To think that some people need to stop being competitive about getting a tan?

[IAmNotAmused]

It's embarassing seriously. All I've ever known from friends and family as I grew up was the whole 'I'm browner than you!' 'I tan better than you!' etc etc

I just find it really funny. Said family and friends now look worse for all that sun. I'm white (light olive toned skin) and am frankly tired of people always making 'pale and pasty' comments to me especially in the winter. White people are this colour for a reason, i.e, we live in europe where it is colder than the rest of the world. I've also noticed how people go on holiday and are so desperate to get a tan they spend most of the holiday roasting themselves in the sun.

rant over. Anyone else not too impressed with people's desperation to get a tan?

And have you corrected him? Told him its a disgusting word to use, I mean? Or just laughed about it?

yakbutter. If you have any children or know what a 3 year old can come out with occasionally, you would relax a bit.

go and have a nice arguement with the wall.

I'll leave you to it.

Obviously I corrected him.

back to the original post.

Sod tans, couldn't give a rats... v. turned off after holidaying in Costa Blanca and seeing all the old leather handbags round the place... no ta.. I find a brisk walk and the odd dollop of garnier summer body give me a 'healthy' complexion.

On the plus side, I get lots of attention in countries populated by men with varying shades of dark/tanned skin.. Result

[Sidebar: the word 'retard' used in a pejorative way, no more than the word 'gay', is not allowed around here.]

every week from now till the end of summer, my dad will visit and hold his red/brown tanned arms next to mine then dds and tell us how pale we are??
i have a slight tan from walking about with factor 20 on but couldnt care less as long as we dont burn, but i hate the weekly comparison

My mother died, aged 44, from malignant melonoma. She was not a sun bunny at all, but she did tan easily, even with suncream on. I never saw her burnt at all, only tanned.
The pressure to be brown is horrible. One of the parents at school commented on my pasty legs last week: I told him that my mother died of skin cancer, so I wasn't really into tanning. It made for a very awkward moment!

The fact that skin cancer is so unbelieveably dangerous makes no difference to sunbed users though. I used to wishhhh with all my might I had that perfectly tanned skin that the girls at school had, but no amount of sunbathing and dreadful fake tan attempts made any difference. It's cool though, as someone previously said, it's how your skin looks in the future that really counts :D

yes familyfun

the red brown tan is a weird one for sure, and they go madly dark. I've seen a black person actually comment on seeing a white person with skin darker than theirs :S now that's weirder

Round here we have many girls who are actually orange.

They hang around the local tanning place which is also painted orange.

Hard to see them sometimes.

I don't tan. I don't want to.

Your skin produces the colour we call a tan to protect itself from the onslaught of the suns rays. Sooooooo dangerous!

IAmNotAmused I'm blonde and my eyes are very blue. I am a bit freckley on my face though.

Burn so so easily though...

LST would loveee blonde hair. Have dark hair and green eyes. really wanted dd to have blonde hair when she was born, but no luck. My sis is blonde and I love it.

Pale skin is definitely making a comeback. If you look at any red carpet line up these days it is definitely a bit paler.

It would be nice to have olive skin sometimes but I comfort myself with the fact I'll never have leather cleavage!

I still dont know to this day why the guys at school were so obsessed with the girls that were tanned.

I have to admit that one of the things I always wanted was a tan but alas I'm pasty I'm an English Rose

My DS however has a bit of Greek in him and goes a lovely colour [very jealous emicon]

It's because on this side of the world we're programmed to find tanned skin more attractive. In places like Hong Kong/India they're programmed to think the opposite.

I live in China were the locals spend summer under a parasol to avoid their skin getting darker. Dark skin means you work outside and don't have a great job!
The Chinese love my pale skin.
Seriously, can't imagine anything more tedious than getting a tan, have no wish to look like a 90 year old Texan.

I always think people look much older when they get the deep tans in summer. It's not a particularily nice look so confuses me that people love it so much. My friend who is olive is seen as the best by my other friends cos she tans dark and they just go lightly orange. Although my friends do the competitioning year round as they use sun beds (yack)!

squoosh - true. The whole white thing is massive in the other countries, bar the west. That really vanilla white skin with rosy cheeks (english rose complex) is gorgeoussss though. My kids go pretty dark but theyre half north african. It's nice in a way not to have to worry about them too much in the sun, although they do still need cream obviously.

shanghaidiva - lmao at '90 year old texan' :D

I am not only white, I also get in interesting rashy prickly thing going on :(

have no wish to look like a 90 year old Texan

Nice. So because I go brown just looking at the sun I look like a 90 year old Texan?

backwardpossom - why do you and so many others take everything that's said, so personally?

have a instead.