What does it mean to get tanned when you’re brown to begin with? This is a question particular in some ways to South Asians living in northern countries — where you don’t get much exposure to sunlight much of the year, and where you are surrounded by friends and colleagues who do take pride in “getting a tan.” (In India, home of “Fair and Lovely” ointments, there is no culture of tanning.)
This came up for me because I recently went on a short vacation with my family in the Caribbean. We went to the north coast of the Dominican Republic (a major tourist destination, I know). We rented a small villa near, but not in, one of the massive resorts that dominate the “Silver Coast.” Quite nice, overall, and restful.
I didn’t actively seek to get a tan, but I definitely came back a lot darker than I was when we left. My wife also got quite dark, and even my 18 month old son got a bit darker, though we were careful to keep his delicate skin protected wherever possible from direct sunlight.
Now, I generally like getting a bit tan — it seems to bring out some rich orange tones in my “brown” complexion. And I’m certainly not one of those people who would ever say that fairer skin is more appealing than darker skin. There are many different ways of being beautiful, and I find the desi obsession with skin tone (especially as it indexes with the matrimonials culture) tedious and embarrassing. (And sometimes tragic, as in this recent story posted on the News Tab)
Nor is it the case that getting tanned is new to me: living on the east coast of the U.S., one generally finds one’s skin tone in August to be a few shades darker than it was in May, even if you’re one of those people who tends to hide indoors in front of books and/or a computer 95% of the time.
But here’s the odd part. On occasion, over the past couple of days since coming back, I’ve found myself feeling slightly embarrassed to be so tan — as if part of me is thinking, “wait, everyone, this isn’t my normal skin tone!” And then I’m immediately embarrassed to be embarrassed — because what the initial embarrassment perhaps reveals is an unconscious skin tone bias that comes out if and when one’s skin tone does in fact become darker. (More forgivingly, it might simply be that one is always embarrassed to look a little different from how one normally looks.)
Has anyone else ever been embarrassed to be tan? Or conversely, are there desi readers who particularly enjoy seeing their skin get tanned?
Bess – but he’s way off when he says that fatness is not alterable. What about excercise, eating healthy? We eat way too many saturated fats and not enough vitamins and minerals and good fatty acids. Fat, abdominal fat, is not associated with a longer lifespan, in fact quite the opposite. A BMI of 20(excluding those who are into high level sports and have a lot of muscle tissue) is ideal. The fact is I’ve seen too many people say that all these obesity health concerns are a huge conspiracy by society to make fat people feel bad, not true.
Most of us get plenty of Vitamin D, to the PSA-person above! Twenty minutes a week of any exposure to the sun (that includes running out for a sandwich or walking to the car/bus) is sufficient if you have a healthy diet.
I think whether or not you like how you look tan/darker depends on what colour you were to begin with – some desis I know tan a nice golden brown, some get a patchy greyish brown tan. I personally like being a bit tan for the sole reason that my skin is a weird bland sallow colour without a tan and it’s really difficult to find a foundation or concealer that works 😉 Once I’m tanned, it’s less of a problem!
But while we’re talking PSAs, desis need to be aware that we can get sun damage too, and get skin cancer, it’s NOT just a gora thing. So many (perfectly wheatish, not pale) people in my family have had sun allergies, moles removed, etc. but somehow they never connect that with the effect of the sun and pooh-pooh sunscreen as something that only goras or Marriageable Girls Trying to Be Fair use. Think of your health, people. It’s all cumulative damage, and you wrinkle faster without sunscreen too. Using sunscreen doesn’t mean you won’t tan a bit, because there’s no such thing as a 100% block, but do use the stuff (I’ll admit to resisting it for ages because of its association with gaon-ki-gori type girls going on about keeping their complexions fair).
151 · Meena said
I haven’t time or energy right now to go into this debate AGAIN; suffice to say that there are statistics demonstrating that body weight is, for the vast majority of people, not alterable on a long-term basis beyond a very small degree (changes in diet and exercise, even extreme ones, rarely alter a person’s body weight by more than 15 to 20 pounds, and often not at all; identical twins raised in different families have nearly identical BMIs, regardless of health habits) as well as population studies linking fatness to a longer lifespan than that of so-called ‘ideal weight’ persons (underweight people have the shortest lifespans of all, shorter on average than even the very fattest persons), lower lifetime health-care costs, and much improved survival and recovery from many life-threatening diseases. Sorry, Meena, the ‘obesity epidemic’ is not only a myth, but also closely resembles the ‘moral panics’ of earlier ages in North America over homosexuality and communism. The fact that a person in a public forum today is able to say “Oh, but being fat is bad! And it’s ‘fixable’!” and rarely be challenged speaks to the almost-total hegemony of discourses of lipophobia in the public sphere and the allopathic medical-industrial complex, in the absence of any compelling evidence for those statements. Although they may be cloaked in the language of healthism, efforts to demonize fatness are deeply rooted in the sociopolitical power relations of patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy.
areem i think you’re confusing pudge with obesity. there are obviously people of all body types, and being chastised for being naturally chubby or “fat” is not fair – not everyone can metabolize food the same way. but the obesity epidemic is very real – there is no excuse for little children to get type II diabetes or lose their breath from walking up a short flight of stairs. for a naturally “fat” person the whole campaign against obesity can be hurtful if internalized but you should realize that it’s not about the people who are living normal healthy lives. it’s to target the 400 lb guy washing down 5 burgers with a super-disgusting-triple-sized big gulp.
SP: what is PSA?
Areem: Where are your statistics? I’ve only read evidence contrarian to that what you post. Have you read the Scientific American special on Famine and the Obesity Epidemic?
Btw, I’m sorry, but I’m a terrible person, and this made me laugh! You sound like a parody of yourself and some of the more vocal anti-oppression commentators here. Oh noes, the White Scientists are trying to subject Brown People by spreading lies about their increased susceptibility to obesity and Type II Diabetes!!
Meena, thanks for your thoughtful comments. Personally, I think fatness is alterable just as our thinking on it is. What I find unattainable about our beauty ideal is that it’s embodied in an emaciated ectomorph slinking down the catwalk. How many women fit that ideal? How healthy is that physical state? I’m guessing the BMI is nil.
As an aside, where I come from “PSA” means public service announcement, but I hear in the medical community it means something entirely other.
“Although they may be cloaked in the language of healthism, efforts to demonize fatness are deeply rooted in the sociopolitical power relations of patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy.” While I’m not an expert on size-ism, the Europeans really used to like fattish women. Look at some of those old paintings. Veritable celebrations of cellulite. I think we may have to look around further and deeper for the Thin Oppressor. I think it all goes back to what looks good on the beach.
133 · Amitabh said
Fine, I’ll take the bait. You’re wrong, “whites” are the root cause of all evil in America, because “white” is shorthand for the vested, power-bearing elite in America. I am making a distinction, now, between “Anglo-American,” “Irish American,” “Italian-American,” “Polish-American,” “Scandanavian-American,” “Jewish-American,” etc., and “white.”
Race is a social construct. There is no “white” race. A people are “non-white” as long as they are marginalized. When a “race” doffs its hyphen and graduates to “white” (i.e. a deracinated state), that means they have become assimilated into the mainstream power-structure which is indeed the root of ALL EVIL. Now that the white hoods have deemed us safe and non-threatening, East Asians and Desis, in my opinion, are well on their way to achieving “whitehood” in America.
Disclaimer: I am exaggerating and simplifying for rhetorical effect because I think my point would be lost without that exaggeration. Carry on.
89 · Suki Dillon said
But if you’re into both styles there’s always Judgment Night. (Oh, the stories I could tell you about having all my Anthrax and Metallica tapes stolen from me at Sikh Youth Camp by NWA rocking idiots who’d never heard of Paris or YZ.)
Kulvir @ #148, though–sorry, call me insensitive but most contemporary R&B blows (“check Ralph Tresvant for sensitivity”), and it has for going on 30 years. I say “most” because I’ll make an exception for Prince, Sharon Jones, Jill Scott, D’Angelo, Eryka Badu, and yes, even Amy Winehouse. (Though those artists, I think rightly, might try to distance themselves from the overproduced synthesized rubbish that passes for R&B by calling their genre “soul.”) Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and cheap synthesizers almost ruined a style of music made great by the likes of Marvin Gaye, The O’Jays, Otis Redding, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, etc.
Also, it’s nice to make your acquaintance, Deemz.
SP,
The figure you quote of 20 minutes/day of sun on the hands and face at midsummer is for people with skin who is not UV tolerant (generally, people with light skin). Someone with UV tolerant skin can require hours of sun exposure to get the same Vitamin D production.
Moreover, it is virtually impossible to obtain sufficient Vitamin D from diet alone. Fortified milk is enough to prevent rickets in children over the winter months, but to match the production of Vitamin D from summer sunshine means ingesting prescription supplements.
Read more here (with citations and everything).
Two words: Zapp & Roger.
;=) antibiotics cures gonorrhea. eventually.
What kind of smiley face is that? Is your commitment to morbidity that strict?