as anyone else. I’ve often gotten sucked into the trends and have often felt insecure about my body, and still do sometimes. People need to start eschewing these sentiments and start to embrace their bodies. Nobody is perfect, not even celebrities and models. It is time to stop putting our bodies through hell and torturing ourselves. People waste so much time worrying about how they look that they aren’t even living their lives anymore, and that is the true loss.
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In response to the article about darkening ones skin, I must say that I am guilty of that. For some reason, I feel like people look better tanner. I love being tan and even spent my money in a tanning salon. Yes, I know it is very stupid, but I still do it. It is an unfortunate aspect of our society that there are various definitions to beautiful. Being tanned in often seen as being more beautiful. However, I feel like this is also a misconception. I never once heard guy’s comments on girls that are tanner are in fact more beautiful. I feel like this concept is embedded in the minds of young girls and they are the ones whom feel prettier when they tan. It has become almost a norm among young females, so if girls see their friends regularly doing it, they feel they should do it too. It is a very strange trend, but has become apart of our society similar to skin whitening in the Asian culture.
The question then remains, why do people try to change or alter what they already have? Why do Asians want white skin so badly that they buy whitening products or why do Americans purchase tanning bed packages? I think it comes to down what society tells a person is beautiful. When the media constantly throws out ads advertising different products eventually people purchase them because it is the norm within their society.
This is absurd to think about because ultimately we are all the same no matter where we come from. It is unfortunate that society provides us with the definition of beauty. We then fall for this and purchase products that really have no significance. Tanning also is extremely absurd to think about because we actually do it knowing the potential after effects. Obviously, I myself is guilty for this as I mentioned earlier. I do not go as often, but I have gone occasionally and they are still open. Also, it is interesting during spring break because the salons are so packed. It is crazy how much money this business makes, even when people know the potential effects. This is similar to and reminds me of smoking. PMUSA is a huge corporation that sells millions of tobacco products each year. Even during this past recession, PMUSA had increasing revenues. Their stock price still continues to rise. It is odd that these dangerous things are still purchased and used by different types of social groups. Although smoking and tanning or different things, they are similar products that are not needed within our everyday life, yet people will purchase them and waste money at the risk of disease in the future.
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I have thought about the incongruities between skin color changing and racism. Light skinned people go to great lengths to be dark. On the other end, dark skinned people try to stay as light a shade as possible. Why is this? And why is one group trying to look like another that they are prejudice against? They are prejudice against the person but not the skin? It all seems so absurd. What and who determines beauty and to what length will people go to conform to this definition?
Summer days are often classified with lying out in the sun…at times for hours. Why? To attain a certain level of beauty that society has established. In addition, during the winter time there is tanning beds and various other lotions, etc. to gain that extra level of a darker shade. These forms of tanning are often very harmful and can lead to skin cancer and other health-related issues. On the other side, dark skinned people purchase skin lightening products, often very expensive, to alter their natural skin color. They apply chemicals capable of changing their skin to themselves! Broken down it sounds dangerous. For example, my Indian roommate stated that at home she was very concerned with getting too dark and even has the creams mentioned. However, in an environment where being dark is considered beautiful, she is not concerned about it. Who is deciding what and who is beautiful?
Is it that people of power are looked at as the way we all should look to make it? The fact that people are harming their bodies for beauty is terrible. When put in context, I am having trouble understanding why I ever laid out to get that perfect tan. I have harmed my skin and body, because society decided that it was beautiful. As if I would be more accepted and acknowledged in better regard for tan skin. What is ridiculous is that I have been complimented! Where is it in our minds that established tan as more attractive? While my dark friends are complimented on being fair skinned. At what point did our minds decide what was pretty. Is beauty something that is taught? Such as fashion and trends, does society simply predict beauty?
I feel as though society largely affects the attitude towards what is accepted and unacceptable. Curly or straight hair? Tall or short? White or black? However, I also feel that there is a part of us that individually assesses what we feel is attractive. I think that is where our tastes and preferences come. However, these may have been aided by our upbringing and general consensus of society. Maybe we all start out with an image and concept of beauty and allow it to be trained and altered by society. In the end what percentage of our original concept remains? It is a very strange and somewhat scary thought. I think it is key to realize the degree that society can influence one’s views and actions. Maybe if we are able to acknowledge the influence, we can then branch out or detach from it to keep our own original thoughts intact.
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I think the biggest thing that influences our feelings and bias is through culture. Different cultures dictate our styles and composure. Big celebrities and styles are always bringing out new fashions and a majority of people will follow it religiously, whether they believe it or not. I think that humans have stooped so low that we cannot even accept what we see in the mirror, and I am not referring to hairstyles or clothes and etc., but the idea of whitening or darkening our skin color at the expense of our health is too much to lose.
Has anyone gone tanning to purposely become darker? Most women are out under the sun trying to become darker. Why? What is seen on television or the movies usually causes people to achieve something that they are not. Women and men are always looking up their favorite star, always copying their looks and style, including skin tone. People will stay under the sun to ‘bake’ themselves to obtain that certain skin tone and some will pay ridiculous amounts of money to go to tanning salons and even spray that tone on their own skins. Staying under the sun for long periods of time soaking up UV rays is definitely detrimental to anyone’s health causing skin cancer.
Besides darkening, Asian countries, especially Korea are the worst when it comes to skin whitening. I am Korean and know that the lighter or ‘whiter’ a person is will show their purity. The lighter skin shows class, money, and purity of a Korean, whereas the darker skin shows some lower class like a worker or farmer, someone who spend most of their time in manual labor. Again, most of all this comes from culture because Korean celebrities are always advertised with lighter skins and styles, so, naturally people will see that and try to obtain that ‘coolness’ to be lighter. Much like the over excessive tanning or use of tanning beds, I believe, that applying some kind of skin whitener has to be just as harmful to the body’s health. It’s causing anyone’s skin to unnaturally become lighter.
The sudden darkening and whitening of skin phenomenon is interesting. People would hurt their skin just to be accepted. Most of our looks is due influence from our local population, like the people in someone’s area or friends. It seems that social acceptance and class is more important than the health of most people these days. I believe many people want to obtain their darker or whiter complexions, but at the cost of a person’s health is just plain stupid, but, again, we live in a culture where looks is as just as important as physical health.
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I am a white female who is very pale in the winter but does tan well in the summer. I get the best of both worlds. I love to lie out on the beach and soak up as much sun as I possibly can. I wear tons of sunscreen but am still lucky enough to get color. I have also had sun poisoning twice which is partially why make sure I keep myself safe. I was never allowed to go to a tanning salon unless it was for an important event of prom but that changed in college as soon as I was on my own. I used to tan religiously but ever since my mom informed me about the new bulbs causing serious health risks, I have stopped. I never would have thought of myself tanning as trying to be someone that I am not. I personally feel better about myself and I think that it hides flaws but that is just my personal take on the whole tanning situation. I find it interesting that in today’s society, wearing sunscreen and basically hiding from the sun is what you are supposed to do in order to keep a healthy looking complexion. The reason I find this interesting is because my mom is very cautious when it comes to the sun and will not even let us on the beach without putting sunscreen on, and she grew up using baby oil on the beach instead of sunscreen. She still has a great complexion for never wearing sunscreen. Growing up a white female has its advantages to a degree even though I never thought about them. One issue in particular deals with many people’s stupidity regarding Michael Jackson’s “white” skin color. Many people live to believe he thought maybe he would have better luck being famous or sell more records being white, but little did they know he suffered from a skin disease called Vitiligo which is “is a pigmentation disorder in which melanocytes (the cells that make pigment) in the skin are destroyed (google.com).” I will admit that I was one of those who believed in the whole wanting to be white thing, but then I came across this interview from Oprah that I found interesting. “Oprah: OK, then let’s go to the thing that is most discussed about you, that is, the color of your skin…is most obviously different than when you were younger, and so I think it has caused a great deal of speculation and controversy as to what you have done or are doing, are you bleaching your skin, and is your skin getting lighter because you don’t like being black? Michael: Number one, as far as I know of there is no such thing as skin bleaching. I have never seen it, I don’t know what it is. Oprah: Well they used to have those products, I remember growing up always hearing “always use bleach and glow”, but you have to have about 300,000 gallons.
Michael: OK, but number one, this is the situation. I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of my skin, it’s something that I cannot help, OK? But when people make up stories that I don’t want to be what I am it hurts me. So I do not think that human beings are sad creatures who are never satisfied with what they have inherited no matter what the power politics and hegemonic context in which they live.
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As stated by Darwin, “Survival of the fittest” is one of the features that are present in all creatures from the first breath to the last. Back in time, surviving means finding ways to get food and shelter in terms of hunting, farming, etc,. In the presence, surviving means the same thing except in terms of fitting in with the norms. I think that it is human nature to never be satisfied with anything that they have. In the presence world, if one does not fit in with the norms, one is classify as being weird or different in a negative way. Cultures affect us in so many way and we are often blinded from everything that is going on. Being a person who comes from a culture that have much invisible discrimination based on skin colors, I’m very shocked that some of these people would take the risks and go as far as baking themselves. I personally come from a culture that adores light skin people. Light skin people in our county are considered upper-classmen who is educated and wealthy. There is an explanation to all of this nonsense. The light skin people are at the higher class system because they are considered as white collar workers and the dark skin ones are the blue collar workers. This fact, however, does not apply to the population in the United States.
Reading this blog reminds me of something I have experienced in the past. About two years ago, I went on a long vacation with my family to Florida. Right after the two weeks’ vacation in Florida, our family traveled back to our native country to visit our relatives. Our relatives were in shocked to see how tan we were. I guess they were kind of expecting all of us to be really pale like we have not seen the sun in years. It just really boggles my mind the fact that a physical feature that is so attractive to many Americans is so poor and low in someone else’s eyes from a different culture. This fact shows me how diverse this world is and it is so interesting to learn about different cultures and to study the roots and reasons for different developments.
A question comes to my mind we I read this blog. How far will people go for beauty? There are so many risks that someone would take to undergo plastic surgeries, fake tanning, etc. Skin cancer is one of the many things that concern a lot of dermatologist currently because of the whole ozone depleting situation and all of the ultra violet rays that we are all exposed to. Yet, educated Americans (more like teens in high-school or college level) are willing to disregard all of the risks for such a temporary beauty.
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We are all born with different features and characteristics which we inherit from our parents and ancestors before us. As an African American, I have developed brown skin and I am just fine with that. However, there was a time in my life when I was very uncomfortable with my dark skin complexion. I felt as though I was ugly and wouldn’t be attractive enough in the eyes of others because of it. It didn’t help that the media never portrayed African Americans with my complexion or darker in movie roles, television commercials, or magazines and I couldn’t help but wonder why. It often seemed to me that dark skin was something to be ashamed off, and thus shouldn’t be portrayed in the media. Nonetheless, years later I have grown up and matured, and realized that there is nothing wrong with the pigment of my skin. I have learned to embrace my color, even though, the representation of dark skin African American people has grown in the media I believe that within the African American communities there is still an unspoken battle that brews between light skin and dark skin African Americans. Thus, I have many friends who have dark skin that use bleaching creams to lighten the pigmentation of their skin.
Recently, I also viewed a Tyra Banks episode that featured guests who went through extreme measures to lighten their skin. One guest even told the audience that she not only lightened her skin but also used bleaching creams on her three sons, ranging in age from three to seven years old. Another guest revealed that she went as far as to wash her face using Clorox liquid bleach. I can only imagine that there has to be a bigger issue than the one at hand, as to why so many people are bleaching extensively and even vice versa, tanning all year round. On the opposite spectrum, I have many Caucasian friends that visit tanning booths throughout the winter months and tan at the beach during the summer to maintain a darker pigmentation in their skins. In which they too become excessive about the color of their skin.
I honestly believe this a problem that has been constructed by our media. As seen in class, there are dozens of bleaching creams that are being distributed worldwide. The appeal and look of celebrity figures that grace our red carpets and appear in films and advertisements also expand the appeal of these products. As well as the beautiful tanned swimsuit models, actors and actresses that look flawless all year round. The power of the media is inescapable, and we as consumers continue to consume and take in the products that advertisers constantly place on the market. We will buy the latest bleaching cream or spray tan in a bottle because we want to look as beautiful as those that appear on our screens. However, we often don’t realize that they too have flaws. In essence, whether someone is striving to be lighter or darker skin it is only a façade to the deeper issue at hand in which we all try so hard to become the person we are not instead of becoming comfortable in our own skins.
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We live in a society filled with perceptions and often place too much importance on our appearance. There are so many influences that turn our focus to looks like television and magazines, covered with beautiful people. There is so much TV that encourages us to change: The Biggest Loser tells us to loose weight, HGTV guilt’s us into redecorating, America’s Next Top Model promotes nothing but poise and beauty…etc. Magazine taunt the most macho and GQ men and great looking women. Are we that shallow that we allow those unrealistic images to cause us to make changes…changes in our body, our living practices and even the color of our skin? White people seem to always want to be darker. Some cultures view lighter skin as a sign of beauty. In India for example, the lighter you are, the more beautiful you are considered to be. It seems in America that we are never satisfied with the color we are born with. As Caucasians we look to become tanned from the sun. We think it looks better and we feel healthier to be sun kissed. There isn’t much regard however that there is nothing more unhealthy for your skin than sun. Then there is the tanning booths…people are patronizing tanning studios in droves to keep up with a consistent tan…probably even worse for your skin. If only there could be sun police or more promotion to practice safe sun and protect your health. Can’t there be campaigns and cultures that influence natural beauty that inspire us to feel good about ourselves just the way we are? Instead we do what ever we can to force a look that is now ours naturally at the expense of our heath to feel more confident. We always want more without being satisfied with what we are born with. I personally do not necessarily feel this way but our society as a whole we are always trying to accomplish an improved appearance, no matter the risk. It’s time we commit to less superficial change and perhaps change our personal perception of what feels good. Reconnect with our souls, be kind to ourselves and appreciate what we are made of from the inside out. Once we can connect with ourselves and find the good that we contribute to society, as friends, as family members and as community members, then maybe we will see the value in not becoming so wrapped up in our appearance. Better yet, with inner self change, we can give ourselves a break and learn to appreciate how good we can look after all on the outside when we are satisfied with ourselves on the inside. That is change that I would sign up for!
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It is bad enough that the sun’s UV rays are harmful to us and when we stay outside for too long we get burnt, and many people get skin cancer. But lying in tanning beds I could never wrap my head around. How on earth can people intentionally harm themselves and cook in those machines? To me this is so unnatural and so many things can go wrong. Look at that girl who suffered burns all over her body. All a person needs to do is stay in a few minutes too long and the results can be disastrous. People seem to never be happy with their appearances. The lighter-skinned people always want to get darker, and the darker-skinned people want to get lighter. I do not understand why people have to be this way. All they are doing is risking their health in order to keep up with this crazy idea of glamour. Is there not more to life?
It is sickening when I see mothers putting ideas into their daughters’ heads about how they are too pale and need some color. My ex-girlfriend’s mother used to say it to her all the time that she was pale, so she started to go tanning, but I knew the whole time that no good would ever come of it. I am tan myself, but it’s just from being outside a lot, and although it’s not good for my skin, at least I’m not intentionally trying to cook myself. A few of my friends that are guys recently started going to tanning beds, and they say to me, “well at least our whole bodies are tan.” I could care less though because I’d rather have a farmer’s tan and have healthy skin and not age as fast. I hate to play the devil’s advocate, but I really do feel that most human beings are “just sad creatures who are never satisfied” with anything, whether its appearance, material objects, or whatever. I used to be guilty of tanning at the beach. I would rub that tanning lotion on and just get scorched. But I learned at a reasonably young age that it is not good. But it’s sad when you see women or men who are in their forties or fifties that know it’s not good for them, but still tan anyway. It’s even worse that they encourage their kids, which ultimately harms them too.
Some girls get so orange and it’s too the point where it is not even good looking. I’ve seen many just on campus in this area alone, and it scares me to think how many more people in the world let themselves get that way. It’s also humorous when you see the girls with the rub on tan stuff, but they have it on their face and somehow miss their neck, and they look two-toned and ridiculous, however at least they aren’t lying in tanning beds I suppose. I realize I’m sounding cynical, and believe me, that isn’t normally how I would approach a topic, but this is one of those things that just gets me fired up. I just dislike how the media makes people, especially younger women feel like they have to look a certain way. This then makes our society develop these norms and it makes most people have a fear of not conforming, so they all just follow as sheep. If people suddenly decided it was cool to be as white as a ghost, then everybody would strive to be pale, because that would be the “cool” thing.
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What can I saw, I rather comfortable and proud of my pale almost albino looking skin. I my self have never felt the need to use tanning products in or to make my skin a more acceptable bronze in order to keep up with the trendy ness of the California chic. Maybe I’m this way because I know what the great repercussions of too much sun can lead to as both my mother and grandmother have had bouts with skin cancer. It also helps my quest of white self preservation that I found most of the new tanning methods on the market to be rather appalling. To think we almost elected a man that had the complexion of Doritos to the highest office in the land. Offcourse I’m referring to John Kerry horrible fake tan leading up to the culmination of the 2004 presidential election. Are we people are sports cars getting a nice touch up of paint on our way into the show room to looked at lustfully by middle age men in mid life crisis mode. Even more appalling to me at least was the skin whitening products that many people Asia are currently using. I ask why? Its not like Asians are really that repressed minority that they need to turn white in order to make something of themselves.
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Now this is a funny topic that seems to have arisen in the past decade, people being unsatisfied with the color of there skin. Black people, who are what they believe to be too dark, and want to be lighter and white people who think they are too white and want to be darker. It’s, in my opinion, a crazy fad that has a majority of the world brainwashed into thinking they have to be that “perfect” complexion. I mean for the most part I think most people do it just to get that ideal skin tone, however I think the overall picture is that people do it to become socially accepted amongst their peers. For instance, the main person that comes to mind is Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson underwent what I believe the most noticeable skin color alteration. This has been something that is been very controversial because the excessive surgeries might have lead to his conditions. Over the years he went from a light skinned black man to a VERY white, white person. The main reason why I think he went through that was because he grew up I guess believing that if you were “white” then you would most likely become successful. This was an extreme case non the less but we see it a lot more on the opposite end. In our current day its not uncommon for people of the white community to want to add a certain level of color to there skin. I mean now a days it’s so much easier to add a certain level of color or even decrease the amount of color. Whether it be from skin creams, tanning beds, or the natural sun, there are so many methods of changing the way we portray our skin color. Even after knowing all of the potential diseases that can arise from tanning, people in society still do it just to reach that “perfect” completion. Why would you put yourself through the risk of obtaining skin cancer just to better your skin tone? This is something that I will never fully understand and a poor choice of living. It makes wonder, how many people in today’s society have died or have diseases because of different forms of skin alterations. Some people say that being white you get a head in our time however it seems everyone is shooting for that Brazilian light brown color. In conclusion, I believe that everyone should stop worrying about becoming society’s perfect person and be the right person for them. For the most part I believe most people do it just to get their ideal skin tone, however I think the overall picture is that people do it to become socially accepted amongst their peers.
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The practice of skin lightning and skin darkening is becoming a rapid trend among the world’s youth in this day and age. Teenagers all around the world feel as though they are too pale or too dark and want to change their natural skin color to “fit in” better. I personally know many girls who tan five, six, even seven days a week because they want to keep their summer tan all year round. However these girls look like they are glowing orange. I understand that people want to look “sexy” but looking like a giant carrot isn’t very attractive unless your bugs bunny. I think that this idea that being beautiful is being dark and tan all year round is unrealistic and extremely unsafe. The carcinogenic abilities of the sun’s ultraviolet rays are widely underestimated especially with the degrading state of the earth’s atmosphere due to years of manmade pollutants being introduced to it. The problem lies not only in the youth as some believe, but also in the older generation. I would argue that the older generation is more important with the problem. The reason that the tanning epidemic is spreading so quickly is due to the ideal of the older generation. When one parent allows their daughter to excessively tan, the trend spreads to all of her friends. When they grow up, the effect will be exponential. It is necessary to deter this awful ideal of beauty in modern American society. This trend is in stark contrast to the tradition of old European countries where paler skin was a sign of royalty and darker skin denoted that one was a worker or peasant. This shows that beauty can be very subjective based on trends and tastes and isn’t as set in stone as some people think. I personally know a girl who went tanning everyday to keep her “good looks”. After several years of tanning a tumor grew in her shoulder. Thank god it was benign, however after this cancerous scare she stopped artificial tanning completely. Not only is this a contagious problem among female teenagers, but growing up in New York I saw an increasingly amount of male teenagers that would”fake and bake” religiously. Tanning beds are a leading cause of cancer. Tanning is bad. Cancer is bad. Tanning = cancer. 99% of all teenage girls use tanning beds so they will most likely get some form of skin cancer (67% of all statistics are untrue by the way). Once they have skin cancer they will probably agree that tanning wasn’t such a “bright” ( ha-ha pun) idea. On the other hand, though I did not personally know hi Michael Jackson, the public pop icon, clearly showed how he felt being lighter in skin tone would make him look better.
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The practice of skin lightning and skin darkening is becoming a rapid trend among the world’s youth in this day and age. Teenagers all around the world feel as though they are too pale or too dark and want to change their natural skin color to “fit in” better. I personally know many girls who tan five, six, even seven days a week because they want to keep their summer tan all year round. However these girls look like they are glowing orange. I understand that people want to look “sexy” but looking like a giant carrot isn’t very attractive unless your bugs bunny. I think that this idea that being beautiful is being dark and tan all year round is unrealistic and extremely unsafe. The carcinogenic abilities of the sun’s ultraviolet rays are widely underestimated especially with the degrading state of the earth’s atmosphere due to years of manmade pollutants being introduced to it. The problem lies not only in the youth as some believe, but also in the older generation. I would argue that the older generation is more important with the problem. The reason that the tanning epidemic is spreading so quickly is due to the ideal of the older generation. When one parent allows their daughter to excessively tan, the trend spreads to all of her friends. When they grow up, the effect will be exponential. It is necessary to deter this awful ideal of beauty in modern American society. This trend is in stark contrast to the tradition of old European countries where paler skin was a sign of royalty and darker skin denoted that one was a worker or peasant. This shows that beauty can be very subjective based on trends and tastes and isn’t as set in stone as some people think. I personally know a girl who went tanning everyday to keep her “good looks”. After several years of tanning a tumor grew in her shoulder. Thank god it was benign, however after this cancerous scare she stopped artificial tanning completely. Not only is this a contagious problem among female teenagers, but growing up in New York I saw an increasingly amount of male teenagers that would”fake and bake” religiously. Tanning beds are a leading cause of cancer. Tanning is bad. Cancer is bad. Tanning = cancer. 99% of all teenage girls use tanning beds so they will most likely get some form of skin cancer (67% of all statistics are untrue by the way). Once they have skin cancer they will probably agree that tanning wasn’t such a “bright” ( ha-ha pun) idea. On the other hand, though I did not personally know hi Michael Jackson, the public pop icon, clearly showed how he felt being lighter in skin tone would make him look better.
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In response to “The Other Side of Skin Coloring” this seems to be a massive social fad of lighter colored human beings. This seems to be sweeping the nation in a social phenomenon that you must tan to be in the “in” crowd if you are not naturally tan your own self. Sunbathing, tanning beds, and just hanging out in the sun take your pick people are drawn to do whatever they can to keep up. It has gotten so big that it has created a whole market for itself. Tanning beds seem to be the main component in this market, appearing all across the market. Me personally I can not go a few days without hearing that some of my friends our going to Hollywood Tans. But it is the “in” thing to do and right now it is booming.
I feel that the whole tanning fad is stupid. People everyday stray away from what God has given them when they were born. They hide from it with make-up, excessive clothing, tacky jewelry, and a plethora of other ways including tanning. Personally I am a black male. I ask many if my white friends what is the appeal of being tan and most of the time I’ll get a response of it makes me look better, when I don’t tan I look chalky and that looks bad. To me tanning barely if at all makes no difference. To me it just makes some of my friends look cartoony if you will. Why take time out of your day to damage your skin and get a shade darker. I know if I went tanning I would probably turn purple or “blurple”. Another thing that really annoys me is when people have seemingly evolved to the race of tan; I mean like Bob Barker tan. To me they really look like a computer graphic mishap and their own color makes them stand out more than the color of their shirt. But people are going to do what makes them feel good.
Another reason I disagree with the whole tanning fad is because people are damaging themselves. Why must it be so important to look two shades darker for about two weeks at the potential expense of losing their lives from developing skin cancer? At the prime of their lives humans take great risk and this happens to be one of them. Also tanning can result in the immediate injury of skin burn. I don’t know how many of my friends I’ve seen come back from in extreme pain from getting sun burned at a game from just being out in the sun for 3 hours. But for me I have no need to tan nor will I ever go tanning, I will discourage it stating how stupid I think and the obvious health hazards it can render.
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The Other Side of Skin Coloring
I actually have a lot to say about this issue because when I think about it, it’s so MESSED UP!! Why on earth would any logical sane person lay/stand in a box/booth for however many minutes while ultraviolet light bulbs darken the color of their skin. Not only do they spend there precious time, but they spend their money so that an artificial light can make their skin darker and give them cancer. Now after having ranted about how stupid tanning beds are and the people that use them, I am sorry to admit that I have totally gone and paid money to a tanning salon and gone tanning. Now why the heck would I subject myself to this? Now in my defense, I only ever did for a few “special occasions.” One was prom because for some reason it was thought to be ideal to be tan at your senior prom. Why? I have no clue. Another one was for a pageant so I didn’t look “washed out” on state, you know because my real skin color doesn’t look as good under those lights and you have to impress those judges for goodness sake. And then there was spring break. I mean of course every girl going to a tropical place for spring break artificially tans beforehand, because were already not going to a place filled with SUNSHINE!!! But since we want to get a maximum tan we figure we should get a “base” color first so that when we get down there we can get as brown as possible before coming back, so that everyone knows that we went to a tropical spring break and had a GREAT time in the sun. It’s all so bizarre and yet I succumb to this insane behavior because I’m taught to think that when I’m tanner I look skinnier and prettier and don’t have to wear as much makeup and so on and so forth. I remember watching a news program on how white is beautiful and people shouldn’t ever tan their skin, and trying to get all us whities to enjoy the color of our skin for what it is and stop trying to darken it all the time. And they’re so RIGHT. And the saddest thing is, the top selling beauty product throughout the world are skin-lightening products. What is up with that? They want our skin and we want theirs. I kind of feel bad that it takes them a lot longer to get whiter, where as we can just buy a can now a days, or get a tan professionally sprayed on us. Instant tanness, boom! Those creams probably take months and months before they see any noticeable results. White people have the advantage yet again. No one will ever be happy with what they’ve got and this is just one more example of that.
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I want to just throw my television out the window along with all my magazines and my computer. Well maybe not my computer! However, even if I did this it really wouldn’t make a difference because I’m only one of many people who own some of these media outlets. The reason I am saying this is because I believe many advertisements that are displayed through television and magazines are seriously harming both young males and females. They determine what’s beauty and what’s not. They determine what’s hot to wear and what’s not. The problem with this is that the people that they are displaying are not really those people, because they are being Photo shopped! One of my biggest issues is the issue of skin color. Because most people in magazines and music videos are lighter skinned or bronzed it makes the two ends of the spectrum feel left out. The dark skinned and pale people are misrepresented which can make them feel like their unaccepted or not beautiful. This is probably why people bleach their skin and/or tan.
After reading the blog entry about Skin coloring I was extremely upset because this young girl was/is unhappy with her skin tone. Not only does she appear to be too young to be tanning, she now has burns on 70 percent of her body! That is crazy and I bet she wishes she would’ve thought twice. The lady in the picture who appears to be her guardian is no better because she clearly has an orangy tan which is probably the reason why they young girl went tanning in the first place. Not only are these beauty stereotypes being pushed through media, they are also being put on display by everyday people all around. I wish people would just be happy with themselves. Bleaching or excessive tanning cannot be healthy and these things are really not worth your overall health, well at least in my opinion. The funny thing is most of these people look foolish. Something about bleaching your skin looks unnatural. Look at Latoya and Michael Jackson or Lil Kim for example. They look like straight up clowns! They would have looked much better if they kept their natural complexion. People who tan can sometimes really overdue it too. The burnt or orange look is not cool and it too looks unnatural. I’m much more excepting of a natural tan because it looks natural. I just don’t see why anyone would pay to look like an orange Martian.
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The first thing that came to mind when I read this blog entry was the hordes of white females that spread out across every available square inch of lawn space when the sun pokes it’s big, fiery self out into the sky. As a dark-skinned female, I suppose I can’t really understand why anyone would do such a thing. When I hear my friends talk about going tanning, I automatically think back to all those presentations that I’ve seen, and all the presentations that I’ve done, on skin cancer and dangers of overexposure to the sun. I always ask them, “Why would you want to tan? You have such beautiful skin!” But it has occurred to me that since I’m black, I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum and, just the same way that they couldn’t possibly understand why anyone would want to be fairer skinned, perhaps I’m programmed not to understand their predicament.
It’s safe to say that the black community has a number of issues with regards to skin color. There is and has been a light-skinned, dark-skinned debate that I, up until today, haven’t been able to understand completely. I always feel indignant when it comes to the matter and I’m not completely certain if it’s because I’m dark-skinned or if I’m just tired of being divided by my own people. A lot of it has to do with the fact that there is so much contempt felt by one people for one another, when we are already looked down upon as an entire race, or just for the fact that we are minorities, in this nation. And then there’s the fact that the other half of me deals with a sort of hatred with regards to color, with the prevalence of skin-whitening products on the Indian market. It frustrates me to no end that they sell skin-whitening products the way they sell Olay over in this country. In fact, Olay probably has some skin-whitening products in that part of the world as well. I can’t stand the idea that no matter what side of me I turn to, I’m damned because I’m dark. Why can’t we just find skin to be beautiful as it is?
I think the big difference between tanning and skin-whitening would be the psychological aspect. All over the world, where European colonization has taken place, there is a prevalence of Eurocentric ideals and standards. Because people with whiter skin were treated so much better and considered so much more beautiful, the major effect it had on the victims of this psychologically violating attack has trickled down to their descendants and still manages to affect us in the things that we say, and the activities we engage it. It is deeply rooted within us as a people to find something distasteful about our skin color. Tanning seems to be more about physical appeal than something deeply rooted in whites.
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The summer after my freshman year in college I spent most of my time at the shore with me girlfriends. Being from Italian descent, after a few short weeks at the shore I was super tan. Tanning increases the body’s secretion on endorphins, which makes you feel good about yourself and more energized. Having a tan also makes you look thinner. So it is easy to understand how I, like many other white people, became addicted to tanning.
During the summer, I would wake up every morning at 9:30 am to start tanning by 10 am and would not stop until 4 pm, after the strong UV sunlight hours were over. Day after day I followed this routine. Days that I had to work in the morning and could not tan, I felt bad about myself and regretted my job.
I loved getting compliments on my tan. People would say, “OMG you are soo tan!” or “I wish I had your tan”, which made me want to tan more.
By the end of the summer I was copper brown and ready to get back to PSU and start my sophomore year. As the first few weeks of school passed, I noticed my tan started to fade. I did not like the way I looked in paler skin, so I bought a tanning package at Hollywood Tans. I would go to the tanning bed 3 to 4 times a week just to feel more attractive and look tanner.
Christmas break came and I went home for the holidays. While at home I found out that one of my best friends from high school had been diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma. Since that day I have not stepped foot in a tanning bed. In the summer I will still lay out to tan, but not without wearing 30 SPF.
Today, I look back at pictures of me during my tanning days and I realize how unhealthy and unnatural I looked. It does not take much to get addicted to tanning and in turn develop cancer.
I always knew growing up that tanning is bad for skin and causes skin cancer but I never thought it could happen to me until someone close to me actually developed skin cancer. It sounds so cliché, but it is the truth. I felt young, invincible, and since I naturally have olive toned skin I though I was less prone to cancer. Millions of men and women today still tan to satisfy beauty needs.
How can we properly educate people today about the risks of skin cancer? Like most people, I did not listen to anything I was taught in school, so how can we change the way we approach the subject?
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The first time I ever even heard of skin whitening was in SOC 199. I really had no clue something like that existed, and that it is a popular practice to what seemed to be mostly Asians but anyone of color who prefers to look white. At first I was really shocked and confused at why these people would do it but to them it makes sense. What I don’t understand is why they don’t know that the preferred look as an American is to be tan, the furthest thing from white. The names of these whitening products like “Perfect White” were funny to me, the names are so bold and obvious to portray that these people think the white race is “perfect”. Again, I still don’t understand why the think this, I as a white American would be un-attracted to know and see someone who uses the product. Just like Mrs. Mulvey explained, we all tan because we don’t feel good when were “too white”. I feel like the act of tanning has been an American thing to do for a really long time. In maybe the last five to ten years tanning salons have become very popular with the younger generation, mainly females. The males who go and tan in tanning booths to me are straight weird. I understand if you were a model or actor but even then not all of them do certain males do it. I was a lifeguard for about three to four years and I always made it a point each day to get some sun, I was outside all day so why not. If I were never a lifeguard those summers I wouldn’t go out of my way to catch a tan. The fact is I really tried to take care of myself those years as a lifeguard, I usually put sunscreen on once a day to my body and maybe twice to my face. The reason I tried to really be conscience is because skin cancer or “melanoma” cancer runs in my father’s family. Ever since I was little it was drilled into my head to put on sunscreen, and there was a long time when I never took that advice seriously. As I grew up I watched my grandfather have numerous amounts of cancer removed and new skin graphed on the cancer spots. Then my father started having a bunch of skin cancer removed on his nose. Then I realized my aunt had it and cousins in their twenties having it show up. I know it’s in my father’s family, so I’m just hoping I got my mothers side’s skin cancer less skin. The fact is all those years I was a lifeguard I loved that I got tan. I thought I looked better tan and I enjoyed it while it lasted. What I didn’t do was obsess over it and take time out of my day to tan, especially not in a tanning booth at a tanning salon.
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Awesome man! I posted some comments before anyway, because a lot of your stuff is really awesome.
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