We don't need...to try to change our skin tone

All across the world women consider different skin tones desirable and have contrasting beauty standards.

In America, girls crave to be tan. They often spend hundreds on tanning salons and waste hours lying out in the sun. Being pasty is embarrassing and is insulting to the eye. Besides, who wants to be pale in the summer? Women purchase bronzer and tanning cream to create a fake tanned look.

In India, girls are purchasing products like the cream Fair and Lovely, to maintain a fair complexion. Women force themselves to sit inside in the summer to avoid the sun because the Indian culture has told them, “the lighter you are the prettier”. Miss India and Bollywood stars look more Caucasian than they do Indian; Nina Davuluri, last year’s Miss America, is apparently “too dark” to even win a beauty pageant in India. Indians women also buy the lightest foundation and powder and cake their faces in these makeup products to feel beautiful.

Similarly, in Eastern Asia, women always carry umbrellas, wear giant hats, and sport long sleeves-even in the summer-wherever they go to protect their skin from being exposed to the sun. If you are tan, people assume you work outside in un

respectable jobs such as construction and deem you to a lower social status. Asians believe whiter skin means you are richer because you are civilized and hold an office job.

I love my tan skin. I absolutely love being out in the sun and the way the sun feels on my skin. I believe tanned skin is healthy and is a proud representation of how much time you spent outside over the summer. Last summer I traveled to Taiwan already rocking a tan. I received weird looks from civilians as they wondered what I was doing wearing such little clothing and purposefully attempting to get even darker.