Pale skin and tan skin

I often hear or read about people that want to change their skin color. Usually a person with dark skin like african american or latino or asian want to bleach their skin and be more pale or become white. Well today I was thinking : I know a bunch of women that go to tanning salons and try to make their skin brown all the time. Its like they cant accept their white skin. I think they have the same problem. They dont want to be white. They want to be brown. Seriously there is no difference. So if anyone ever mentions to you anything about dark skined people that want to be white, mention to them that caucasians try to do the same. We try to be brown! no difference at all. I think we should embrace our pale caucasian skin as long as we are not deficient in vitamin D.What do you guys think?

Comments

  • erm, while i too enjoy my super pale skin, i think you might be missing a bit of critical race theory in your analysis. Skin bleaching is on a different level than tanning.

  • NoNo you dont understand :P us whites want to change to darker skin and the dark skinned folks want to be less dark… its the same principle. What I mean is caucasians that tan their white skin are just like the dark skined folds that want to be lighter.

  • NoNo you dont understand :P us whites want to change to darker skin and the dark skinned folks want to be less dark… its the same principle. What I mean is caucasians that tan their white skin are just like the dark skined folds that want to be lighter.

  • MeditatingMeditating Raw Newbie

    There are some unfortunate cultural mores about skin color that can explain current attitudes about tanned white skin and light black skin.

    At one time, tan skin on a white person was considered a sign of low economic class as it indicated that one was a laborer and worked outside. That assumption has now turned in the opposite direction and tan skin is believed to represent health (even if achieved in a tanning salon and exposing yourself to mega-doses of UV rays). Some also believe it indicates membership in the upper economic class because a tanned person enjoys plenty of leisure time activities.

    As for stereo-types regarding black skin, there has traditionally been a strong bias toward lighter rather than darker skin, which is long-rooted in racial discrimination. There has recently been more appreciation for very dark skin in some segments of the black community as a response to the bias.

    Putting all that aside, it isn’t surprising that people want what they don’t have. People with straight hair curl their hair or get perms. People with curly hair have it straightened, That may have more to do with an inability to be satisfied with one’s self.

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    Sorry but I hate my pale skin. If you had kids making fun of you and calling you “ghost” when you were little you would not want to be pale either. After years of mostly being blueish white and several bad burns (and bad artifical tanners that turned my skin orange) trying to get rid of my pale skin, my skin finally tans and I have color. I wouldn’t ever torture myself in a tanning salon but I wouldn’t care if I was ever pale white again. I seriously was like a day-glo white. I hate it.

    True there are people who loved my pale skin (mostly weird men with fetishes) but not the kind of people I want to attract.

    I don’t really think it is just that most people want what they don’t have but people are very white often get made fun of because a tan is seen as “healthy” and if you are pale you are considered not healthy. None my dark skinned friends ever once said they wanted to be white – they like their dark skin because they don’t burn. I have also known some very pale white women who avoided the sun to stay porceline.

    I don’t think anyone can speaks for all “white” people or all “dark” people. I think that if your skin color changes naturally by the sun what is wrong with that? There is a reason it does that. Why is there something wrong with being tan? Majority of the people who have “white” skin don’t really have truely “white” skin – the people who have it – often stand out like a sore thumb because of it and really hate it. I am one of the latter types. People would point at me and stare and say “look at how white she is”. I hated it.

    Eating raw really helped my skin go from “ghost white” to having some color and be able to tan which I believe is the natural state of the skin – I think if you are so pale that you always burn you are missing some nutritional wise in you. I always burned before and now I never do and I look so much better being tan. I can’t tell you how happy I am not to be “ghost girl” anymore. I am not super dark tan by any means I don’t think I would glow in the dark anymore.

  • springleafspringleaf Raw Newbie

    I had a similar experience to queenfluff, people say to me ” you are anemic” ! What has lack of ability to tan got to do with the amount of melanin (skin pigment) we have! Answer none! If I go out in the sun I burn a bit, but mostly I just don’t tan very well. I don’t mind the colour I am but it upsets me when people think they can attack me for my colour (why don’t you fake tan / sunbathe more etc etc) This would not be tolerated if it was the opposite way round i.e. your so dark, you should lighten your skin, stay out of the sun etc etc. So personally I think it is offensive to say these things to me.

    In answer to the original question I think it is a simple case of “the grass is always greener” for these people that try and change their colour. We are all beautiful whatever colour we are, beauty shines from within and has far more to do with personality than with external appearences!

  • MeditatingMeditating Raw Newbie

    QUEENFLUFF I understand where you are coming from with white skin and eating raw. I have had ghost-like white skin all my life. Most of the “ivory” conventional makeup I used to buy was too dark to match correctly. I always had a bluish tint to my skin as you could easily see my entire vascular system just beneath. I have been picked on as a child for my fair skin. I always wanted to tan but would turn red and promptly peel like a snake. I always wore a big hat outside, which isn’t a problem if your riding western.

    I have been raw for almost a year. This spring/summer I noticed I could handle the heat a little better and worked outside on my garden one sunny day without a hat. I ended up being out there much longer than anticipated and thought I would be burnt to crisp. Instead, I tanned. I have been working on my vitamin D production since then and haven’t burned once. I too think a change in my nutritional content has made a difference.

  • I was always self-conscious of my pale skin until i dated a guy from china who constantly complemented me on my white skin and told me how lucky i was to be so fair. That made me realize that it truly is all relative, beauty is about location. I have noticed too that while i was juicing and since that I havent burned. I didn’t wear sunscreen at all all summer long and never burned once. I ran around arizona for a week and never burned. And I used to burn while riding in a car. Behold the power of green juices…

  • springleafspringleaf Raw Newbie

    I have had similar experiences with the diet, when I eat lots of raw I can certainly stay out in the sun longer…

  • wooooah sorry about the ridiculously long list of postings, don’t know how that happened. but yeah i definetely, i agree with what you’re saying overall about people being happy with what they have.

Sign In or Register to comment.