It’s so they can look like they’ve been participating in outdoor leisure activities (swim, tennis) and they think the color gives them an illusion of “fitness” in photos
But it usually ends up looking gross and they can’t stop once they start. They get addicted to being tacky
With Trump, I think he’s got rosacea and is embarrassed because his skin being both pale and blotchy exposes the strong, healthy front he wants to project as a thin facade. I don’t know why they lay it on so thick, though.
Subconsciously they know who is really superior? I think most of the supremacy thought comes out of jealousy and has been capitalized on quite handsomely by the various Christian sects.
But most people judge them for being nouveau riche precisely because they are tanned in winter. The cognoscenti may have a snow glare for a short interval in the winter. The arrivistes being tanned all year round is tacky and classless.
YESSSSS
When I was in 1st grade, early 80s, St Louis, at yt babysitter's house. She and friend were tanning and I didn't understand bc they always said the n word so I asked "Why you tanning if you hate black people?" dead undiagnosed autistic serious. Them bitches beat me so hard.
Fuck them
Trump's fake tan is a ripe subject for psychologists. I would love to read their take. For me, the way he smears his face with orange to cover his pale whiteness has roots in self-hate and hiding his white supremacism. Any articles that go deep?
i know this is a joke and intended as irony, but the actual answer is that it’s a sign of wealth…goes back to coco chanel, etc. just like the bright blonde. not sure about the bad makeup tho…tiktok is saying it’s for the male gaze to look like a corn star
First wondered about such things as a little white girl watching other people's moms baking in the sun and getting Toni home permanents when, on shopping trips to the city, I saw people who looked variously brown and curly haired being treated not so well.
It seems to be a possible correlation to perceived wealth. (e.g. “Wealthy people are frequently tan because they can go on vacations to warm, sun-soaked exotic destinations.”)
@maryburke.bsky.social taught me that at least in one context, some white Americans started doing this so they wouldn’t look Irish American. Layers of problematic thinking, though, and decades of shifting cultural contexts.
tanning for elite whites was popularized in the Anglophone world by two Catholic Irish-American men and their wives: the Fitzgeralds and Murphys. Fitzgerald’s novels probe differing social and racial meanings of brown skin, which depend on whether it is an *inherent* or temporary attribute
At first I thought this was the opening to a joke. I never understood why people fake tanned. 🤷♀️ I think it's weird, but I do me and they do them. Although I agree it's pretty ironic in many cases.
Being able to “change” colour on a whim is another mechanism of privilege. We can be pale or become dark as we see fashionable and yet always retain the choice to go back. It is a particular signal of power and whites occupying any position on the racism spectrum know this to be true.
have known these people & had the same reaction way back. Pre-spray tan (& skin cancer warnings), they'd bake in the sun for hours going for a "nice (brown) tan."
Comments
But it usually ends up looking gross and they can’t stop once they start. They get addicted to being tacky
Why else would he marry somebody named Melania, was a close as he could get.
When I was in 1st grade, early 80s, St Louis, at yt babysitter's house. She and friend were tanning and I didn't understand bc they always said the n word so I asked "Why you tanning if you hate black people?" dead undiagnosed autistic serious. Them bitches beat me so hard.
Fuck them
have that vacant stare
(Also when Melania wasn't in close proximity.)
I myself am pale as skim milk but it’s NOT a bonus. The sun hates me.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/19/history-of-tanning
He was in so much pain for the rest of the trip he told me he hated EVERYBODY, not just life itself.
Then he admitted that may be why white people are racist. 😂