Having tanned skin these days is considered a sign of beauty, of youth and of wellbeing, but it hasn’t always been the case. And in other cultures, skin whitening is in contrast a sign of nobility and propriety. Is tanning, currently considered attractive in Europe, simply a fad?
Whiteness was once a symbol of nobility: only aristocrats, who didn’t need to work, could maintain white and well looked-after skin (in contrast to the tanned skin of peasants who represented almost the entire French population in the Middle Ages). Having pale skin wasn’t a given for everybody, however, and was therefore an ostentatious sign of wealth and distinction that was much sought-after – so much so that women covered their faces with a lead-based whitening agent that ended up intoxicating them…
Even today, in some cultures (particularly Asian ones), whiteness is advocated as the beauty norm. In India, mothers ban their daughters from sun exposure from a young age because the best suitors choose to marry the palest girls. In Japan, women don’t go out without their umbrella and they even apply sun cream in the winter to keep their complexion as pale as possible. This difference in people’s conceptions of tanning has led many fashion and cosmetics firms to adapt their ranges according to the country (see the example of l’Oréal opposite).
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