Opinion

To Tan Or Not To Tan?

By JULIET HINDELL

It's summer and the temptation is to go outside and sit in the sun. As I walk around the city this year, I see more young people with tans than I remember seeing last year. I wonder how many people have spent hours baking on the beach or lying under a sunlamp or simply slapping on fake tan from a bottle. Each of these methods is pretty time-consuming but it's clear that it's fashionable to be tanned, very tanned.

An American friend of mine is visiting Japan at the moment. We met 10 years ago when we were both English teachers in Tateba-yashi, Gunma Pre. He has been away from Japan for eight years and one of the first things he noticed coming back was the deep tans young people are sporting this year. He speaks near-perfect Japanese so when he sees someone with a tan he asks them why. "It's trendy," is the usual reply.

"But don't you realize it's also dangerous?" he asks. "It doesn't get a great reception. Most people don't understand that I'm not criticizing and that my intentions are to be helpful," he says.

If you watch television you see many beautifully bronzed celebrities. Magazines are full of people deeply tanned. There is no doubt that the look this summer is brown.

But in America, Britain and even more so in Australia and New Zealand, people have come to fear the sun as well as love it. A tan may look healthy and sporty and give the impression that you live a fun, outdoor life but it can also be bad for your skin. In these countries, every summer the newspapers are full of articles warning about the dangers of overexposure to the sun, and there are countless advertisements for sunscreen lotions and so-called total sunblock creams.

People with blue eyes, pale skin and blond hair are among those most likely to suffer from skin cancer. Australians, New Zealanders and others who live in sunny places have found out that getting a tan can be fatal. Less fearsome but also a consideration are the aging effects of letting pale skin go brown. You'll get wrinkles much faster. Elderly ladies working in the fields in Japan know this. They shroud themselves in hats and scarves and even gloves.

Nevertheless, sun worshippers around the world strip down and spend hours frying in the sun to get the perfect tan. It seems the direct warnings will not deter people from wanting to be bronzed. I myself would love to be tanned. The problem is, I turn lobster red, even in the shade. I have no choice but to hide from the sun. My deathly pale is very untrendy.

Then I turn on the television and the first thing I see is an advertisement for skin whitener. A young woman turns happily to the camera and says her face is noticeably paler since she started using the skin cream. Wait a minute — I thought it was fashionable to be suntanned!?

Shukan ST: Aug. 14, 1998

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