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.
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.