# Dear Prunefaces: No, I do not NEED a tan! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 20, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323 "2005-04-20T22:16:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/101 "2005-04-29T16:06:03Z")
The [Vitamin D issue](http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp) is a good question - for those of us living in Northern latitudes (I’ve heard anything north of San Francisco is too far north to get enough Vitamin D from the sun), we have to be careful to get enough Vitamin D in our diets. Also, people who have darker skin or use sunscreen or avoid the sun religiously or don’t drink milk should probably supplement Vitamin D or make sure they eat foods with lots of Vitamin D. I take cod liver oil pills every day for this, and from what I’ve read, this is one vitamin that isn’t in dispute - [most, if not all Canadians should be taking Vitamin D supplements.](http://unisci.com/stories/20022/0611023.htm) That said, I’m not particularly alabaster (I’m more of a pinkish-beige), and I do tan, but I have no interest in baking in the sun, either. I also have no wrinkles at 38. People who have nothing better to do than comment on other people’s skin colour need a hobby. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/102 "2005-04-29T17:33:22Z")
A woman that I know ( pale skin, white/blonde hair/blue eyes) who never tans because she Has A Life was just carded recently at a bar. It totally made her day. She is 45 years old. I aspire to be her. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/103 "2005-04-29T22:21:36Z")
I’m the same as **Ink**. I tanned easily as a child, and lay out in the sun with baby oil. Suddenly, as a teenager, I started burning. I had two second degree burns before I realized that things had changed. Now I avoid the sun. Even at my age _coughfortycough_, though, I have sun damage. I’m glad I stopped as early as I did. For those who have darker skin and tan easily, it’s true there is less risk of damage and skin cancer. Even so, the more you tan, the faster your skin ages. Staying out of the sun is not only for vanity, it is a health concern. It bothers me that the media still glorifies tan skin. Who decided that tan is better? I will say, though, that every time I see someone under fifty with a huge scar on their nose from the skin cancer surgery, it renews my sunphobia, and my desire to keep preaching my anti-sun agenda. My patients deserve no less. ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/104 "2005-04-30T03:17:29Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > It bothers me that the media still glorifies tan skin. Who decided that tan is better? I read somewhere (Dan Savage?) that the standard of beauty is decided by what is hardest to achieve. More than 100 years ago, people had to work outside in the sun in their fields. Everyone was tanned. The women who could afford to stay out of the sun’s rays were seen as beautiful. Now everyone works in an office building, in a cubicle, and tanned skin means that you have money to take vacations to exotic locales. Same thing with weight. When food was hard to come by, the fat women were celebrated. Nowadays, food is overabundant, and thinness is prized. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/105 "2005-04-30T10:59:05Z")
> [@FaerieBeth](#): > > I tried not to be upset about this. It’s a mindnumbingly insignificant thing over which to get my panties in a twist, but you prune-faced sourpusses just wouldn’t let it die! > Yes, there was fieldtrip planned for the zoo. I checked the weather forecast yesterday and commented in the teacher’s lounge that I might like to wear a pair of khaki shorts, instead of long pants with my school spirit T-shirt on fieldtrip day. > > This was met with “Oh, good grief! You’re so white! You can’t go out in shorts until you’ve had a little more sun on your legs”, “You’ll scare the children with your glow-in-the-dark legs!”, “You probably need a few visits to the tanning bed before you can wear shorts in public”, and “Girl, without a tan, you’ll look sick”. > > I was taken aback by these sentiments and a little perturbed. I settled this morning on a pair of capris. Cool, comfortable, and less revealing. I was greeted this morning with “So you decided to save our eyes from your blinding white legs?” and “I told you that you wouldn’t want to wear shorts until you got that summer tan. Have you made an appointment at the salon?” > > That’s it bitches. I do not NEED nor do I want a tan. I prefer not to have the cancer that many of my family members have had cut off and dug out of their skin. I prefer to not be a statistical death due to stupidity and vanity. I am PALE! YES! I like it that way. I do go out in the sun and I wear a hat and sunscreen! Sometimes I even sit in the shade or under an umbrella! The HORROR! You wonder why I don’t look my age? You wonder why people are shocked to learn I have a teenage son, while they remark on your birthday “Oh, you’re _only_ 37?” > Guess what, I haven’t spent my free time in a fucking tanning bed or laying out in the sun covered with oil. Keep that in mind while you make your moue of distaste over my pale gams. It makes your wrinkly, dried up mouth look like a geriatric porn star’s twat. Crawl your saggy, dried up ass back into your Oil-of-Olay lined cocoon and ponder the reasons why you look like a desiccated harpy. > :: deep breath :: I’m better now, and since I got this out of my system here, I’ll never have to be as rude as you ladies are. Now, I can continue to smile and brush off your insensitive, too familiar comments. Wonderful rant. I couldn’t possibly agree more – about the fact that they were incredibly rude, and the fact that the notion that damaging your skin makes you more attractive is pure stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/106 "2005-04-30T11:18:31Z")
To all you pale types a message of warning: If you ever visit NZ you need the strongest sunscreen you can get. The giant hole in the ozone layer parked itself over NZ. As a kid a 20 degree day was cold… but now you may get burned. NZ is no tropical paradise, a temp over 30 is rare but shit the sun has got burny!! I’m olive skinned and brown rather then burn but bear in mind if you visit NZ the sun WILL burn even when it isn’t hot. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/107 "2005-05-02T17:52:05Z")
> [@AwSnappity](#): > > I read somewhere (Dan Savage?) that the standard of beauty is decided by what is hardest to achieve. I’d believe that. Someday, I will pit this attitude… :mad: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323.md?page=5)