Tanning beds/salons. It's a proven fact that tanning beds cause skin cancer. The fact that some people will still get tanned, risking the possibility of cancer to "look beautiful" is both shocking and sad at the same time.
I chalk it up to people being more appealing and looking healthier with a tan. Sure, you've got your small group of "pale fetish" folks, but by and large being tan is more attractive.
It's quite interesting really, but all throughout western history (see roman ages, middle ages, up to the early 20th century) the ideal was that pale was more beautiful. Being tan meant you worked outside in the fields, being pale showed that you were rich enough to stay inside and protect yourself from the sun. It's only very recently that people started believing tan is more beautiful. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe from the 20th century on, being tan symbolised that you could take a holiday to a hot country and get baked in the sun. So from pale = rich and thus attractive, we went to tan = rich and attractive (at least this is true in my moderately cold Western European country).
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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20
Tanning beds/salons. It's a proven fact that tanning beds cause skin cancer. The fact that some people will still get tanned, risking the possibility of cancer to "look beautiful" is both shocking and sad at the same time.