Don't Be a Paleist

Today, I noted to an acquaintance that she was looking particularly tan after her Thanksgiving vacation. She beamed at me and said that her son told her she should stay tan because it 'makes you look healthy'.

You know that moment in TV crime dramas when the camera pans over a destroyed apartment, past broken picture frames and an overturned potted plant, finally coming to rest on a scantily clad young woman smeared in blood? You know how your first thought is "Oh holy cow, that chick's dead! This'll be a good one!"? Well, you knew she was dead and not just unconscious because the Makeup Department had spent two hours perfecting her gray, lifeless pallor.

Pale does not equal Dead, so why does Tan seem to equal Healthy?

Check out Nicola Roberts:

Tan, but her skin looks dull. And orange.

Pale. Skin is not dull, but luminous. Also, not orange.

I do think that her tan makes her gorgeous eyes stand out, but it also looks as if she bathed in a tub of iodine. Her skin looks lifeless to me. And orange. Very, very orange. In interviews, Nicola said that she used both tanning beds and self-tanner to get a 'bronzed' look. She has also said that she regrets this phase of tanning as she now realizes the damage she has done to her skin. She has Embraced her Pale and looks lovely.

Tanning is not healthy. This is irrefutable and I guarantee that no doctor would claim that UVR (ultraviolet radiation encompassing UVA and UVB rays) is beneficial to the health of human skin. Is it a great source of Vitamin D? Absolutely, but so is fish.

I resent the implication that I am not, nor do I look, healthy simply because my skin is pale. This kind of thinking is dangerous.

There is no healthy tan. The women who are willingly giving themselves wrinkles, thickened skin, and age spots have skewed perceptions of beauty and the very real risks to which they subject themselves.



My pale skin should look healthy, because it is.