Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american,alt.discrimination
Subject: Re: TANNING
From: ohall@milori.ccit.arizona.edu
Date: 21 Jan 93 10:01:46 MST
 <1993Jan16.055039.1711@news.weeg.uiowa.edu> <38314@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu> <2B5CC785.27035@news.service.uci.edu>
Distribution: usa,local
Nntp-Posting-User: ohall

In article <2B5CC785.27035@news.service.uci.edu>, cortese@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis Maria Cortese) writes:
> In article <38314@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu> djohns@elm.circa.ufl.edu (David A. Johns) writes:
>>I suspect that most tanners are looking not for darkness as such but
>>for a richness of color that comes with darkness.  Pale white skin
>>simply doesn't look healthy.  I don't think there's any racial
>>symbolism underlying the practice.
> 
> I still think there's a big part of this locked up in imitating rich
> people.  Long nails were a big part of this -- a way of advertising that
> you don't need your hands.  Only women of leisure could have `em.
> What's the result?  Long nails, for no apparent reason, are chic,
> despite the fact that there is LITERALLY NO REASON why people should
> pursue them.   
>
  What I don't understand is why was it at one time considered bad or
undesirable to be tanned(i.e. slave days) and now it is in style?  In other 
words at one time in the U.S. tan or dark skin was associated with the poor
and low class and now it is supposedly associated with the rich.  Isn't this
a drastic change? 

> And -- to add one more voice to this -- I tan a little bit, not a lot
> because I don't want to either get skin cancer or look like a leather
> handbag in twenty years.  However, I do like to be darker.  This may
> partially be due to "racial" reasons; I am an Italian-American whose
> family is from southern Italy, and while my hair and eyes are dark, my
> skin is quite sallow compared to them.  I don't like this, and would
> like it to be darker, so I don't avoid tanning when I'm at the beach,
> although I don't deliberately tan.
>
  Why do you like to be darker?  Can't you just be happy the way you are?  I
  feel sorry for people who don't like the color of thier skin.  How can one
  love anyone else if they don't love themselves? 
  If I was blacker than coal or whiter than snow, I would still learn to love 
  myself despite of the social norms.  Currently I have a growing afro and
  listen to old motown, which at this time is considered out of style.  
  Ask me if I care what the Euro-American or Afro-American society thinks?  
  It's what's inside that counts.  When the people start paying my bills they 
  can tell me what to do!  Without limitations ofcourse.t!  
> 
>>On this subject, when I moved to Florida from the upper Midwest, I
>>noticed that black people seemed much darker here, and wondered why.
>>My best guess is that with so much more intense sunshine here, all
>>year round, it's virtually impossible to avoid darkening from the sun.
>>In the North, I suspect that many blacks make an effort to stay out of
>>what sun there is, so as not to get darker.
> 
> I don't know if there's enough sun to account for any tanning up north,
> especially in the Midwest, so I'm not sure if AfAm people could get
> darker even if they wanted to. 
> 
  I can, and some of the blacks I've known can.  I don't know about all blacks
  or all whites. 
>>Could there be other explanations?
>>
>>David
> 
> I hate to say this, but could there be AfAm people who don't think that
> they can GET darker from the sun?  I'm not trying to slam people in
> saying that AfAm people are so dumb that they don't understand
> themselves, but that maybe the predominant white myth that they can't
> get sunburnt filters down to them.  There are certainly plenty of women
> who are completely ignorant of their bodies due to the myths of the
> predominantly white male world.  Could AfAm people be similarly
> misinformed about themselves?  Please follow up as I am interested in
> what people have to say to this.
> 
  Like I said.  I can tan.  Skin is skin is skin.  It all cuts and bleeds.

  Omar Hall