It's 100% cultural. I think the pale look is super unattractive and ghostly/ghoulish. Tanned skin is beautiful.

It's not that it is a sign of wealth due to leisure. People who work outdoors are tanned too. It's the warmness. The glowing. The gradients. Something impressed upon me at a young age that this is the standard of beauty.

When I'm in Asia and I see people carrying umbrellas and doing skincare, their skin looks clinical and less appealing to me than those who aren't doing it. I logically know the anti-sun regime is healthier for their skin, but my primate brain tells me it's unattractive.

It's unfortunate that increasing melanin production from the sun causes DNA damage. Because it looks so good to me.

There are a variety of drugs that induce pigmentation or melanocyte production, but none are FDA approved. Most of them can lead to cancer, either by uncontrolled cell proliferation, impact on unrelated cell populations, or disrupting normal hormonal signalling.

Melanotan-II was popular some years back, but there are half a dozen others that use a variety of different mechanisms. None of them are approved.

It's unfortunate that we haven't developed something better than exposing ourselves to DNA damage, but it's probably not the biggest priority.

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temp0826 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't know if it's every Asian country, but Thailand absolutely has an obsession with skin whitening products (whiter skin is correlated with wealth/higher-class and not having to work outside). I found it hard to find a non-whitening lotion while there actually. I really doubt many of these products are safe and it looks very uncanny-valley and weird to me, which is maybe what you're picking up on as unattractive too. Definitely a cultural thing.

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wyclif 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's the same in the Philippines. Try finding soap, lotion, or sunscreen that doesn't include whitening agents, which are usually very unhealthy for the skin.

It's very much the case that in the Philippines, lighter skin is viewed as upper class haciendero/mestizo culture (not having to work outdoors, not being a nanny, maid, or "helper"). It's the same in many other Asian cultures. Women who live in Asian countries with a high concentration of plastic surgery "procedures" and treatments (like South Korea, for instance) are often the standards of beauty for other Asian countries even though such procedures/whitening and eye/nose surgeries are out of reach.

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viking123 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The women look much much younger than western equivalents though because they avoid the sun. It's hard to look at western girls in twenties who look like they are in their mid 30s. However, the western girls who have used sunscreen tend to look super good with the original skin.

	▲	temp0826 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of the overcooked look either. The damage really adds up quick, I doubt many look ahead to their 40s-50s while torching their 20s away though (something something youth wasted on the young)

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viking123 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I grew up in Northern Europe and I still think when people back home do tanning it looks so bad and makes them look super old. They look much better with the natural skin as it's not damaged and it's kind of even. Like I see women in their 20s easily looking like 35 no kidding. I am glad I avoided the sun from young age so I get comments now in my 30s that I look like early 20s which is mostly due to the skin.

Like sometimes I watch American news and the fake tans are just yucky and kind of gross to me.

Same with western women I see in Asia occasionally, age in 20s but looks easily 30+ while it's the opposite with many Asians. Eastern Europeans tend to avoid the sun more.