A+Proudly+Failed+Tanner

A Proudly Failed Tanner

By Rebecca Fuger According to tanning lore, it wasn't until Coco Chanel got accidentally sunburned while vacationing in the French Riviera in the 1920s and famed singer Josephine Baker became famous for her "caramel skin" did the standard of beauty start to lean toward darker skin. People began to view tanned skin as healthy, desirable, and fashionable.

I concluded that I was born in the wrong century. I should have lived several years ago when pale skin was desirable and associated with the aristocracy. Tanned skin was considered to belong to people who had to work out in the sun. Some desired this pale skin so much that they put lead-based products on themselves in an effort to lighten their skin. These products slowly caused their death through lead poisoning. Interestingly, we are seeing the same things today, however this time it is reversed. We are seeing the reversal now. Many people are subjecting themselves to ultraviolet tanning beds and airbrushed sprays that will darken their skin tone.

We are now seeing awful diseases such as skin cancer that are beginning to increase in disturbing numbers, mostly due to prolonged ultraviolet exposure.

People are spraying themselves a strange orange color to the point where they appear to age dramatically and are indistinguishable from Snooki from the //Jersey Shore//.

However, I have yet to succumb to this fad and I am deeply puzzled why many of my peers are effectively signing up for premature liver spots and melanoma. But this was a long journey. A journey from a wannabe tanner to an accepting ghost.

As an insecure preteen who was fed images of healthy and attractive people who were all tanned and cooked to perfection. I would helplessly lie on the beach, taking in the sun's rays, my eyes closed as I expectantly awaited a tan. I tried my best to drown out my mother's pleas to put sunscreen on. I just let the sun rays wash over me. This resulted in my skin adopting a very painful red hue rather than tanning. Some attractive peeling then followed the burning.

In gym class I noticed that all of the other girls had perfect tanned legs while I looked at my own translucent skin. This, coupled with girls who had my same skin tone constantly berating themselves for their stark white skin, gave me a minor hang up about my own paleness.

Numerous tubes of bronzer and moisturizing tanning lotion tubes later and there were no new results. My skin tone was just as blindingly white as it ever was. I decided that pale skin would have to be enough for me. In a cathartic move, I threw out my bronzing cosmetics and let nature take its course with me. In reality, I knew I never really wanted to be part of something that was becoming known as "tanorexia."

For some closure, I conducted some of my own research and found out that my skin type is called Type II skin. This means that my "beige" skin has a very strong tendency to burn and will only very rarely tan. From this research I also realized that I am suseptible to skin damage and cancers like basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. I am considered a high risk for melanoma, which is the deadliest type of skin cancer. It was recommended that I use sunscreen that has an SPF of 30 or higher and clothing that has a UPF, ultraviolet protection factor, of 30 or higher. It was also suggested that I should seek shade when I am out of the sun and to get annual checkups from professionals.

Now that I am more conscientious about the sun's impact on my skin and how I should best manage my skin, to ensure a naturally healthy complexion. In the warmer months of spring and summer I wear proudly shorts and skirts that show my paleness and I no longer care about what the orange people think of me and my fairer skin. I just let the satisfaction that I am not paying for health problems like skin cancer guide me through the hot summer days as I apply sunscreen that has an SPF of 75, but often higher, to my pale, beige skin while I bask in the shade.