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Back in the 50s women made themselves miserable trying to be the perfect housewives. They worked diligently in their small domestic sphere and were concerned when they didn’t feel satisfied with just hat. Women in the 50s wore little white gloves. From my perspective these little white gloves are a sign of docile and meek conformists. Just like the 50s I realize that I have been a docile and meek conformist. All this time, I have been trying to conform to one standard of beauty – the Chinese model which I don’t fit in and even if I did, would it make me happier? I think not.
I’m making a new statement: no more little white gloves. Trying to live up to the media’s impossible standards of beauty is ridiculous, spending money to modify my skin tone can become an expensive habit, trying to be pale can be just as deadly as cancer and companies are making too much money off of women’s insecurities. No more trying to conform to someone else’s standard of beauty. What matters most is that I am happy with myself naturally. Beauty comes in all shades and complexions.
…a continuation of Is She Hot?: The Quintessential Question
This video has changed my life. I knew that models on the cover of magazines had a large crew take care of their face, hair and eyes but it never occurred to me that all the images in a magazine underwent Adobe Photoshop. The model did appear more dull and pale than the face in the advertisement. Notice how color, depth and glow were added to her skin with makeup. Then it was enhanced with Adobe Photoshop. It’s true! I’ve been watching YouTube video after YouTube video marveling at all the amazing things that Adobe Photoshop can do.
This is a video about a girl from diet.com who is in very good shape but is still undergoes Adobe Photoshop. The video is campaigning against retouching photographs. It addresses the issue of an unrealistic standard of beauty that is set by magazines and advertisements but also shows the miracles of Adobe Photoshop. The photographer in the video has taken pictures of many beautiful women but always feels the need to touch them up on the program. It surprised me the most is that celebrities have personal touch up artists and their photographs are not publicly released without the touch ups. I’m really in awe of Adobe Photoshop. It does tanning for you. There are tutorials available online so that you can learn how to get the right tan on the program.
This is an instructional video on how to make you look more tan using Adobe Photoshop. In this video they took a picture of Rose McGowan who is naturally pale and gorgeous and they give her a bit of a tan using different layers, brushes and backgrounds.
No wonder women are so unhappy with the way that they naturally look. The images that surround us aren’t what people actually look like but instead highly manipulated images created by artists. The standard of beauty represented in these pictures is unobtainable and like he said in the video even if you were a professional athlete you could only get close to having the ideal body. Just hit a few buttons on the program and you can adjust your skin tone to any color you want. Is this the future of tanning?
I began this blog writing on my own self-image when I was a child and Karessa noted in her response that when she heard about my blog she thought I was insecure. This is partly true, so I want to discuss self-image in this blog post. I believe that making the choice of tanning or not tanning is an issue of self-image. It also has cultural implications. Although I knew darker when I lived in the Philippines I had no idea that I was too dark until I saw the television commercials of models with fair skin. Later in my life people would tell me things that altered by self-image. In high school I was a very impressionable young woman.
I remember the first day of school back in high school was the most exciting day of the year. We came back from summer with new stories and entered the new school year with new class schedules. The fun of the first day of school is seeing who you have classes with and catching up with everyone in the hallway. The most nerve-wrecking thing about the first day for me was trying to groom myself so that I would look my best.
The men in my school always played this game “Hot or Not”. The rules are simple. The men would survey all the women in the classroom and decide who was hot and who wasn’t. They would sit next to their best friend and point out who the winners were and their best friend would either agree or disagree. They acted like no one could see or hear them but I knew I could hear them perfectly. I never made it on to the hot list and I can’t begin to explain why this stupid game had an effect on my self-image but it did. I felt disappointed I was not considered to be attractive by these men. It’s not the only reason I had a low self-image but instead added to the list of reasons. It took me until today to learn why I didn’t feel comfortable with myself in high school. The thing is the girls that they thought were hot all looked the same and I didn’t fit into that mold.
Today, I stumbled upon this advertisement which sparked my curiosity. It’s called the “Evolution of Beauty” by the Dove Company. After watching the advertisement I logged on to their website and learned that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. "78% of girls with low self-esteem admit that it is hard to feel good in school when you do not feel good about how you look," (Dove.com). This really sums up my high school experience. I had low self esteem, felt insecure about how I looked and had a terrible high school experience. This also explains why girls feel the need to do massive amounts of tanning – they feel inadequate, insecure and unhappy with their natural skin tone. They would like to fit into the mold and aren’t secure enough with their self to venture outside the mold. I guess I can relate to that.
...to be continued. (Rachel and Mischa are ideals that we tried to live up to in high school)
[1] Segrave, Kerry
2005 Suntanning in 20th Century America: McFarland & Company.
In my previous entry I mentioned mass-market self-tanning and bronzing products but I also want to think about services.
1. The Spray Tan Booth.
I find this one particularly interesting. Watch the first 30 seconds of this video. Is it really that easy to spray tan? The reason why I chose Mystic tan is because appears to be the most prominent brand for this service. Strangely enough the locations for Mystic Tan are where people typically get more sun anyways. Mystic Tan has the most stores in California where the weather is warmer all year round. There are four California locations: Los Angeles, San Diego, Bakersfield and Riverside. These are all large university locations. Is the tanning trend geared towards college students? Click here to see the map of Mystic Tan locations.
2. Tanning Beds.
Tanning beds give you high exposure to UV light from the top and the bottom. I find these to be really creepy because they remind me of coffins!
I didn’t realize how popular tanning is until I counted how many tanning salons there are around this town. I am living in a small suburban town of 18,000 people and there are six tanning salons open for business. This really surprises me because I didn’t think there would be such a high demand for tanning services. Again, I wonder if the tanning trend is geared towards college students as the college students do make up most of the town population.
Tanning is a fashion trend. The ultimate fashion authority – Vogue Magazine, proves this statement. In 1929 they said, “the 1929 girl must be tanned,” (1). This mantra has stuck ever since. Today, there are many ways to tan but because of the risks involved overexposure to UV-light including (but not limited to): wrinkles causing women to age faster and cancer tan-aholics have turned to the safer self-tanning alternative. This has created a large market for self-tanning products. The products provide a variety of ways to appear more tan. From manipulating light to using colored topical creams so a sunny complexion can be achieved anywhere, anytime. I’d like to discuss the invention of products designed around the tanning fad. The following are all mass-market products.
1. Self-Tanning Gel.
It seeps into your skin and makes the pigment darker quickly.
2. Tinted Lotion.
This is a new product. It appears to be a mix of lotion and cover up. You can move the dial to match your complexion. It just sits on the surface of your skin.
3. Estee Lauder.
This is an entire line to keep you looking sunkist all year 'round. I think it's called "Bronze Goddess". These are also topical products.
4. Bronzer.
Dark pigment powder that you apply to key areas on your face to make yourself appear more tan. It's used instead of blush. Washes off.
5. Lotion.
This product gradually makes your skin look more tan. It is used to even out your skin tone. My mother uses this on her legs all year 'round because she fears having to wear a skirt and having to reveal "pale pasty" legs.
6. The Backless Dress.
This is used to show off your tan. Perhaps this is why people try to tan evenly on the beach. Backless tops were popular when I left Beijing last summer but girls wore it with a contrasting tank top underneath.
I'd really like to find out why people buy these products and how frequently the buyers use these products. Do you like the way it works?
[1] Segrave, Kerry
2005 Suntanning in 20th Century America: McFarland & Company.
The sun is responsible for life on Earth. The process in which living matter on Earth absorbs the sun is called photosynthesis. The diagram above is an example of plant photosynthesis. Plants would not grow without it; animals and humans would be in the dark. This is why humans have worshiped the sun in ceremonies and modern housing allows us to soak in its glory in sun rooms. What are the scientific benefits to direct sun exposure?
Sun exposure has many health benefits. Scientific American 1921 said, “the rays of the sun can be used for curing many skin diseases and that the sun baths are advantageous even to those who are in perfect health has long been well known to the general public,” [1]. According to the article the sun is thought to have healing powers that help to cure a variety of ailments. This is called heliotherapy. Heliotherapy is a practice that emphasizes the healing benefits of the sun without burning. It has been shown to be effective in curing diseases specifically: tuberculosis and rickets. Both tuberculosis and rickets are results of Vitamin D and E deficiencies. “The sun acts as a bactericide, killing the Tubercular bacillus organisms that cause the disease,” [2].
The following is a comprehensive list of overall health benefits of sun exposure according to Oasis Tan an indoor tanning salon in Washington.
1. Decreases blood pressure
2. Lowers resting heart rate
3. Increases cardiac output
4. Increases energy and endurance
5. Increases muscular strength
6. Lowers blood cholesterol
7. Increases resistance to infections
8. Increases oxygen capacity of blood
9. Increases tolerance to stress
10 Increases adrenaline in tissues
11.Increases sex hormones.
12.Increases the skin's resistance to infections
13. Reduces the symptoms of PMS. [3]
Works Cited [1] Treatments of Tubercuosis: The Lung Association. [3] Kime, Zane R. 1980 Sunlight. 2nd ed: World Health Pubns. [2] Segrave, Kerry 2005 Suntanning in 20th Century America: McFarland & Company.
I’ve been doing a little reading on sun tanning in America to try to understand what American’s views on beauty were before sun tanning became popular. Perhaps, if I understand how the shift in ideals I can start to understand how it began and developed. I compare the history of American ideals of beauty to my experience in China. These are the findings of my project:
Before the 1920s suntans were considered to be a mark of the working class. Upper class women wanted to differentiate themselves by being pale. A lily white complexion was a sign of beauty. A tan would permanently ruin a woman’s beautiful complexion by making her skin coarse and unrefined [1]. Class differences also reinforced racial differences.
I can certainly relate to this view. Upper class Chinese people are typically have a fair complexion because they work in the office during the day. They also tend to be from the North. Lower class Chinese people are typically darker because they do manual labor where they have more exposure to the sun.
White races were meant for white collared jobs as black races could only obtain jobs under the white collars. An American surgeon Charles E. Woodruff explains the link between color and biology. “Men have evolved to the zone where they lived…blacks at the tropical, brown and olive-skinned races further into the less fiercely lighted zones and the blonder, whiter races at the cloudy north” [1]. From these assumptions Woodruff reinforces job niches. Blacks live in the tropical zones where they are exposed to more sunlight and can therefore work under the sun longer than whites since they are biologically more fit for it.
In China a North- South gap exists. This is similar to the North-South gap in America where the South sees the North as rich and snobby and the North see the South as poor and uneducated. Southern Chinese people are darker because they lie closer to the equator where the natural resources are richer for crops to grow. In China, a tan would bring Northern Chinese people closer to becoming Southern Chinese. This is undesirable. Southerners are seen as more biologically fit as farmers working under the sun longer than Northerners. Tanning would not go over well in the North.
Here is a list directly taken from Wikipedia to help emphasize differences between Northerners and Southerners:
The stereotypical Northerner is:
* Is taller and bigger
* Has lighter skin (some have purely white skin)
* Has small, slit-like, and/or slanty eyes with single eyelids (i.e. an epicanthal fold)
* Has a longer rugged face (possibly with considerably more facial hair than southerners)
* Speaks a northern Mandarin dialect
* Eats wheat-based food rather than rice-based food
* Is loud, loyal, boisterous, warm-hearted, open, and prone to drunkenness and "thunderbolt" displays of emotion, such as anger
The stereotypical Southerner:
* Is shorter and smaller
* Has darker skin
* Has large, almond-shaped eyes with double eyelids
* Has a smooth, round face
* Speaks a southern dialect such as Wu, Hakka, Yue (Cantonese), or Min
* Eats rice-based food rather than wheat-based food
* Is clever, calculating, wealthy, hardworking, and prone to "mincemeat" displays of emotion, such as brooding melancholy
(Note that these are very rough stereotypes, and are greatly complicated both by further stereotypes by province [or even county] and by real life.)
In America, a suntan would bring whites closer to becoming blacks and ruin the neat hierarchy of jobs and money. [1]However, sun tanning has become a trend endorsed by celebrities.
Tanning became popular in the 1920s and most people will credit Coco Chanel with this trend. They say that she started to use bronze mannequins as sun tanning was becoming fashionable. From there the trend took off…
Works Cited [1] Segrave,
Kerry 2005 Suntanning
in 20th Century America: McFarland & Company.
Once upon a time, when I was eight years old I looked into my vanity mirror and saw the damage that sun exposure did to my skin. I was very tan. Milk chocolate tan. I felt so unattractive! I was so ashamed of how dark my skin was but I couldn't help it! At the time I was living in Manila, Philippines where everyone has a pool in their backyard. I went swimming often and my family liked to go to the beach on the weekends. I would never be able to escape the sun! Despite my efforts to apply sunscreen every hour I would always return to my room darker than I was when I left. I would never be pretty.
My ideal of beauty were the women on the SK II commercials. They all looked just like Snow White with fair skin and their beauty radiated through the television screen. I wanted fair skin so badly that I begged my parents for whitening products to make me prettier but they told me that I did not need whitening products because I was already pretty.
The Emperor clung to the spot and would not turn away
From the soil along the Mawei slope, under which was buried
That memory, that anguish. Where was her jade-white face?
(A Song of Unending Sorrow by Bai Juyi)
The poem ends in sorrow because the Emperor is unable to find this woman. Her legendary beauty is timeless. Women in the east continue to take great measures to keep their skin fair. In the summer they carry parasols and some women even wear long pants, long sleeved shirts and evening gloves to ensure an even skin tone.
My ideal of beauty has not changed since I was eight but I have come to terms with my skin tone but I still believe that fair skin is more beautiful. I envy my friends and relatives who are able to keep an light complexion and I continue to religiously apply sunscreen. I limit my exposure to the sun during the summer and I do own two UV umbrellas. I even own a bit of whitening lotion.
Americans don't seem to share these ideals with me. In fact, most don't take any measures to have fair skin. They prefer to tan. I know this because when I moved to the United States for high school I was shocked to see American tanning culture. No more SK II and no UV parasols! American supermarkets carry tanning products. Celebrities and models are tan.
Americans find many different ways to tan all year round: self tanning lotion, spray tanning booths, tanning beds and sunbathing. Why is tan considered to be beautiful? How do people make the choice to tan even with knowledge about skin cancer from tanning? I would like to better understand tanning culture.
