Jane thumbs through Vogue everyday and notices all the models have beautiful tan skin. Jane likes bronzed skin. The magazines do say, “Tan fat is better than white fat.” Jane lays out everyday and even goes to the tanning bed too, in hopes of achieving the perfect tan. People compliment Jane on her new glow. Jane feels beautiful. Jane goes to her annual doctor’s visit. The doctor notices Jane’s bronzed skin and admonishes Jane's tanning habit. Jane shrugs off the doctor’s admonition and continues to tan. Jane gets skin cancer. Jane dies.
Call me crazy, but wouldn’t you stop tanning if you knew it had the potential to kill you? I find it disturbing to know that the majority of people would rather strive for a good tan, than live? We really have our priorities straight.
Apparently, looks really do kill. One would think that it would be frowned upon for society to purport an image of beauty that has the potential to kill. But, society does just that. Magazines have the power to inculcate our culture and fill girls’ minds with the idea that being pale is just not attractive. How absurd. When did society decide tan skin was in and who was the genius who had the grand idea for a tanning bed?
Despite popular belief, bronzed skin wasn’t always the rage. Think back to Europe circa 1500, the era of the blue bloods. The blue bloods were the upper class, the creme de la creme. These high society ladies had the luxury of lounging around the estate all day, never lifting a pinky to the any menial task. Having tanned skin was considered low-class, associated with peasants, who made their living slaving away in the hot sun...hardly fashionable. When did it become trendy to sport such a golden glow?
Popular culture makes it socially acceptable and even encourages girls to have bronzed skin. The myth then is that bronzed skin suggests youth, vivacity, and gives women that longed for “glow.” Achieving that longed for “glow” also suggests that you are akin to the finer things in life, like going to the Riviera on a weekend jaunt, masking the monotony of the daily grind. Synonymous with youth and wealth, who wouldn’t want to have bronzed skin? So long as society purports a tan’s synonymy with wealth, youth, and good looks, so long will girls flock to the tanning salons, and ultimately risks their lives.
I have racked my brain trying to figure out just what keeps girls coming back for more “fake bake’? Why do girls insist on frying themselves in a coffin-like structure all for the sake of looking good? How did having a nice tan become an integral item on our beauty checklists?
Women go through a number of procedures for the sake of beauty, oftentimes entailing a lot of pain. It has become the norm to fix those minor dissatisfactions with one's body through chin jobs, nose jobs, boob jobs, eye jobs, facelifts, lipo, tummy tucks, even calf implants. You name your problem with your body and there is a doctor more than willing to fix it. But let’s think about face peels and restolyn and botox. These procedures for beauty are done at the expense of another beauty ritual: tanning. So you see, it’s a vicious cycle. The psyche of the average woman these days would be something along the lines of, “I NEED a tan to look good. I get a chemical peel to rid myself of my wrinkles, caused by tanning in order to look good. My face is now pale: unattractive. I tan more. I get another chemical peel.” Is this not insane?
It is insane and until the day comes when society is not such a dictator of our beauty do’s and don’ts, women will continue to worship the sun. Every doctor advises against tanning ad nauseum, yet women still do it. Why? Tanning releases endorphins, those natural painkillers that make you feel like you’re on cloud nine. No wonder women flock to tanning beds like the swallows of Capistrano. You feel better, you look better, and you’re more attractive to the opposite sex. It sounds like a win-win, except for the fact that it has the potential to kill.
Apparently, people simply would rather look good than be healthy. Until we stop buying into popular culture and truly value our very lives, we are hopeless. There is a lot more to life than looking good, but that’s not the adage our culture purports. Our culture purports the idea that the surface is what counts, making tanning and countless other beauty rituals all the rage. We, as adults, need to think back to the forgotten maxim we learned when we were little kids that read, “It’s not what’s on the outside, but what’s on the inside that counts.” I think we’d all do ourselves a favor if this adage was encouraged by popular culture.
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