From Elizabeth Bennet to Barbie

Abstract

Never mind the little black dress; Coco Chanel’s most lasting contribution to theworldof style—and,unfortunately, todermatology—maywell be the suntan. For centuries, in a fashion statement freighted with racialundertones,womenaroundtheworldcoveteda fair complexion.AncientEgyptians lightenedtheir skinwithmyrrhandfrankincense.Eighthcentury Japanese women risked death, using lead and mercury as whiteners. Intenton showing theyhadneverneeded to laborunder the sun, 18th-century Europeans followed suit, adding whale blubber for goodmeasure. TheCastilian nobles cultivated skin so translucent their veins showed through, making them the original “blue bloods.” The beauty and privilege connoted by porcelain skinwas immortalized again and again in the Western canon: Shakespeare’s Othello strangles Desdemona, lest a bloodiermurdermethod “scar that whiter skin of hers than snow.” Pride and Prejudice’s aristocratic Miss Bingley snubs Elizabeth Bennet for looking “brown and coarse” from traveling in the summer—an epithet with most unladylike connotations. Then came Coco, sashaying back from the French Riviera with the bronzage that launched a thousandmelanomas. Her tanwas of a piece withher leisure-class image:with the industrial revolution,workers had moved from the fields into factories, reversing centuries of epidermal symbolism. Pallor was for the indoor-dwelling poor; only those with means could toast themselves golden-brown. Physicians, meanwhile, touted sunbathing as a cure for everything fromtuberculosis to acne, ushering in theeraof the “healthyglow.” Sunscreen gained popularity among World War II soldiers, who protected themselves in the Pacific theater with foul-smelling red veterinary petroleum, originally intended for animals. Airman andpharmacist BenjaminGreencombined“redvetpet”withcocoabutter andcoconutoil and peddled it to civilians aswhatwould becomeCoppertone. In 1953, the Coppertone girl—with her cocker spaniel famously tugging at her bathing suit bottom to reveal her deep tan lines—debuted with the slogan “Don’t beapaleface!”Herolder cousin,MalibuBarbie, followed in 1971— followedbySunLovin’MalibuBarbie,SunsationalMalibuBarbie, andSun Gold Malibu Barbie. (The first Hispanic and African American Barbies appeared in 1980.) Itwasnotuntil 1978 that theUSFoodandDrugAdministration, amid rising concernabout skin cancer, standardized sunprotection factor ratingsonsunscreen.Tanningboothsarrived in theUnitedStates the same year. Sadly, it was a head-to-head battle with a clear victor: since then, of course,melanoma incidence has skyrocketed. Fortunately, there are glimmersofpop-culturebacklash, fromghostlyTwilightvampires to the ladies of Downton Abbey. In 2006, Cosmopolitan launched a “Practice SafeSun”campaign,with instructionsoneverythingfromself–skinchecks to “6sexy sunscreenmassages for yourman.” Surely, evenChanelwould approve.