Why do white women hate their fair skin?

[epari]

Okay so I'm a white woman myself. Ever since I was in school, which was 99 percent white, all I got was

"Milk bottle legs"

"Put some fake tan on"

"Get on the sunned"

I thought it was so confusing considering these girls were the same skin tone as me underneath their makeup etc.

I just never got it, and when I would ask the question all I got was "life's better with a tan, everyone looks better bla bla bla"

But if I'm completely honest, fake tan looks fake, it's so obvious however much you convince yourself it's not, and ironically since I married into a Middle Eastern family, my husband constantly praises how he loves my fair skin and told me fake tan looks disgusting bla bla bla.

So I actually want to know, why is it the majority of British girls and American etc hate their own skin tone?

Tanned skin so often looks better. I'm naturally pale but get a good tan in summer. It makes me look slimmer, younger and my hair blonder. It makes the colours of all my clothes look richer, and it makes my teeth and whites of eyes look whiter.

It's a one stop beauty bonanza.

Like the first poster put, pale skin shows up blemishes and is usually blotchy and veiny - talking about my own skin here. Also have that horrible rough bumpy skin on arms and legs. I hate my skin and look at darker skin tones in awe - always look silky smooth, healthy and flawless . There is this nasty transparency to my skin which you don't get with tanned/darker skin. The thought of trying to cover it up with fake tan would be horrific, plus of course my skin is sensitive so would result in a rash.

I don't like my pale skin because you can see the veins through it, particularly on my arms, every red blemish or spot shows up and I look washed out

Same here. Having travelled to several countries where you can see "skin whiteners" for sale everywhere instead of fake tans, it's a real turnaround!

Did you know that in Victorian times in this country, the paler and more translucent and vein-showing your skin was the more beautiful it was considered?

We're in a society where we get conditioned to never be happy with what we've been born with. Be skinny, you need to be a size 0 with a teeny arse. No, wait, now it's all about "thick thighs" and huge arses. Get a whacking great boob job. No, wait, have small perky mini boobs.

According to my friends, I've got "gorgeous, permanently tanned, glowing olive skin"

According to me, unless I've just come back from a holiday, I look a jaundiced pastel brown. I fake tan (like a pro) and prefer that colour on me.

I don't look at my fair skinned friends and think they look unattractive. I don't look at my darker skinned friends and think they look unattractive. I don't look at any of them and think, if they altered their skin tone they would become more attractive.

I do look at myself and fake bake my skin tone to a different colour because I feel better for it, even if others think I don't need too.

I'm very pale and hate it because I think I look pasty and ill. At school I was called names because of it.
Fake tan rarely looks natural on me, I hate the smell and many make me itch.
I'd just like to be a bit more naturally olive toned to look a bit healthier.

I also think it's because we are all fatter too which probably doesn't help

I think if you're in your mid-twenties now, you grew up at the height of the fake tan boom so the media told us that a tan was desirable. There were loads of fake tan products coming on to the market in the 00s and being advertised everywhere. I remember an advert for Rimmel Sunshimmer which was fronted by Lily Cole, who is a redhead with porcelain skin, and they gave her a deep tan for the advert. After that I just thought my pale skin must be ugly because this beautiful model even has to use fake tan. Plus this was the time where Nicola Roberts (also fair skinned) was dubbed "The Ugly One" in Girls Aloud by various other people so that was in the papers. She then went overboard with the fake tan, so again proving to young girls everywhere that if you're pale, you're ugly and you should just fix it. I think if you grow up with that it sticks in your head and lots of people I know who use fake tan have done since they were in their teens and now they rely on it for their confidence.

I think the tide has turned tbh, rather embrace my pale skin these days than look like an oompah loompah. Most fake tan looks absolutely dire, the only time I bother is when I'm slightly tanned on holiday already.

I used to sunbathe any opportunity I got, I try hard not to stay in it for long nowadays. I don't think it's worth the long term skin damage

Brilliant question OP and one that should be asked more.

I'm naturally dark haired and very pale skinned but was brought up in this culture where the opposite was revered.

I never caved into dyeing my hair thankfully and it's in great condition as a result but I did try to be tanned for quite a while to fit in before I embraced my paleness.

Any other group of people that don't feel good enough in their skin are encouraged to fuck all the pressure off and accept themselves.

Unless it's something like Love Island where being pale is regarded as an anomaly- mind you so are the surgically unaltered so that's not the best example.

I too think the tide is turning.

I was a goth so loved my pale skin.

I still love it and protect its paleness. I avoid sunbathing as I don’t want sun damage.

Why?
It’s called colourism. Colourism is based on class.
So originally, fair skin was valued because aristocratic women would embroider dainty things in castles while peasant women would be toiling outside in fields. So light skin tone was associated with being upper class and wealthy.
But then, the industrial revolution happened, then the agricultural industry collapsed in rural England. And by the post-Victorian age the aristocrats started summering in Europe and floating around the Mediterranean on their yachts getting that bronzed globe trotter look. Meanwhile, the lower classes were stuck inside factories all day getting pasty. So by the 1920s dark skin was the new ideal to denote upper class and wealth.

And it has persisted to this day here in the U.K.

@ShimmeryShiny haha! Good point. I have to admit, I do like my fair skin a lot more now I am in healthier shape. It doesn't look as dry and pasty but sort of dewy.

My pale skin is so uneven - it’s either blotchy pink/red cause I’m hot or blotchy purple/blue if I’m cold.
It’s not the paleness that I dislike but the blotches - something tanned people or those born with darker skin don’t seem to show.

I'm not fair but can be very sallow looking which I believe makes me look ill. I tan naturally but don't see much sun unless I'm on holiday. Without any tan I get comments about how tired or peaky I look.
I use fake tan and think I look a million times better. It's usually a gradual tan not a full on orange glow. Then I get comments about my improved heath so it must do the trick!

I'm not a fan of pale skin myself, I have two DS's. My eldest has lovely olive skin and tans easily like me. My little one is only 3 so hasn't had much sun exposure but I can already tell he is much fairer like DH. I don't know why but I feel like my eldest is the lucky one with the good skin and a bit sad for the baby with his pale skin like DH who is always red after any exposure.

I love my skin because it keeps all my internal organs safe and regulates my body temperature.

I don't hate my pale skin. I love it 😊

I live in a hot country and have a farmer's tan most of the year because I'm am idiot. I like to even it up in the summer, so apply a gradual tanner to the whiter bits.

I was always called ghost , pale etc in my teens. My husband is indian , i always get "compliments" from his side of the family about being "Fair" . Everyone seems to want what they don't have !

I tried to tan when I was younger. I eventually gave up. I think its just confidence to reject beauty norms. I suppose tan = healthy because youre spending time outside. Or possibly wealthy because you can afford to go abroad on holiday?

That picture by Freud is me on a good day!

I am mid-20s and friends my age who wanted to tan have really badly damaged skin, and burn themselves in the sun to peel and get a tan for about a week. It's not worth the risk of skin cancer and permanent damage. I stay out of the sun, have a good skincare regime and wear sunscreen everyday. I always get comments on how nice my skin is, but I also have good genes from my grandmothers and mother. So I'm lucky in that regard. I know others suffer more but I think pale skin is beautiful, it looks like marble! Stunning!

Posted too soon. I don’t like having pale skin that shows up all the veins and shows when I go bright red in the sun etc.

As many others have said it shows up every imperfection. I have now reached that lovely age where I have some spider veins on my legs and with the best will in the world they’re not attractive.

Yes, as PPs have said, it's not the 'colour' as such that I dislike, its that my pale skin shows up every blemish, shows up cellulite much worse, my legs and arms aren't a lovely creamy pale, they look like grey corn beef and in the sun I always end up a patchy mess due to missing something with my suncream.

My kids seem to have inherited DH's skin tone thank god!