Why do Sun Tans or Tans look more attractive than pale fair

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I think it's a health thing. Getting a healthy amount of sun gives you a slight tan, and that's considered attractive because getting into the sun on occasion is healthy.

People who are extremely pale can look ill.

I am quite pale, I haven't seen the sun in ages. I look ill.

Looking like an old leather shoe =/= attractive

Someone like me (a redhead) spending too much time "in nature" = looking like a lobster (red) and then a snake (scaly, peeling skin) and then, surprise surprise, pale again.

No. Excuse me if I don't buy into current fads a. in the West among Caucasians b. valuing aesthetics associated with exoticism
as somehow related to health and being active.

lol ohno. i never tan, so like valentine it's got nothing to do with being outside for me. i don't even try now because i'm convinced i'll end up with skin cancer already.

it's interesting how a lot of non-white cultures see pale skin as more desirable. a lot of the indian/pakistani friends i had in the past often spoke about people of their own race in terms of skin darkness. some of them even used skin bleach creams. i've heard black people do the same and often hear them say things like 'the light-skinned girl'. theres even slang words relatingf to it- like 'blik' which means someone veryvery dark(derogatory term before you go using it)
although i guess their version of 'fair skinned' would probably be in the same ambit of colour as a white persons version of tan, sooo.....

Most of the people that have been attracted to me have been non-white i think

Tans are gross. Total turn off.

I don't like the look of artificial tans, most of the time they don't match the features/coloring of the person who gets one, and they tend to look "orange". Like a natural brunette who gets their hair dyed platinum blonde. It's just... incongruous.

I am of an ethnic heritage that tans easily, naturally. I don't go out of my way to tan, but normal exposure in the summertime leads to my skin being darker. It looks good on me, why? Because that skin tone looks better with my eye color and hair color and facial features. In the dead of winter my skin takes on not a beautiful alabaster tone but instead a sort of sickly-green color. It's not easy being green.

I do think that a little bit of tan is ok but there is such a thing as too much. Even though i'm blond i do actually tan ok. It just fades really quickly and i'm back to my paler than average.

I find pale skin to be a lot more attractive than darker skin. The only downside that I can see with pale skin is blemishes and imperfections show up more easily than in dark skin. But if someone has blemish free, clean white skin, that pretty much trumps any other kind of skin for me.

Not necessarily. If you have naturally dark skin, you have a lot of melanin in your skin. Melanin plays a role in healing, so any skin break you experience will be accompanied by a deposit of melanin that doesn't fade for a while. If you are a dark(er) Caucasian, these deposits can stick around and be very prominent. I have kitchen burns from years ago whose ghosts I can still see because of these melanin deposits.

Tans are attractive when they are natural tans. Or even when they are built up gradually over time in someone who tans naturally, as people tend to see this as more attractive than skin that would burn in the sun.

On the other hand, I don't find the fake tan trend in the slightest bit attractive. I note that there are cultural differences in how tans are perceived, and can only really speak for UK culture where fake tans are common, though there is surely an influence from US celebrity culture I'd guess. It's the party girls, and those who people might contemptuously label "bimbos" who tend to have fake tans. Indeed, fake tans seem to be some sort of a uniform for this type of girl. One wonders if their fake tans, as well as oftentimes fake hair colour, are the window on the soul of a fake persona.

It's interesting to see that when someone mentioned the word "tan" people jump to the conclusion of too dark spray tans, and leather like skin.

It is possible to just have a healthy glow you know? Half the women you think are hot" probably have a healthy glow sprayed on, or have one naturally. Here is an example of a healthy glow:



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It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

Muscle definition/tone is much more noticeable if the person is tan. I'm surprised nobody mentioned this yet.

Preference for a particular skin tone is common in different countries, and is largely cultural. It might have to do with class, or history between races, or just the latest fad.

Personally I don't care what someone's skin tone is, as long as it's not out of a bottle.

RACIST!! !! !!


j/k

Double Post

Last edited by CaptainTrips222 on 24 Jul 2011, 4:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

it depends on wich kind of person it is. if you ask me, the natural skincolour matches best with the person. (that doesn't mean untanned, I mean the skincolour each ethnic group has in its natural biosphere- so a norwegian person looks perfect with the skin tone he or she gets by living in norway, a spanish person looks perfect with the skin tone he or she gets by living in spain where the sun shines stronger, and a nigerian person looks perfect with the skin tone he or she gets by living in a rather subtropical zone, where the sun shines very strong. you somehow see at the first look if the skin tone of a person is natural or not. and in fact it's also the healthiest, right?
for a "snowwhite" person, the pale skin tone is at the minimum as absolutely beautiful as the golden coat on godesses like Jessica Alba or Salma Hayek.
but somehow it seems, that a darker skin tone radiates more pure erotic, and a pale skin tone radiates more pure beauty.
dunno.
haha, I think I said norway just because it was associative in my memory for I've just heard about the terrorism there... xDDD

but it seems that women see it different, it seems they prefer tanned men because they look stronger and bigger. maybe erotic is more important for them because there are no really beautiful men.

I like pale more, seems much more elegant. Dislike tans. Will avoid at any cost.