A person in our culture today is willing to go to great lengths to look "good." In order to do this people often do physical harm to their bodies. When a person goes into a tanning bed they are literally burning themselves. No one would ever voluntarily put their hand on a hot stove, but they are willing to expose their bodies to harmful ultraviolet rays which cause damage to the body both immediately and in the future. Artificial tanning is a new epidemic here in America the tanning bed was first brought here in 1979 which is relatively recent for an industry that now does billions of dollars of business a year with thousands of locations. The pursuit to have that "California golden tan" causes millions of Americans to flock to the tanning beds and take place in this crazy body practice.
Gender roles play a major role in this body practice. Young to middle aged women are the target market for tanning companies but males are starting to tan more now too. this is reflective of eating disorders such as anorexia or belemia which first appeared in women but is now seen in both sex. The pressure on females to be tan is much like that to be skinny. Just as in the reading where a woman will stop easy in order to better her looks and feel better about herself even though she is really hurting herself. Tanning can be just as dangerous in many cases. It is directly linked to skin cancer but still people are willing to pay to go in a booth. The pursuit of a tan body is much like that of the "19th century hour glass figure" that people would work so hard to try and obtain. Tanning is an example of our cultures pursuit for the "intelligible body" everyone has this image of what they want other people to see them as and will go to almost any length to achieve it.
This "pursuit in terminus" to have the better body is very alarming to me. I don't tan but i do workout and try to take good care of myself and represent myself as best as i can but it isnt really for me. I would be completely fine with wearing sweat pants and gym shorts all year round but like everyone who tans, workouts, diets, shops etc. I feel like i try to look the way society would want. I think that our culture over emphasizes many physical aspects which drive us all to do crazy things in the pursuit of having the "intelligible body."
It's strange that people around the world want to get the complexion which they do not naturally have. For example, Caucasian people want to be as tan as possible while Asian people want to be as fair as possible. It might be because people like to pursue characteristics they don't have, like tan skin for Caucasians.
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