Tan, Our Obsession With Being

As I'm prepping myself mentally for heading off to Maui next week my mind keeps wandering to a sad place.  I don't go to that place very often.  Actually, I flat out ignore that place. That place involves my skin and its inability to tan.  My skin has other issues too, but failing to be tan is one of its worst faults.


Why is being tan associated with being attractive?  Is it because tan skin hides flaws?  Is brownish skin more slimming than white?  Does it mean you lead a life of luxury, laying by a pool all day...and somehow that's attractive?  Is whiteness associated with severe blood loss and imminent death so people shy away from it?  Does extreme fair skin imply that you never leave the house and are, therefore, lazy?

I don't know the answer.  But I do know, given there are no other differences, I'd much rather look at a tan person than a pasty white one.  And, as a pasty white person, it's infuriating. 

It's particularly annoying when, despite the appearance of having a "healthy glow," being tan is actually horrible for you.  Premature wrinkles being at one end of the spectrum and dying of skin cancer at the other.  No amount of exposure of this reality has seemed to lessen our desire to be a bronze beauty come swimsuit season either.

We need more Nicole Kidmans and less....everyone else.