Comments on: Fake Bake: A Rant

By: Isa

Isa — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:45:42 +0000

I’m pale. Very pale. My mum’s Norwegian and my dad’s Scottish.

And I like my paleness. I’m a gothy kind of girl, not to mention a redhead, so it suits me.

I occasionally mention to people that I need to wear sunscreen if we go outside in bright sunlight, and IT IS NOT OPTIONAL because I will burn. Badly. They ask, “Well, why don’t you go tanning, then?”

I DO NOT WANT TO GO TANNING. WHY WOULD I? MY SKIN IS FINE JUST THE WAY IT IS, THANK YOU.

I have no particular desire to have skin the same colour/texture as my dad’s leather couch. Thanks though.

The funny thing is… considering how obsessed with being tanned people are, I am frequently complimented on the whiteness of my skin.

By: emilyanne

emilyanne — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:41:43 +0000

I’ve never used a fake tan of any kind or a spray tan or anything. I embrace my pasty English/Irish heritage, we’re meant to have mottled red and white legs in the summer. Yes, we are, I don’t care.

By: Renata

Renata — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:38:48 +0000

As a Brazilian woman who lives in Rio, people feel painfully bothered by the fact that I don’t like to tan. I mean: AT ALL. I have an Italian heritage, fair complexion (yet not really a pinkish undertone; I’m more like Tina Fey), brown eyes, brown hair. I’m 26 and when I was 15 I realized my skin looked better when kept away from the sun.

But the argument here is interesting: people think when you’re too pale, you don’t look… HEALTHY. Yes. I don’t even know how to explain to those people it’s an option.

And tell me: Julianne Moore, Evan Rachel Wood (before the goth look), Nicole Kidman (let’s forget about the botox for a while)… do they really look unhealthy? This is just… crazy.

By: PhDork

PhDork — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:49:51 +0000

My family mostly comes in a lovely shade my mother refers to as “fishbelly.” The bad news is I burn like a mofo and have recently become susceptible to melasmas on my face (SO attractive). The good news is that I am keeping the straw hat and titanium dioxide people in business. I’ve never been in a tanning bed, despite their wild popularity in my HS days, and I’ve never done the spray-thing, either. I’ve tried the bottles of foam, but my clumsiness or inpatience has resulted in poor results. Fishbelly it is.

By: thebewilderness

thebewilderness — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:37:43 +0000

When I was very young and naive I read a science fiction story about these BEM who came to earth to divide and conquer. Their plan was to start a race war so that the puny humans would do most of the work for them.
As they go about attempting to sow dissent with racist epithets everyone just shrugs them off with a big so what.
The reason for their failure was the then current earth fashion of colorful skin. Enough people had adopted the fashion of coloring their skin in every possible skin tone that derogatory remarks based on color were heard as directed to the color quality rather than the person quality.
It was quite juvenile, I know, but it warmed my teen age heart and gave me hope in the racially charged fifties.
I love the idea still. Orange, will be good when purple and blue and green are fashionable too. Maybe.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:16:51 +0000

I am fond of the classic farmer’s tan look myself. Biking in short sleeves- huzzah!

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:10:44 +0000

@Awkward Avenger: There is no body part that Big Fashion or Big Cosmetics doesn’t want you to “fix”. There’s always something wrong/ugly/unfeminine about your appearance that you need to be spending money on. For me the absolute nadir of this was anal bleaching.

@Misscalculate: Completely agree about the whole idea being revolting, and for me, it’s taken to such an extreme–i.e. skin that’s not even skin-colored–that it’s just fucking ridiculous.

By: misscalculate

misscalculate — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:06:24 +0000

I just generally have an issue with the idea that underlies the whole tanning trend. People automatically assume, like others have mentioned, that I must *want* to tan my pale skin.

This is the way I am and I hope to not have the crazy skin damage or skin cancer when I’m older.

Granted the fake tan is not doing damage to your skin but the whole idea on which it is predicated is revolting.

By: Penny_Esq

Penny_Esq — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:55:45 +0000

@BeckySharper: I had it done on Wednesday, and it was still in pretty good shape on Saturday. But definitely gone within a week. Except for the dirty fingernail beds look. That lasted for quite a while.

Honestly, I like the way I look with a tan, but not enough to maintain a fake one year round. And I always wear hardcore sunscreen on my face, so when I do have a tan my face is a totally different color than my body, which presents its own aesthetic problems.

By: Awkward Avenger

Awkward Avenger — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:30:02 +0000

“That list keeps growing out of control. Everything that is advertised/recommended by the media requires near-constant maintenance updates. Waxing, brow shaping, pedicures, anti-cellulite cream, hair color…. if you follow all of what’s supposed to make you beautiful, there’d be no time for real life. Where’s the fun in that?”

Just the other day, there was a commercial on TV for some prescription eyedrops that supposedly make your eyelashes grow longer and fuller. Brooke Shields was in it. I just thought to myself, “So now I’m supposed to worry about having skimpy lashes, too? Really?”