Fairly Happy

Photo by http://suzi9mm.blogspot.com/

Pick up a magazine.  How many un-tanned women do you see?  I'd venture to guess the answer is somewhere between zero and none.   If you live in North America, Europe, or Australia, our modern pictoral media gives the impression that only tanned women are worth photographing and pale women are something less.  With the exception of a few TV stars who are slavishly pale (Christina Hendricks and Nicole Kidman, for example) we rarely get to see glamorous depictions of the fairest of the fairer sex.

However, most people would agree that a woman can be strikingly beautiful with pale skin, especially so when she is healthy and puts even the smallest amount of effort into her appearance. I'm talking brushed hair and tidy clothing -- not full makeup and a ballgown.   We get noticed for being different, and that's because we are.   I call these women Fairly Happy, meaning they are happy to be fair. 



Asian cultures still generally prefer pale skin.  African women often prefer to have lighter brown skin rather than deeper black.  Indian and Arabic women are also known to lighten their skin to appear "more western".  If so much the world thinks they would be more beautiful if they were more fair, why on earth would a pale woman pretend to be anything other than herself?  It seems crazy that 85-88% of the world are encouraged to look more like the 12-15% who are Caucasian, and the 12-15% who are already white are encouraged to appear more brown! When women cause themselves physical harm to attain their desired shade (going darker OR lighter), it morphs into raging stupidity.

For those fair-skinned women who explicitly choose not to tan, we can look forward to younger looking skin into our 40's and well beyond.  We can look forward to being identifiably different than the horde of girls/women who bronze and tan themselves.  Even if being different seems a little scary, the payoff of great skin into your middle and golden age is well worth it.

To those happily fair women, I salute you.

Truly yours in the battle against stupidity,
Fairly Happy