Why do people find a suntan attractive?

[ILoveMyMeows]

Just curious...

Hides blotchiness, makes people appear slimmer, looks healthy. Of course all these things are not true if people are burnt or leathery.

Coco Chanel wasn’t it?

It seems to have connotations with looking healthy and well. Also, perhaps more psychological, I feel more confident with a tan so maybe give off more happy, carefree vibes.

Its fashion. It used to be that the higher classes didnt have tans because they didnt work outside, had carriages etc

Although, I think pale skin can be really beautiful too. I'm think Anne Hathaway etc...

Thinking not think*

I wish pale skin would be fashionable, I can't tan and don't tan. Fake fan is awful, smells, strains and is orange.

I think it makes you look slimmer, also gives the teeth and eyes a whiter appearance. Pale skin can be gorgeous but I think it has to be very pale, clear skin and usually on a slim girl with good bone structure. I am pale but covered in freckles, I use a little dove holiday skin each night just to give a light tan.

I definitely look better with a tan, even a fake one.
Paleness is associated with ill health sometimes - we look paler when we're ill or tired or anaemic.
I have awful dark shadows under my eyes and they look even worse when the rest of my face is pale.

There's also a cultural/fashion aspect as a pp mentioned - in east Asian they carry parasols to avoid getting a tan because a tan there is still a sign of being lower class, as it was here when it was field workers who got a tan. Now it's a sign of being able to afford a holiday and there's a slight stigma against very fake orange tan, though as I said I think I still look better even with a fake tan.

I tried spray tans last year, but won't bother this year as I look even worse when it's fading off.

I think it’s quite rare to have beautiful clear pale skin. A lot of people have a blotchy uneven skin tone, visible green/bluey veins etc where a tan evens the colour out and just looks healthier (am aware obviously that tanning isn’t healthy.)

Darker is always more slimming!

Agree many pale people can be more blue including myself but obviously it’s only social conditioning that tells us that is not attractive. You don’t see many real images in the media

On the flip side, I have naturally olive skin and when I was goth I was always trying to make my skin lighter. Sometimes I think we all just want to change our natural appearance. The modern look is quite manufactured and proud of it. Thinking of that Nicki Minaj song when she sings about 'that real ass ain't keeping your man at home.' We've gone into a new era where we can be honest about the fact that we can and will change what we don't like about our physical appearance.

I also wonder if it's something to do with having a more mixed population so that if you're a very pale, white person you would have looked totally average in a homogenous community, but with people of different colours you now look 'too pale'.

I wasn't considered pale growing up, but living in bigger cities I am.

I genuinely look better with a tan,always have.

I remember a TV programme citing a study of online dating where tanned faces had been chosen more than the others. I think it was the Horizon programme will one of the van Tulleken's, but the whole programme is no longer available.

Hides my cellulite, I look more toned. I've had a spray tan twice and both times couldn't get over how much slimmer and toned I looked (in my underwear).

I don't tan like that on holiday though, and it's far too much faff to get regularly so I just put up with my cellulite

I don't like to be deeply tanned, but I do prefer how I look when I'm a bit sun kissed. Legs are definitely improved for a bit of colour and it makes blemishes much less obvious. Plus a bit of sun does actually clear up spots.

I'm still not convinced that the sun is that harmful. Yes, of course we need to avoid extremes, as with anything else. I am careful not to burn, would never sit in the sun just for the purpose of getting tanned and avoid the sun at mid day etc, but how can something that does so much good, indeed is essential, be harmful in moderation?

I think most people look better with a tan.
Its very hard to carry off the pale and interesting look. Its harder maintenance to get clear pale skin as it shows everything.
It's not enough to just be white and wear spf or stay indoors. Some paleness has bluey undertones or yellow. It can look sick without any blusher.

I always associate tans with healthy outdoors lifestyles. I have a particular weakness for the whole Nordic lifestyle thing and it conjures up images of tall blonde and fit Nordic people while bbqing fish by a lake in the woods after spending the day swimming and hiking.

This is SO far from my actual life.

(I may be reading too many lifestyle magazines)

A natural tanned face and freckles in the summer makes my eyes look really blue.
Maybe I could achieve this with make up but I've never worn it and it's way too much faff.

I like getting a bit of a tan on my feet - makes sandals look so much nicer

Now it's a sign of being able to afford a holiday

I wouldn't have thought so. Pre coronavirus it was cheap to travel overseas and I have friends who tan easily even if they don't on holiday.

I guess it hides shadows under the eyes and evens out blotchiness. Gives a general look of healthiness.

My face tends to tan and people then say 'You look well! Have you been holiday' It is pretty much the only compliment I ever get, so I'll take it.

I've got an 'English Rose' complexion & some White British men tell me I'm too pale. However the Arabic & Asian men i know say they like my pale skin.
Personally I feel I look better with a tan which hides any flaws & just makes me look brighter & healthier.
A gradual natural tan looks nice on me but fake tan just doesn't look right on my skin.

My younger sister is of mixed race appearance with lovely olive skin which I often wish I had, as she looks healthy even when she's ill. She only has to look at the sun to get even more tanned!

But having darker skin has its downfalls, the similar kind of White British men who would probably say I'm too pale are the same kind of men who upset her by telling her to 'go home' & using racist words....

It seems to me that women can't win in men's eyes. So you have to be happy with yourself whether that's pale, tanned, darker skinned or whatever.

100% cultural conditioning. In the 1960s, 70s & 80s being tanned in the U.K. was seen as a status symbol because it indicated you could afford to go ‘abroad’ on holiday. This perception is still around, hence the fake tan industry.

In South Asian countries, being ‘fair’ skinned is seen as a status symbol because it indicates that you don’t have to work outside in the sun.