A few months ago, I was watching the news when I saw the story of Patricia Krentcil, a woman who had been addicted to tanning. She brought her six year-old daughter with her into the tanning booth and her daughter told the school nurse the next day that she got burnt by going “tanning with mommy,” although Krentcil denies ever putting her daughter in the tanning bed. Regardless, I was not only horrified, but curious about what makes tanned skin so desirable. Why would a woman want it so badly that she would risk hurting her child?

Studies show that people who are tanned tend to feel healthier. Additionally, it is perceived that tanned skin is beautiful, and those who are tanned generally have an overall sense of well-being. It is a symbol of relaxation, wealth, and youth. Nearly 28 million Americans are involved in outdoor and indoor tanning activities per year, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.

This reminded me how the people in India have a different obsession, and it’s not towards trying to achieve the perfect tan. As millions of people here in the United States apply tanning oil on their skin, just as many people, if not more, are putting on bleaching cream elsewhere. In India, the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean, and South America, skin bleaching seems to be as popular as tanning is in the United States. According to CNN, in 2005 about half of all the Asian women in Hong Kong between ages twenty-five and thirty-four used skin whiteners.

Just as I wondered why people loved to tan so much, I wanted to know why one would go through all that trouble to have fair skin. In countries where the sun is always shining, a lighter complexion is seen as aristocratic, where only wealthy people can afford to stay indoors all day while the peasants work in fields. Furthermore, lighter skin has been glamorized by the movie industry. Several Indian Bollywood stars have sponsored skin bleaching products, and bleach their skin routinely for various movie roles. Considering Bollywood is the world’s largest film industry, it leaves a lasting effect on the citizens of India.

In Jamaica, a dermatologist tells the tale of a woman who bleached her baby, and got mad at the doctor when he told her to stop immediately. This sounds similar to the story of the woman who wanted her daughter tanned!

As a first generation Indian-American, I have a firsthand bicultural perspective of how people view personal beauty. During the winter we sometimes visit India and I feel uncomfortable with my pasty skin. My relatives, however, would think differently, praising me for maintaining my “fair” complexion. On the contrary, there are times when my family visits India in the summer. I get especially excited to wear my brightly colored Indian clothes because I would finally have that nice sun-kissed skin to complement those Indian outfits. However, I often meet the disapproval of my relatives because they liked my fair skin more.

Here, in the United States too, I’ve been told that I have a yearlong “tan without the sun” because I do have a slightly darker complexion than most of my peers. Once, I came back from the Bahamas from spring break looking very dark, and someone remarked that they didn’t think I could get any darker.

Society has stamped its label on everything. Unfortunately, it makes people feel like they need to change themselves in order to be “perfect.” I’m not saying that wanting to be tan, or fair, for that matter, is a bad thing. If one really wants to be tan or fair because they genuinely like that look, there’s nothing stopping them. But, if that person wants it simply to be accepted by others, there may be a problem.

I found it incredibly fascinating that the color of my skin was given so much importance. I couldn’t understand why people did not see me for who I was underneath my skin. I was still the same person, regardless of whether I had tanned or fair skin. More importantly, if I was comfortable with how I looked, why did anyone’s opinion even matter? Through this experience I learned that in order to be my own person, I had to be happy with myself. Once I finally was, I stopped paying attention to what other people were saying.

After all, one should always know that despite having light or dark skin, beauty is not only skin deep.