Seat of Our Pants

I’ve been fighting for years for a pale skin revolution. OK, fight may be a strong word. Mostly I forget that I care about it. Since an early detection (thank God) of melanoma when I was 19, I’ve had to avoid the sun. I haven’t minded, figuring it was better for me anyway, but having to live with ultra-pale skin is sometimes hard. It seems that western culture has a hard time letting go of the bronze = beauty theory.

Well, you can imagine my delight when traveling in Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. It’s not a tan that the locals want, it’s pale skin. In cultures where skin color is still directly related to your profession (dark skin means you work outdoors), light skin is better. We’ve found this trend in every country we’ve been to. The same companies that offer creams to bronze, darken and self-tan to western consumers offer products that promise to lighten skin to consumers over here.

Our skin has also attracted a lot of confusing attention, much like the random nose fawning in SE Asia, come to think of it. The Indonesian dance team pictured below pulled us aside to take pictures with us, pointing to our exposed skin. It was only about an hour after the strange photo session that we figured out what they were doing. They liked how pale we both were.

Well, I like it too. So there.

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