Pale Skin and Status Anxiety

Pale skin is considered beautiful, at least in some areas of the world, like China and, according to the clip, the rest of the East Asian world. Dark skin means you labor in the hot sun, thus are poor, thus undesirable. I know this kind of skin-tone prejudice was common in India as well, hell it seems almost universal before modern times (for women at least, men may be different), perhaps for the same reason.

It must say something about the West, today, that we have tanning salons everywhere. Perhaps it's an exception that proves the rule -- in today's environment dark skin, not light, is sign of leisure, of time for the beach and the UV-lights -- or perhaps we see it as a sign of good health? Not that good health isn't a class marker; as other Fallows posts have noted, obesity is very closely linked to status in the United States. Still, in America today, attractiveness is associated with effort, rather than the lack of it, which is progress I suppose. It's still somewhat oppressive -- the financial consultants in the last link sound loathsome to me -- but I guess meritocratic oppression is better than the aristocratic type.