The Skin Color Debate

[blas87]

Which skin color is the prettiest?

This may seem like an odd, even inappropriate question to ask. But I'm serious here.

This subject came up one night at work, when a bunch of us were on break talking.

A couple of my coworkers are Filipino ladies. They were saying to my friend Michelle and me, "Why do you girls go tanning? White skin is so pretty, why would you want to be darker?"

Michelle and I argued that being very fair skinned gives you very limited choices of colors of clothing to wear (before I got tan, all I could wear were pastel colors and browns and black) and when you have darker skin, it reduces the appearance of cellulite and it's helped our acne look a little less severe. Plus, we think you look healthier and always look awake and bright when your skin is bronze and glowing, and that we are jealous of people with naturally olive and darker skin.

They aren't the only non-white people I've ever heard of saying that they'd rather have lighter skin.

I'm not saying I'd like to have Naomi Cambell dark skin, but I'd be happy if my skin were as dark as a lighter black person (like Tyra Banks) or even an Armenian person like Kim Kardashian.

I personally think darker skin is prettier and it makes you look healthier and you can wear almost any color you want without looking washed out and the same color as the white walls.

I'm very happy having skin several shades darker than my natural color.

Thoughts?

[BroomJockey]

Which skin color is the prettiest?

My opinion? Anything except a deep tan. I think those tend to look hideous. Real OR fake. Naturally dark skin, light skin, freckled, whatever. Anything but tanned.

[tabbyblack13]

I am naturally white but I tan really well. I think a light tan is a good skin color. When I'm pale I cannot wear anything with any yellow in it because it looks like I have jaundice. When I have a tan I can wear the olive green color that I love. I also work outside and even when I wear sunscreen I tan.

[AdminAssistant]

I'm pasty-pale. Seriously, I'm probably one shade up from the Victorian ideal of milk or porcelin (sp?) white skin. The only difference is that I have decently strong pink undertones. I tried to tan, for a while, but it would never take. I'd burn, peel, then go straight back to pasty-pale. And I'm fine with it. In fact, that was the ideal up until pretty recently; pale skin was an indicator of wealth since it meant that you didn't have to work outside. My aunts have told me stories about working outside in 90 degree heat wearing long pants, long sleeves, bonnets, and gloves, all to keep from getting a tan.

I don't think tan = healthier, especially the folks who over do it. I think it looks fake, and it also screams, "Hi, I'm willingly subjecting myself to skin cancer!" That was when I definitively stopped tanning - when I realized that I was paying someone a lot of money to subject myself to avoidable disease. Anywho.

And yes, those who naturally have olive skin...it's hot. Latinos, Greeks, Italians....yummy! But I say rock with what your gene pool gave you. And I wear all kinds of colors. I avoid really bright colors and have a lot of black due to, um, size issues, not skin tone. However, I do have difficulty finding makeup that's pale enough without completely washing out the little color I do have. But that's really the only sacrifice I make.

[the_std]

I'm going to have to agree with the "natural" skin tone theme going here. Whatever you are is pretty. Tanning does terrible, terrible things to a person's skin (especially if done on a regular basis) and I, personally, am always turned off by it. The leathery look that can start happening in as little as a few months of tanning is just a sad, sad sight.

As to which natural skin tone I prefer, my romantic involvement streak has been mostly white skin tones, but I'm not sure if that's because I find them more attractive or if that's just the majority of the people I meet. I know that a few Native girls I know have the most gorgeous light caramel skin tones, and the long, lustrous black hair to go with is just a to-die-for combination.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

No one color is the most beautiful. Beauty is incredibly subjective. Worn with the right clothing, on a healthy person, any skin color can be devastatingly beautiful. I personally don't really have much of a preference, I've seen beautiful people of all colors. I usually prefer darker men, mostly because I prefer exotic features and that tends to come paired with darker skin, but overall, it really depends on the entire package. My last boyfriend before my husband had porcelain skin and hair the color of milk caramel. I thought he was beautiful. My husband has medium olive skin and jet black hair. He's beautiful, too.

[LeChatNoir]

I don't think it matters. You are who you are. Idealizing something you are not and will never be only leads to feelings of being flawed, worthless, etc., especially among people who have poor self esteem.

I also think tanning is a poor health choice, and I don't think it looks healthy (unless it IS natural). My grandfather is naturally tan. He still looks great at 80 years old. Someone who tans a lot is NOT going to look that great at 80 years old. Plus, skin cancer is a very real risk which I'd rather not fool with.

From http://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-facts/:

INDOOR TANNING

* Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is a proven human carcinogen, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.10
* Frequent tanners using new high-pressure sunlamps may receive as much as 12 times the annual UVA dose compared to the dose they receive from sun exposure.10
* Nearly 30 million people tan indoors in the U.S. every year12; 2.3 million of them are teens.15
* On an average day, more than one million Americans use tanning salons.22
* Seventy one percent of tanning salon patrons are girls and women aged 16-29.13
* First exposure to tanning beds in youth increases melanoma risk by 75 percent.11
* People who use tanning beds are 2.5 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma and 1.5 times more likely to develop basal cell carcinoma.20
* The indoor tanning industry has an annual estimated revenue of $5 billion.15


I'll take my pasty skin and freckles, tyvm.

[Cat]

I have slightly olive skin from being part Italian...I don't need to "try" to tan, I just do (unevenly, since I don't try to....my underarms look like fish bellies)

I was foolish last time I was on the beach, didn't use enough sunscreen (and the bf though it was to be applied lightly to the back...silly boy) so I got my first burn in years....it peeled...I never peel.....ugh

[Boozy]

A couple of my coworkers are Filipino ladies. They were saying to my friend Michelle and me, "Why do you girls go tanning? White skin is so pretty, why would you want to be darker?"

Skin bleaching is disturbingly popular in Asia. The women there like to look pale because it's exotic. Just as excessive tanning is disturbingly popular here in WASP-land because darker skin is exotic.

Everyone admires what they don't have. When I had very long hair, I would get compliments on my natural curls. I've always hated my curls because I thought my hair always looked messy. I would have done anything for straight hair.

Now I think the best thing for people to do is rock whatever look God gave them.

[blas87]

Look, I don't mean to be rude, but this is a skin color thread, not a dangers of tanning thread or "people who tan are idiots" thread. You can start one of your own on there. I get as sensitive about that as I do when people rag on me for smoking.

Anyone who is friends with me on Facebook can see that I don't look like an Oompa Loompa, that I don't look orange.....and add to it that this has been one of the most pathetic excuses for a summer in 60some years, obviously I'm nowhere near as dark as I could be if I were mixing the real sun with my tanning regimen.

I don't think I looked awful when I had pale skin. And I was literally as white as the wall, so white you could see all the veins in my arms....but I was so limited as to colors to wear that didn't wash me out or bring out how horribly white I was. I prefer myself darker.

[Greenday]

As long as you aren't orange like an Oompa Loompa, it's all good to me. So white that your skin is better than snow camo at hiding you in the snow, or so black that your skin is better hiding you in the dark than night camo is at hiding you during the night, I don't care. Just not fake orange. I want to slap people with that fake tan crap.

[DesignFox]

I don't really have too much preferences of one skin type over another...

I don't really think about it, honestly. As long as someone isn't "leather hide" tan or fake orange, I really like the "sun kissed" look. I often wish I would tan better in the summer. Alas, I'm pale! I get a really great farmer tan (face and arms get noticeably tanner) but my legs stay white, get barely noticably darker, or burn horribly and then go back to white. I absolutely must put sunscreen on or I will burn.

Light, dark, black, brown, white. It's all pretty much the same to me. I think the only thing I'm not outwardly attracted to is the really pale, red headed, freckled look. Not to say I wouldn't like a person who looked that way (one of my ex's was pale and freckled- but I knew him for years before we dated). I just don't instantly form a physical attraction. *shrug*

Eyes and hair are bigger for me...height and nice toned arms...

Now I'm thinking of my hunny...is it 8 o'clock yet?

[blas87]

I will agree that I don't find the ginger look attractive....and I'm half ginger kid myself (except my hair is naturally blonde, not red).

I also agree, it's not that it's ugly, it's just that I don't find it attractive. I find freckles very attractive.....my boyfriend has them all over the bridge of his nose and under his eyes. I think they're the cutest thing.

I used to have a face full of them. Then they started going away. Now they are almost all gone except for the darker ones

My main point I guess is that I vote tan or darker skin is prettier.

[DesignFox]

I used to get small freckles along the bridge of my nose and on my cheeks in the summer. Not so much since I became an adult.

I'll agree that a little bit of face freckles are cute.

[violetyoshi]

I was into being Goth in high school, and since then have preferred having pale skin. Perhaps you should tell those Filipino guys to try and look for some Goth girls.

I don't know about a tan making you look healthier, when we know about the realities of skin cancer.