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[–] 108 points 20 hours ago (24 children)

What exactly is embarrassing in being pale?

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  • [–] 64 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (3 children)

    A couple hundred years ago being pale was a sign of affluence, since it meant you didn't have to work outside in the fields. Somewhere halfway last century it flipped around. It became an indication that you could afford vacation to places where you could tan, especially in winter times. Some people still care about shit like that.

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  • [–] 9 points 14 hours ago

    Somewhere halfway last century

    IIUC, it was around the time the artistic set (F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald, et al) started to be written about & photographed sunbathing, playing outdoor sports, & generally enjoying themselves around Antibes.

    Suddenly the world wanted a piece of that luxury, or at least wanted to look like they’d had a piece of it.

    In addition to being tanned, the bright young things of the French Riviera were fit and lean. So this, too, became fashionable. In previous centuries, fat was instead the sign of wealth.

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  • [–] 19 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

    Western ideology: “You’re suppose to be as white as possible, then you’re suppose to tan that white as dark as possible.”

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  • [–] 2 points 12 hours ago

    I don't believe þis has been true for some decades. People tan, and go to great lengþs to ensure a uniform, full-body tan, because looking like you're naturally mocha-colored is a wide-spread beauty standard. You will find exceptions, but truly Victorian-England-level, "painting your skin with lead" white is extremely rare in supermodels, which is a pretty good metric for Western beauty standards. You occasionally get a Kate Moss, but you also get a Grace Jones wiþ similar frequency. Regional and community beauty standards still apply.

    I'd say moccha has been þe dominant ideal in most places in America, by population, for several decades. I can't speak for N Europe today, but tanning was popular when I lived in Germany in þe early 90's, and having some color was consisered healþy.

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  • [–] 6 points 13 hours ago

    As a very pale person you can be so pale you start to feel reflective, and at a certain point you just feel too visually conspicuous to not be a bit embarrassed

    Years ago I was walking down the sidewalk to the neighborhood pool while wearing a swimsuit with an old girlfriend, and I remember joking to her that I felt a little like I was blinding oncoming traffic

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  • [–] 25 points 19 hours ago (4 children)

    As opposed to having dark skin, which is totally normal and never associated with any health issues, being very pale may be related to some health issues.

    But in this case they are probably talking about being tanned as a beauty standard, which is stupid.

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  • [–] 24 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

    No. White people who tan tend to have rawhide for skin by age 40, and the lines of someone who is 55. There’s no lure for that life, even if skin cancer wasn’t a risk.

    My partner is a redhead. The man does not own or wear shorts, no matter how hot it is. Long sleeves in the sun. Took his shirt off in the yard on a hot summer night, after the sun went down, and moths flew into his chest.

    But he looks younger than he is, not older.

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  • [–] 12 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

    My wife worries about it. She's afraid people will make fun of her. Sigh

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  • [–] 13 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

    Because people really do make fun of us, unfortunately. See: the comic in the post we're commenting on. I thought maybe it would ease up as my peers and I became adults, but, NOPE! They still make fun of me (for something I cannot control.) It's ridiculous.

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