It’s time a new topic of focus enters the conversation about body image: skin color.  And, no I’m not talking about race.  I’m talking about where our natural color falls on the ”tan” scale.

We’re repeatedly told, through magazines and newspapers and our own doctors, that tanning is bad for us.  As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s website reads, “There is no such thing as a safe tan”.  These same sources are some of the lead voices in efforts to create new, positive views on body image.  They tell us to love our bodies, no matter the shape and size.  But what about the color of them?  Why are women told to embrace their curves, or their natural hair texture, but aren’t encouraged to be comfortable in their natural skin? Why, aside from the repetitively reported risks at play, are we so obsessed with achieving the perfect bronzy glow?

I’ll admit that I’ve turned to sunless tanners in times of desperation.  After my first prom, when I looked around and felt like a sickly hospital patient compared to the fleet of spray-tanned girls around me, I found a new obsession with Jergens Natural Glow.  That is, until, the color starting peeling off in patches and I felt even worse that I did with my paler skin. I felt ridiculous rubbing this lotion all over in hopes of turning a few shades darker, and realized that going through all this trouble to try to look better wasn’t making me feel any better.   

However, it’s not really the sunless tanners that get to me.  Tanning lotions, sprays, and wipes can actually be a pretty great tool in your beauty kit.  Who doesn’t want to look like they just returned from some tropical island vacation in the middle of the winter? It’s when I see my friends laying out on the beach without a drop of sunscreen, or even heading off into tanning beds, that really worries me.  We know that taking measures such as these to achieve bronzed skin isn’t healthy, yet we do so without batting an eye.  It’s sometimes hard for me not to follow suit, especially when I have friends telling me that I can’t take pictures with flash because my skin is too white and reflective.  Even so, the risks of artificial tanning have kept my urges at bay.  You won’t catch me out in the sun without a bottle of sunscreen nearby.  So at this time of year, when tanned and often sunburned skin as all around me, I can’t stop wondering why more people haven’t embraced a bottle of SPF.    

I understand that many of the ideals surrounding the shades of our skin date way back, relating often to the beauty that seemingly came with wealth.  However, such views about the shade of our skin should stay in the past.  Today, being a certain shade far from correlates with either your paycheck or your beauty.  So, I wonder why we as Americans, the same people who look back on the beliefs that backed voting laws and bans on interracial marriages as highly antiquated, aren’t able to get past this outdated belief involving skin color, too?  Especially when studies show us that stepping into a tanning bed increases our risk of skin cancer as much as 75%, or that even skimping on sunscreen at the beach is permanently damaging our skin cells.    

The fact that so many of us put our health in danger so that others may think we are more attractive is a huge problem.  When this is attempted through the means of tanning, it is also a highly ironic, seeing as one of the greatest side effects to excessive UV exposure is premature aging.  We shouldn’t have to feel like we need to take these risks in order to reach a certain standard of beauty today.    

If tanning is something you do for yourself, something that makes you feel better, then it’s something I can understand.  But if you are dangerously soaking up extra UV rays for any other reason, or are constantly dishing out your savings account to spray tans and lotions, it’s time to take a step back and really evaluate the pros and cons of being tan.  Know what you’re getting your skin into before you do anything to change it.  No matter what, we should all invest some time in finding a good sunless tanner for when we really do want that extra glow, and put even more of an effort in remembering our good old friend SPF 30 (at least) the next time we soak up the sun.  Let’s begin to appreciate not only the shape of our bodies, but the color of them, too.