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Beauty Spotting: To Tan or Not to Tan?

Written by emilyc

After moving from Florida to New York City, I have become a victim of Tanning Culture Shock. I felt immense pressure to maintain a year-round tan in Florida. In New York, I almost feel pressure to be chic-pale sometimes. Maybe chic-pale isn’t even a thing and it’s just my skin-conscience telling me it is. Is skin-conscience even a thing?

Caught in the midst of this tanning dilemma, I decided to look back in history to see what everyone else has to say about the matter. Whose advice should I take?

Ancient Romans: They whitened their faces with chalk and shunned the sun.

Renaissance/Elizabethan women: These smart girls used lead-based white paints on their faces and painted on blue veins! The picture of health. Not pore-clogging in the least.

Industrial Revolution: If you were pale, you were poor. If you were rich, you were tan from livin’ the good life of lounging in the sun on vacay. If that’s the case, maybe I should remain pale to stay true to myself?

Early 1900s: The term “healthy tan” was coined. Well, I’m going for sickly-chic, so I guess that solves my quandary.

Present: Snooki.

Ok, pale it is.

 

 

About the author

emilyc

Emily is a New Yorker trapped in a Floridian's body and loves every minute of her big city life. With a major in international business and years of being surrounded by ill-fitting suits and all the wrong shoes, she learned that the importance of fashion needs to be communicated to the world. To her, fashion is on the same level as charity work and feeding hungry children. Emily can be found frolicking the streets of her gayborhood enjoying the off-color humor of the gays.