Why is a tan considered optimal. I think pale skin is beautiful!

[Liuckle]

Not saying tanned isn't beautiful
I just find it interesting!

I am pale and I find it upsetting so many people think its okay to comment on my skin tone.

I do apply fake tan in summer because I know people judge fair skin tones. I cannot tan naturally.

I'm Australian and pale and have never tanned. I wrote an essay in my teens, in the 1970s, about the sheer hypocrisy of the people who sneered at those of us who weren't tanned and also sneered at anyone with naturally olive skin

Also in parts of Thailand you’ll see beautiful Thai women with usually white faces, from make up I assume. They also never go out uncovered.

I’ve very fair and don’t tan. No ones ever commented on it other than my mother who tells me I should use fake tan or ‘sit in the sun’ despite me continually telling her I would just burn.
All my husbands Indian family, rightly or wrongly, were impressed by how pale I am. People took photos.

I have pale skin and I hate it. I am very freckly and my skin is ridiculously white.
People comment all the time and it makes me self conscious. They tell me I should get my legs out more to get them tanned, but when I do, they laugh and comment on how white I am. I can’t win so I just stay covered up.

I regret getting tanned in my 20s. Once you get to a certain, the difference between tanned and untamed skin is huge. Tanned skin is literally damaged skin, it’s papery, wrinkly and blotchy. It’s very aging. Pale skin stays plump, soft and stretchy. I’d guess that as awareness of skin cancers grows and summers get hotter, pale skin will become more prized.

I feel your pain, I'm in exactly the same boat but I've learnt to live with it . I'm 64 and some colleagues have recently learnt my age. The consensus was you look years younger.....I've avoided the sun because I don't want more freckles.

That's why I love Sept to April when I can cover up more and not be on show as the palest woman in town.

I’m very very pale. Practically translucent. I’ve leaned into it now. I’ve got light eyes and hair too so there’s not a huge amount of colour going on.

The best bit about it is if I skip a bit of blusher and mascara people think I’m ill ‘Gosh you don’t look brilliant do you want to finish work early and go home to lie down?’ ‘Yes yes I do’

Can you not see how problematic it is attaching class based value to skin colour?

I look much healthier with some colour.

It's funny. I always wished I could tan (my father and sister have more sallow skin that tans well. My mother and I are distinctly British Isles), but in my early twenties dated a southern Italian for a while. To me, his skin was utterly gorgeous, but to my surprise he seemed to view my paleness as something desirable and couldn't understand my obsession with trying to burn tan. I do think it is easier to hide imperfections with a tan, but frankly after 2 kids and a pretty unhealthy lifestyle since Covid, I have to accept even of I could tan, it is a colour not a miracle worker. C'est la vie!

I wish I’d stuck with pale skin when I was younger, 10 malignant melanomas later I’ve change my thinking that a tan looks or is healthy.

I find it a turn off in men, but I'm not entirely sure why. I think that I associate it with being unhealthy, which I know isn't particularly logical.

I suppose that I associate a tan with someone who is fit and outdoorsy, while doughy white skin makes me think of someone who sits at home and plays video games.

It suits some people though. Particularly those with red/auburn hair, because the warmth of the hair colour compensates for the pale skin. They wouldn't look right with a tan.

My legs are pale atm which I hate because it makes them look fatter!

I think the tide is turning now and the tans have gone way too far.

Pale skin looks beautiful if it's perfect unblemished skin. If you have any blotchiness or unevenness then a light tan looks much better.

I am fair-skinned, bordering on translucent. A light tan on me evens things out. I have a freckled tanned face, illuminous white body, slightly darker shade of white/pink legs and brown-ish arms. If I was all-over the same pale, that would be fine by me.

These threads always bring out the weirdos who use the word "stock" like they're horses. Also a lot of these comments are veering very close to racism.

I have acne and cellulite, both are vastly improved with a bit of a tan.

If I had perfect porcelain skin I’d be delighted but I don’t.

oh its all just fashion. Olive skin is on the way out though i suspect as asia rises in influence and pale skin becomes elusive and desirable.

I have quite pale skin and a smattering of freckles. I don’t tan, at least properly, which is annoying. However, the upside is that my skin looks youthful whereas those who tan have older looking skin. You can’t have it all.

I have quite pale skin and a smattering of freckles. I don’t tan, at least properly, which is annoying. However, the upside is that my skin looks youthful whereas those who tan have older looking skin. You can’t have it all.

(Didn’t mean to attach the above to a post.”)

To tan or not is just fashion/showing what you can afford. Historically (16th-18th century) rich UK (white) people wanted to be pale because you got tanned by working in the fields - and they didn't have to do that. Plus they used (expensive and sometimes poisonous) cosmetics to make their faces paler still.

In the early to mid 20th century it was expensive to go on holiday to the South of France/Mediterranean where you could get a different level of tan. So it became fashionable. But now that we know more about the effects of sun on our skin, people are protecting their skin more.

Hope she does it to the wrong person one day...

I'd have turned around and stared at her legs and loudly commenting how dreadful it must be to have skin tanned like hide leather and how common it was.

(Not because I actually think those things but just to shut her up)

I look much better tanned. People think Im Unwell in the winter.

I look sick without a slight bit of colour.

People have actually been rude about my appearance and I’ve been compared to a cancer victim, zombie and apparently people on mortuary slabs look better than I do, so yep, I definitely have a much better appearance with a tan!