Keep pale skin the standard of beauty.

It's always funny when these questions come up. I recall years back the New York Times planning a week-long run up to Valentine's Day on the subject of kissing around the world. The main theme was that it was something that worked differently in different cultures but was present in all humans.

They got well into it before someone thought to ask some anthropologists why all humans kissed. Naturally, they were promptly told that humans don't - it's a learned cultural trait, not a human universal.

If anything the preference for lighter skin is much closer to a human universal. The extent of pale skin in northern (and some southern climes) can not be easily justified by Vitamin D - it appears to be a matter of sexual preference dating to paleolithic times.

I actually had this conversation just yesterday. One of our students (we're in China) described a boy as ugly and, when questioned, attributed this unattractiveness entirely to his skin color. My colleague, whose family originated in the Caribbean, told me that light skin is the very definition of beauty. Especially in Haiti, but across the whole archipelago, the broad goal of everyone is to marry someone with lighter skin than their own.

From my own experience and reading I can say that Mexican and Central American parents at times refer to their children getting dark in the sun as "getting ugly." Darker skinned Chinese people are often literally ignored by average or pale ones in a manner similar to the way beggars are treated. Skin lightening products are big sellers in major parts of Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and South America. It is in play even in the West, where much to do is made about the standard of beauty shifting toward the darker end of things and mixed-race individuals are icons of beauty. Very few of the "best-looking" are actually very dark in skin tone - most instead have a natural coloration that makes them look like they have a very nice tan.

All in all, the fad for tanned skin in the West is probably a temporary and isolated phenomenon. All it will take is average standards of living rising to the point where most people can afford a sunny vacation - then the trend reverses.
 
Eh, I think in many ways paleness is still desired, but now it's just down to a matter of taste and preferences-the tan/pale divide in, say, Hollywood starlets, is about 50/50
 

gaijin

Banned
In Asia pale is still the way to go, as has been mentioned before. Lucky me:D

I am pale for north European standards (my nickname in elementary school was the milk bottle) and actually hated it with a vengeance (sunburn, looking bad in many clothes etc) figure my surprise when after coming to Japan suddenly it was one thing that most women found irresistible :D
 
If it wasn't her it'd be someone else, though- the rich had always been taking trips to sunnier climes and from the 50s onwards this became realistically possible for the middle classes.
The earliest reference I can find to tanning being beautiful is from 19th century Britain from aristocrats returning from the Mediterranean from their Grand Tour.
 
In Latin America also, there is a preference for being whiter, as it suggests higher social status. I remember one study in Brazil where participants were asked to judge how light/dark someones skin colour was on a numeric scale. They found that if you dressed the same people up in wealthier clothes, they would be perceived as being whiter.

This obviously stems from the fact that white people tend to be wealthier in Brazil. I guess the way to change it in majority white countries is to have much more immigration of poor non-whites and then a lot of intermixing. Then you'll replicate the situation in Brazil.
 
The earliest reference I can find to tanning being beautiful is from 19th century Britain from aristocrats returning from the Mediterranean from their Grand Tour.

Yes- what I meant was that before this point it was something that would be limited to the very upper crust. From the 50s onward it became more realistic for the middle classes to have overseas holidays and then by the 70s the working classes.
 
While pale skin may not be the ideal of beauty in America, brown is generally not anyone's ideal. When white people tan, it's more of an orange color. The end result is unmistakably a white person with a tan. In contrast when Asians or Latinos tan, they turn brown and start to look like ethnic groups who are naturally browner. For them, getting a tan is almost like getting a new ethnic identity.
 
While pale skin may not be the ideal of beauty in America, brown is generally not anyone's ideal. When white people tan, it's more of an orange color. The end result is unmistakably a white person with a tan. In contrast when Asians or Latinos tan, they turn brown and start to look like ethnic groups who are naturally browner. For them, getting a tan is almost like getting a new ethnic identity.


..........whut?

First of all, not all white people turn orange when they tan, because some white people actually get tans from the sun instead of using spray-on tans. Also, white people also vary in color. European people around the Mediterranean tend to have darker skin than Northern Europeans (not always, of course-variation, genetics, human populations, etc). These perceived differences can translate into very socially real ethnic differences.
 
Sure Mediterranean people tan differently than Nordics. The former has a more olive complexion and have less of that orange look when tanned. But tanning is more in fashion among those of northern Europeans descent. People who tan brown usually aren't the ones into sun bathing. A northern Italian will not look like a southern Italian when tanned. A tanned southern Italian will look like a Libyan.
 
While pale skin may not be the ideal of beauty in America, brown is generally not anyone's ideal. When white people tan, it's more of an orange color. The end result is unmistakably a white person with a tan. In contrast when Asians or Latinos tan, they turn brown and start to look like ethnic groups who are naturally browner. For them, getting a tan is almost like getting a new ethnic identity.

Speak for yourself. I'm about as white as they come and I tan tan, not orange. Nor am I aware of any family or friends who tan in the manner you describe. In fact that's usually the easy indicator between real and fake tans - the latter look orange. Really pale people arguably don't tan, but only initally - they burn. Then after the burn fades a tan will tend to come in.

I'm having trouble reconciling your words with my experience. Perhaps my upbringing in suburban Pennsylvania and the Rhode Island shore has kept me from encountering enough white people.
 
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When I tan I become the same colour as a Native American. Not orange.
Most of the people in my hometown turn various shades of brown.
 
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