In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Hello, Sunshine!

Jill

Or not, as the feds are attempting to regulate tanning beds. Now, I think Saletan’s rhetoric is slightly over-blown (case in point: “But if you shut [tanning salons] down or lock out teenagers, be prepared to enforce a dawn-to-dusk curfew or face an epidemic of skin cancer. If you liked back-alley abortions, you’ll love backyard tanning”), but I generally agree with him that this is a silly campaign. Yes, tanning is a health issue, but I think at some point you have to just allow people to do things that bring them pleasure, even if those things are bad for them. Most people know that tanning is bad for them, and they choose to do it anyway. I know it’s bad for me, and I’ll still be sitting out in the sun all summer, and chances are I will not reapply my sunscreen as often as directed. You can argue that perhaps people don’t fully understand just how bad tanning is for you, and I’d agree. But the solution isn’t to outlaw it, as some groups have advocated.

Are stricter warnings on tanning beds in order? Maybe, but doesn’t Congress have better things to do than this? Are stricter warnings really going to deter the 17-year-old who wants to look good for prom, or the 30-year-old who wants to establish a base tan before going on vacation? Probably not. The American Medical Association wants to impose an age requirement on tanning beds, disallowing anyone under 18 from using them. Eighteen, to me, seems a little old. Sixteen might be more reasonable — if we’re trusting kids to get behind the wheel of a car, it seems to me that we should be able to let them decide whether or not to bake themselves in a tanning bed.

Mostly, though, I just think that this is a waste of time. There are only so many stupid choices that you can regulate, and I’m not sure that tanning is really in need of federal supervision. And regulatory attempts like this one differ from things like smoking bans because they’re only affecting the individuals who choose to partake in unhealthy behavior. That is, smoking bans protect the general public from secondhand smoke that they are forced to inhale simply by virtue of being out at a bar or restaurant. Bans on tanning don’t protect people from the actions of others; they seek to protect people from themselves. And it all strikes me as far too over-reaching. Thoughts?

16 thoughts on Hello, Sunshine!

  1. Wow, that Saletan article is stupid. Having said that, since you can’t regulate access to the sun, it seems to me that the solution to unsafe tanning is education, not regulation.

    What I want is for the fashion police to bring back hats. Big floppy hats are easier to put on than sunscreen, but I can’t wear a hat without looking like Blossom.

  2. i wear a sun hat! It’s awesome. It’s got a big brim and a little bow in back. It’s lavender. And I bought it in Berkeley for 16 bucks. (Partly because the attractive woman behind the counter said I looked cute in it.)

    Hats should come back into fashion, dangit. I wear mine anyway.

  3. Today I decided to try and get tan the old-fashioned way, with the sun and all.

    I now have seriously angry burns up and down both my legs. I am on FIRE! Ow ow ow!

    Back to paleness for me.

  4. And regulatory attempts like this one differ from things like smoking bans because they’re only affecting the individuals who choose to partake in unhealthy behavior.

    I think you’re drastically underestimating the dangers of “secondhand tan”!

  5. Agree w/Sally – education is key to getting people to avoid tanning beds. I worked at a lab for a genius/crazy dermatopathologist who is now the president of the American Academy of Dermatology – they have officially taken a position against tanning beds. It ages the skin and affects the elasticity of it too – so women are paying to give themselves saggy skin and wrinkles. That’s what I tell people who are using the “but its just for a base tan” argument. Self-tanners people! They even spray the stuff on you and can do that contouring thing. When my friends and I are at the pool me and a Filipina friend are covered in sunscreen under the umbrella while other friends are trying to get as much sun as possible. And then they wonder why people think we are much younger than we are – its called avoid the sun!

    But yes – keep the beds legal and more important stuff for our legislators to worry about

  6. Well How I look now is the only thing that matters write?

    Maybe I want to look like a wrinkled prune when I’m 40!!!! Maybe I want to have a leatherface at 28!!

    On a serious note, I’ve watched women that do the fake-and-bake all year round. WOW. They went from looking in their twenties to their early forties. It’s really really sad. They almost look sick.

    My friends friend made her going tanning when she has pale skin that won’t tan and all that happened was she got burned reallllyyyyy badly.

  7. I think you’re drastically underestimating the dangers of “secondhand tan”!

    I’m fairly certain that staying out of George Hamilton’s general vicinity would take care of 99% of that issue. 😉

    All joking aside, this is definitely too much. I don’t put much stock in the phrase “nanny state”, but protecting people from themselves definitely seems beyond the proper role for government.

  8. Well, sure I see your points. But, on the other hand, while I don’t feel like looking up the actual statistics at the moment, tanning-bed tanning is far more dangerous than tanning in the sun. And every time I see a salon with tanning beds, I’m a little stunned and I think “I can’t believe those places are still legal.” As far as I’m concerned, they’re basically selling skin cancer. If people want to spend too much time in the sun, fine, but I can’t support people making money off of it.

  9. If alcohol and cigarettes are legal, then tanning beds should be too.

    All I can see as being feasible is better education. Maybe mandated signs – if you have a warning on cigarette packets, have them on tanning beds or in tanning parlors.

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  12. Well, I don’t disagree that regulating this is a bit much but I am going to play devil’s advocate a bit by pointing out that people’s choices to get tanned DO negatively affect others by upping the beauty ante. It’s the same as with plastic surgery.
    When I was a teenager, it was totally socially acceptable for people in my hometown to flash our pale blue Irish flesh in flesh-flashing situations. By the time my little sister was in that phase, she wouldn’t dream of going clubbing without painting all exposed areas of skin bright orange. Of course, fake tan isn’t dangerous, just stinky and time consuming and expensive and annoying. But in general, most beauty treatments reinforce a negative Nash equlibrium situation for women– of course we’re going to use them because they’re there, and it’s often personally advantageous to be pretty, (except on Saturday nights in the pub because MY GOD FUCK OFF ALREADY) but when we do we’re reinforcing the level of grooming that is required to attain “prettiness” and that’s a crying shame for those of us who are lazy and/or cack-handed or just poor. In support for my thesis I will point out that there is apparently an “epidemic” of sunbed use in Glasgow among teenagers. Someone came up with the genius idea of combating it by giving kids in school lessons in the effective application of fake tan. I don’t mean the word genius at all sarcastically either.

  13. I honestly think fake tanning is a conspiracy between the fashion magazines and the cosmetics industry, which largely funds the fashion magazines. The fashion mags run constant stories about the terrible dangers of tanning, but the solution is to buy like six different products, instead of the one that you used to buy when you went out and baked in the sun. It’s a prime example of scaring you into buying stuff. They get the double whammy of scaring us with both death and ugliness.

    I’m trying really hard to resist and embrace my inner goth. But I’m totally brainwashed. I think I look better with a tan. I just can’t bring myself to purchase the six products I’d need to get one in a healthy manner.

  14. This is funny to read after coming back from Florida! My already-dark-complected husband bought me a tanning package in December prior to our trips to India and Florida this spring. The “base tan,” while not showing up that much on fishbelly-white me, did help to keep me from getting the blistering burn I might have otherwise gotten in both places.

    And yes, I do have a package, and yes I do go twice a week, but the thing is, I know it’s temporary. Pretty soon we’ll be trying to get pregnant and I know I can’t go then, so it’ll be back to the regular old sun, which I don’t see much of anyway since joining the “real (work) world.” I would never tan year-round for years on end.

    What is it with tanning anyway? It is a beauty-standard and competitiveness thing with many women. I remember in high school after spring break, the ultimate insult was to be told, “You’re not tan!” I was never as tan as my classmates after a Florida trip (combination of fair skin and strict Mom making me wear SPF 30 instead of the popular tanning oil), and certain snobby types would always let me know it. Girls would sit out in the sun for hours a day, all summer, just to be told, “Oh, you’re tan” and to feel beautiful. I used to cry at bad weather in the summer and on breaks, just because I couldn’t tan, and people might notice.

    Where did this trend come from? I’d be interested to research it.

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