Why People Risk Tanning to Hide Ugly White

Around the gym where I am scantily clad, I am known as “fish belly.” In sharp contrast people around me – teens to boomers – are tanning: sun bathing in summer and tanning beds or booths the rest of the year despite the fact that the skin cancer/melanoma risks are significantly higher for those who tan. Then why are people sacrificing health and premature aging to look golden brown?

Of course, exposure to the sun offers a variety of benefits like Vitamin D which is the vitamin du jour for preventing certain cancers, boosting the immune system and is proving to be neuro-protective; in addition, the sun heals acne outbreaks, tames psoriasis and eczema, elevates our moods and resets our natural rhythms to help us sleep better at night.

Because tanning helps to increase serotonin levels and people claim that they look better tanned with that healthy glow, it can become addictive. In a random statistical sample I learned from sun worshipers that tanning evens out their skin tone and hides blemishes. Also, those who are 35 and up feel it makes them look younger, slimmer and their body more defined. When asked about wrinkles and the breakdown of collagen – the cause of premature aging, the predominant answers can be summed up: “They’ll invent something,” or “I’ll get botox.”

However, what’s wrong with being a pale face?

* In some cultures and we can look to Melville’s symbolism in Moby Dick and Billy Budd, white can represent evil or at least an unwholesome pallor.
* White is reminiscent of death and ghosts.
* White is the absence of color.
* Many celebrities look tan.

But keep in mind that white also represents:
* Purity , peace and spirituality
* Clean laundry blowing in the breeze
* Angels
* Softness as cotton and clouds

“There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting.” (Well said by John Kenneth Galbraith)  When you think about it, health and vitality make a person appear more beautiful and notice more beauty around them.  

While sunshine in our lives makes us glow with happiness and aspiration, too much sun can burn, injure and hasten death. The Greeks wrote about this in the myth of Icarus whose waxen, feathery wings melted when he flew too close to the sun; it was such an exhilarating experience that he ignored his wise father’s instructions. Consequently, he dropped down into the ocean and died prematurely.

Could a tanning addiction be similar to a smoking addiction?

It’s time to lighten up and take things more lightly.

  PHOTO (cc): Flickr / m00by