The Vitamin D issue 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.
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.
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’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.
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.
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.
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.