1999

21.3

Mary Adams
The Invisible Burn: A Cultural Analysis of Female Collegiate Tanning

As spring sets in, I always notice the changing complexion of my English composition students. Girls who have previously been pale are suddenly tanner by the day, many approaching orange by final exams. These quick tans are the result of tanning salons, businesses which pop up in strip malls, on campus corners, in the back of bait shops—anywhere you can fit a bed and a curtain. College towns get more than their share of these businesses since young women are the primary customers, but increasingly young men attend as well. I often wonder how my orange students will look in twenty years, if they will think their collegiate tans were worth the wrinkles or the melanoma. And so I want to examine the culture of salon tanning in an attempt to understand why young females are initially attracted to the practice and why, for so many, this attraction leads to a tanning obsession.

My first experience with a tanning salon came about seven years ago when I accompanied a friend to a small shack-of-a-place near our university in Louisiana. I sat in the waiting area while she disappeared behind a shower curtain. When my friend returned, I asked her about this shadowy experience, only to learn she had sanitized her machine with a bottle of pink fluid provided in the curtained cubicle. My interest re-emerged in the spring of 1996 after two of my brightest and most outspoken female students began to glow. They informed me that a tanning salon was located across the street from their dormitory. In the coming semester, more and more tanners filled my classes. My questions about the practice multiplied, but most students seemed rather uncomfortable talking about this topic; hence they answered my inquiries with quick, nonspecific answers. Although their skin tones gave them away, these students seemed to regard tanning as a discrete practice which should not be discussed with a casual or business acquaintance.

As a result of this secrecy, I determined that questionnaires were my best opportunity for eliciting detailed answers to explain why tanners are drawn to tanning salons. But since my ignorance of this entire practice prevented my formulating effective questions and prompts, my first step in this project was actually to participate in salon tanning. I chose Tan & Tone America of Norman, Oklahoma, due to their summer special: one month of unlimited tanning for $29. Located in a strip mall on Norman’s Main Street, it was a stark contrast to my first salon experience. Devoid of shower curtains, this sterile environment in many ways resembles a medical waiting room. Upon entering, you must sign in, giving your name and machine preference (horizontal bed or standing capsule). On my first day, I filled out a card which asked a few questions about my health including any medications I might be taking. A tanning assistant looked over this card, sized up my paleness, and recommended that I start out on ten minutes, gradually working up from there. While waiting for a bed, I glanced around the waiting area, noticing that everyone appeared between the ages of seventeen and thirty-five. A few men dotted the area, but for the most part, young women sat quietly, tanning lotion in hand. These women appeared to be from varying social classes; several wore college sorority shirts, some wore plain tees with shorts, and one wore her Golden Coral waitress uniform. A television, elevated in a corner, provided a low, static-filled hum. A few magazines were scattered across the straight chairs, but no one seemed to be looking at those either. Tanners-in-waiting either sat in a semi-meditative state, merely waiting to hear their names called, or they gazed at the many posters of the extremely tanned which were displayed on practically every inch of wall space. These posters represent the extraordinarily successful tanner, encouraging beginning tanners to continue in their pursuit of the darkest possible skin. I stared at these portraits in absolute awe, immediately aware of my fluorescent white legs. Forgetting my research goals, I suddenly desired the tropical tan.

When my name was finally called, I was told, "You’ll be in Bermuda today." I walked down a long, door-lined corridor, each door marked by the name of a tropical locale. As I walked into Bermuda, I found a walk-in-closet-sized room equipped with a large bed, goggles, clean towel, clock radio, and oscillating fan. The tanning bed is programmed from the sign-in desk to begin in five minutes, thereby giving the tanner ample time to disrobe and apply lotions before the rays begin. The bed itself was rather eerie in form; one cannot help comparing it to a coffin. The bed consists of two parts: a flat surface on which the tanner lies accompanied by a hinged lid. The goggled tanner climbs inside the bed, then pulls the top towards his or her body in order to be fully enveloped by light. As the bed came on, I was reminded of death narratives which describe a tunnel of welcoming light. The rays were extremely bright, but the bed remained cool and comfortable, given the salon’s temperature combined with the floor fan. Salon tanning, from this brief encounter, seemed to be a very peaceful, relaxing experience. While the idea of lying in a coffin-like capsule does not appeal to me, the setting did, in many ways, replicate the fantasy of lying on a deserted island. Before leaving, I asked the assistant when I should return. She replied that many tanners come on a daily basis, which was quite appealing to me at this point.

After returning home, I understood why salon tanning occupies such an air of mystery. Initially, I had blamed this on tanners’ reluctance to discuss the situation with nontanners. But now I realized that the aura of privacy, coupled with the pleasurable sensations of salon tanning, render the act difficult to articulate. I felt a bit ridiculous for desiring the tropical tan, yet there was something relaxing and quite alluring about this practice. Another short tanning session appeared necessary, in order to make further observations, of course. The following day, the assistant suggested a twelve minute stay. Reminding myself that this was, after all, in the name of research, I headed for Cozumel. After about eight minutes, my stomach began to tingle; therefore, I reached outside the machine and pushed the manual off button. That night, my stomach red and sore, I realized I had been burned, something I (and, as we will later see, my respondents) did not expect from a salon tan. Suddenly, the bed no longer symbolized relaxation. I was now reminded of Naomi Wolf’s image of the Iron Maiden:

The original Iron Maiden was a medieval German instrument of torture, a body shaped casket painted with the limbs and features of a lovely, smiling young woman. The unlucky victim was slowly enclosed inside her; the lid fell shut to immobilize the victim, who died either of starvation or, less cruelly, of the metal spikes embedded in her interior. (17)

Despite the skin damage, my visits to the Tan & Tone were beneficial in several ways. I now understood the physical pleasures (and pains) of the salon. I began to feel that I could credibly critique this practice from a more objective standpoint. But, more importantly, the experience versed me in the tanning discourse community, helping me to formulate questions for other tanners. Likewise, by being temporarily captivated by the tanning experience, I was more prepared to interpret their answers.

While constructing my questionnaire, I kept in mind my own tanning experience, as well as the nonspecific answers I had received in the past. I began with a statement assuring respondents that these questions were designed to understand salon tanning rather than to condemn or encourage it. I then asked respondents to comment on twenty-three questions, focusing on how they perceived themselves when tanned and to contrast that with how they felt when pale. Respondents were asked about other issues such as safety of salon versus sun tanning, the amount of time they spend at the salon per week, and the overall importance of being tan.

Finally, I informed my University of Oklahoma composition classes of my project, asking for volunteers to fill out my questionnaire. A number of students volunteered, and several took extra copies back to their dorms and sorority houses so that their friends could participate. While I had initially planned to focus on both female and male tanners, the willingness of females to participate, as opposed to the rather reserved responses I received from my male students, prompted me to turn my attention entirely to the female tanners. While I was initially disturbed by this change of focus, it has been a blessing in disguise. I believe my findings confirm the importance of gender specific research in this area. As the questionnaire responses of these thirty-eight young women will show, female tanners are reacting to a range of societal pressures which do not necessarily affect male tanners, and these issues warrant special attention.
 

In addition to sex, age, and ethnicity, I asked, "How old were you when you first went to a tanning salon?" My group’s average age for initial tanning was sixteen years old, and several respondents had been tanning for seven to eight years, one for ten years. When I asked "Do you feel salon tans are safe?" only 27% of those who answered the question said yes. When I asked them to explain their responses, one said "Yes, as safe as the sun." So at least 73% of my students thought they were harming themselves at the salon, yet they continued the practice. I then asked students to explain their concerns about the salon. 32% of the students stated skin cancer as a major concern. Another 13% said they worried about their skin’s health (mentioning sun damage, wrinkles, and leatheriness but not mentioning cancer). Three young women were concerned only about hygiene at the salon, worrying that the beds were not cleaned well after each use. One of them said her only concern was "Crabs." The following are some interesting replies from those with concerns:

—"I feel it is unsafe and expensive"

—"I don’t want to harm my skin"

—"I am slightly concerned about skin cancer"

—"I don’t want to become leather"

—"The rays scare me"

Keep in mind all of these answers came from students who still go to salons. From the students who said that they had no concerns about going to the salon, I got these rather contradictory answers:

—"I heard it is bad for you, but what isn’t?"

—"I heard it can affect reproduction"

—"No, because I don’t go very often"

Interestingly, the students who had concerns went to the salon just as frequently as those who claimed to have no worries at all. Numerous respondents who are worried about skin cancer still tan three to four times per week.

So, if pretty much everyone knows or at least has "heard it is bad for you," why are these women going and why so often? The request "Write a short paragraph explaining how you feel about yourself when you are tan" gives several answers, all tied to issues of vanity and wavering self-confidence. Most respondents offered at least three reasons for tanning, and the same issues appeared again and again.

29% said tans make them feel more attractive, 29% said they actually feel better when tanned, and another 29% believe they look healthier. 26% said they feel thinner while 18% feel more confident. Another 16% said tans improve their complexion. Two girls said they felt their cellulite was less noticeable, three cited happiness with not having to wear make-up, and four said their clothes looked better on them.

When I asked them to write a paragraph which discusses how they feel when pale, only 14% said they were comfortable with their bodies. The remaining responses insinuate not only discomfort with, but also, and too often, repulsion by a pale appearance. 22% described themselves as either fatter or larger, with another 22% describing themselves as either unhealthy looking or sickly. 8% used the words "ugly" or "disgusting," 8% described themselves as generally less attractive, and another 8% said they have little energy. Two girls actually described themselves as "gross." Other descriptions include: don’t like myself, self-conscious, have more skin problems, hesitant to wear shorts and other summer clothes, dull, and uncomfortable. One Caucasian student said that without a tan, she felt "white."

These females feel a general discomfort with their natural bodies. And why wouldn’t they? Women are continually bombarded with information which encourages them to scrutinize their appearance. Through cultural urgings to fight cellulite and "Flash ‘em a Coppertone tan," young women have come to see the tanned body as a healthier, more attractive body.

I will now look at three issues which are central to the popularity of salon tanning. Through these issues, we come to see not only what initially attracted these young women to the salons, but also what has sustained their obsessions with tanned skin, prompting many to make tanning a part of their general routines.
 
 

One way of explaining repetitious tanning, even by those concerned about potential dangers, is to analyze the discourse community of salon tanning and the trust which customers put in salon employees. While it is true that tanning beds can be found even in the backs of bait stands, most salons in Norman, Oklahoma, a nice suburban college area, are rather plush. When a new tanner first goes to the Tan & Tone America, she feels as if she were on a holiday. After all, the salon worker gives her an oversized ticket to a tropical isle. The staff of these established, clinical settings are young women who seem very knowledgeable about tanning practices and products. And, of course, the waiting area is filled with pictures of very dark models, infinite reiterations of beauty. Here at the salon, myth and reality, fantasy and possibility, collide.

Salons generally stress that their tanning method allows you a nice base tan which will prevent dangerous burns in the real sun. I received this information during sign-up. Of course, my experience in the burning bed refutes this claim. Of my 27% of respondents who felt that salons are safer than the real thing, most said the safety was due to these timed stays, which supposedly prevent burning. The clinical setting also lends more credibility to the displayed tanning products, which can be purchased at often exorbitant prices. At Tan & Tone, the poster models (and the salon workers, we assume) were supposedly users of Heliotherapy, a multi-stepped tanning system which helps you over your "plateau" in order to achieve the optimum tan. The salon worker tried to sell me a bottle of this tonic, but I resisted. On my second visit, in the heat of my tanning excitement, I was persuaded to buy a bottle of Quad Action Tropical Island Heat. The label proclaimed this to be a "Unique . . . formula enriched with alphahydroxy acids!" Since these acids are often recommended by dermatologists, someone uninformed of potential tanning dangers could conceivably regard tanning with Island Heat as therapeutic to her skin.The salon promises both beauty and safety. By using timed stays combined with "quality" products, young women are assured that tanning is an overall positive experience.

Perhaps these girls have never burned at the salon; but what the salons are not telling them is that burning alone is not responsible for skin damage. A recent Glamour article on tanning cites an also recent study where after six weeks of low dose UV rays (a "dose significantly lower than that allowed in tanning salons"), subjects who had no signs of burning still showed skin damage "consistent with premature aging" (144). An American Cancer Society pamphlet titled "What You Should Know About Tanning Beds and Booths" concurs, saying "there is no safe ultraviolet radiation." New tanners are also commonly told that tanning provides an excellent source of Vitamin D, which is true. But according to that same Glamour article, a few minutes of sun "with just a few square inches of your skin" exposed provides enough Vitamin D for days (146). Indeed tanners receive a variety of questionable facts from their salons. One girl who had been "educated" on the healthful aspects of salon tanning relayed to me that her salon proclaimed health benefits for the chronically depressed and for AIDS patients. She seemed genuinely moved by the humanitarian efforts of this salon.

For young women who are ashamed of their bodies, the salon can be a comforting environment. Understandably, they often overlook the scientific facts in favor of pseudo-science. It’s easier to believe the girl who passes out goggles at Tan & Tone America; she is a tanning authority, a young woman, herself quite tan, who hourly sees the results of tanning beds. The tan discourse community also includes the friends of our questionnaire respondents. I asked, "How many of your friends use tanning salons?" giving the choices all, most, some, very few, and none. 30% said "some" of their friends go, while a whopping 49% responded "most" go. For the girls who answered "most," it would be particularly difficult to think critically about the emotional need to tan, not to mention the health issues involved. While many women, myself included, are influenced by posters in salon waiting rooms and magazine photos, the dark skin of a friend could easily serve as an even greater incentive to tanning.

Undoubtedly, the most significant reason for my respondents’ devotion to tanning lies in the self dichotomy that beauty culture has created for them. 84% of respondents described their tanned and pale states as perfectly dichotomous situations. Tan was attractive, thin, and confident, while pale was ugly, gross, and fat. But how does one come to view her "natural" state as the mere antithesis of her preferred artificial form? The constant societal threat of "original ugliness" answers this question. This term, orginally used by Dean and Juliet Flower MacCannell and later adopted by Alice E. Adams, offers insight into almost any of the body alterations for which young women are groomed. Health clubs, beauty salons, and make-up counters are constant reminders that women must improve their bodies in order to be acceptable to society. But messages regarding skin tone are overwhelmingly effective since they cause women to feel negatively about their entire bodies.

Alice E. Adams’s discussion of women’s plastic surgeries is particularly relevant to the tanning question. In her article, "Molding Women’s Bodies," Adams discusses how women often do not question their motivations for seeking surgery, assuming that female improvement is always necessary. Members of the medical community itself act as if the female body is generally in need of repair, publishing, "in precise detail . . . the size, position, nipple placement, and proportion of the perfect breast." This attitude constitutes an "agreement of surgeon and female patient that her body suffers from an inherent pathology preventing it from achieving ‘natural’ beauty" (73).

Our culture provides young women with a plethora of signs indicating their bodies’ unacceptability. This is Naomi Wolf’s beauty myth. Wolf argues that society "uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women’s advancement" (10). By encouraging women to work continually on their appearance, by demanding that they obsess over body shape and skin tone, patriarchal institutions can rest assured that females will never gain complete equality. The beauty myth causes women great physical and emotional pain as they strive to destroy ugliness. And, as Adams points out, "If ugliness is women’s original, hence ‘natural,’ state, it is equally natural for them to attempt to merge with the ideal" (73). This exhausting attempt to merge the original self with the ideal self results, all too often, in female fragmentation.

Lester Faigley’s discussion of Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle is useful in understanding this fragmentation. Faigley explains that "the desire to consume is predicated on the lack of a stable identity," which correlates interestingly with our respondents, young women who are overwhelmingly disturbed by the original color of their own skin. Faigley further explains:

What is consumed in contemporary Western societies is not so much objects but images of objects, through which consumers imagine themselves as consuming subjects. Acts of consumption thus close the gap between subject and object, but open the gap within the subject. (12-13)

This lack of fulfillment keeps the tanners coming back for more. Many go three to four times per week, and some go every day. In this diligent attempt to become the tanned image, to destroy the ugly original, they come to detest the forces of nature. In this fragmentation, some tanners do, in fact, appear to adopt tanned as a natural characteristic. On one questionnaire, a respondent actually described herself when tanned as follows: "My skin seems to clear up—better complexion. I don’t wear as much make-up foundation, so I feel ‘naturally’ more attractive or feel more ‘natural’ looking." By adopting tan as a natural characteristic, this respondent has been almost successful in suppressing her original, untanned self. While most other respondents pointed out the basic dichotomy, she was able to disregard almost thoroughly her original state. Her quotation marks around the words naturally and natural indicate a deep-seeded knowledge of her present artificiality. Nonetheless, she is able, on some level, to equate her original state with tanness.

This false sense of the natural appears to be an effect of ritualized tanning. While some tanners go to the salon for only a few weeks of the year, ritual tanners have made this part of their year-round routine, viewing the practice as a basic beauty habit much like hair and tooth brushing. In her discussion of "The Ritual Body," Catherine Bell explains the circular nature of ritual; while the body creates its own rituals, it is still "molded" by these rituals, thereby considering the ritualized self as the natural self:

By virtue of this circularity, space and time are redefined through the physical movements of bodies projecting organizing schemes on the space-time environments on the one hand while reabsorbing these schemes as the nature of reality on the other. (99)

My study of these tanners indicates that perpetuating their perceived beauty is a priority at this interpretive moment. In an attempt to "occupy an imagined identity," they have become hooked on the consumption of UV rays. But because this can never be a fulfilling process, there is no stopping point. One of my final questions was, "At what age do you plan to discontinue use of tanning salons?" 55% either left the question blank, drew a question mark, or stated that they had not thought about that yet. Two girls stated that they would quit when they decide to have children. One said she would quit "After I’m married." A few respondents gave specific ages, such as twenty-one, twenty-five, thirty, or forty. One answered "50 to 60," while one nineteen year old said, "I haven’t ever thought about it, maybe 60." Two others, ages nineteen and twenty, stated "never." Nonetheless, there were some hopeful responses to that question. One respondent said that she would quit "soon." Another who had described herself as concerned about skin cancer said that she planned to quit right now.

These responses articulate the importance of focusing tanning studies according to gender. The societal pressures which these young women face vary greatly from those faced by young college males. As this study drew to a close, I spent more and more time attempting to understand why tanned skin has so easily become a symbol of health and thinness for these women. But I have since realized the futility of that question. Skin tone is not of issue here; improvement through difference is of issue. By its very nature, the beauty myth is, as Wolf explains, irrational, "a modern hallucination" (17). These young women, whether aspiring to blondness, muscle firmness, or tanned skin, believe their original bodies to be of inferior quality. But unlike peroxide and aerobics, tanning salons are causing irreparable damage to these young women. Eating disorders continue to be researched in the name of saving lives. But tanning salons have been largely overlooked as sites of female mutilation. Issues of "original ugliness" must be dealt with more effectively by those who recognize this cultural construct for what it is. Certainly, we must engage our students and daughters in a dialectic which exposes fear and destabilizes myth. I hope that answering this questionnaire prompted some of these girls to think twice about tanning. Certainly, I do not expect a sudden change of mindset from those ritual tanners. But, at least, each of these women has asked herself, "At what age should I discontinue tanning?" Perhaps that question will echo each time they lower the coffin-like lid.

Mary Adams
Department of English
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK 73019

American Cancer Society, Oklahoma Division Inc. "What You Should Know About Tanning Beds and Booths." Pamphlet.

Bell, Catherine. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford U P, 1992.

Faigley, Lester. Fragments of Rationality. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 1992.

MacCannell, Dean, and Juliet Flower. "The Beauty System." Ideology of Conduct. Ed. Nancy Armstrong and Leonard Tannenhouse. New York: Methuen, 1987.

Menter, Marcia. "Indoor Tanning: More Dangerous Than The Sun?" Glamour Mar.1998: 144-46.

Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991.