Tan vs. Pale: Why Do We Chase What We Don’t Have?

Tiffany Sun

May 23, 2025

California is loved for its endless sunshine and magnificent beaches. The moment a hint of summer arrives, people rush to Santa Cruz or Capitola or Los Angeles to don their sunglasses and lie under the sun. The golden toffee-colored tan is the pinnacle of summer beauty.

However, if you cross the Pacific Ocean to Asia, people are bundled in sun protective clothing from head to toe, with a wide cap on, not an inch of skin in sight. In Asia, people strive for skin as pale as porcelain, smooth as white jade, and white to the point of glowing.

But when you really think about it, why do the naturally pale people scramble for a bronze tan, while the naturally tan-skinned people fight for paleness? Why do we chase after what we don’t have, when others envy our natural skin colors?

When you really get down to the core of it, the ever-evolving beauty standards are imposed by society and society only, and often imposed as a way of defining and differentiating social classes. 

Beauty is a marker for wealth. At the start of American history, pale skin was coveted and sought after, as seen with people applying white powder. This was because the jobs of the working class used to be out in the sun, while the aristocrats stayed at home. As a result, paleness became a symbol of wealth and thus the standard.

However, since the Industrial Revolution, working-class jobs have been moved inside factories, where laborers rarely see the sun, and thus are incredibly pale. Whereas the wealthy have the time and money to engage in recreational activities, go on vacations, and lounge in their gardens, where they come into contact with the sun, and so the beauty standards become flipped. Coco Chanel, after embarking on a cruise and returning sunburnt, was one of many who spurred the rise of tan skin as a beauty standard. Suddenly, sun-kissed skin became an attribute of the wealthy, and this societal construct still persists today in America.

On the other hand, Asian countries did not see such a flip in beauty standards, and instead maintained the association between dark skin and rural poverty (working in the fields). That is one of the reasons why pale skin is so coveted in Asian countries, as seen in various idols.

Although the roots of these seemingly contradictory beauty standards can be traced back to historical origins, the rise of a prominent beauty industry must not be robbed of credit. Since people pursue what they don’t possess, this provides a massive market for beauty brands, and the industry is most definitely hooked on this profitable opportunity, reinforcing societal beauty standards where people need products to achieve what they aren’t naturally born with.