Winter means tanning beds and cosmetics, summer means endless beach time, the goal is the same: never be caught with pale skin; how, when and why did tanning become such a key part of how we look?And once again, as always, summer arrives in Israel and hits us without warning with a wildly disproportionate heat wave, as if someone turned the sun up to maximum without bothering to tell anyone. From there, as if some imaginary signal had been given, the beaches instantly fill with tens of thousands of people desperately trying to darken their skin by a few shades after the winter months: lying on the sand, flipping from side to side like steaks on the grill on Independence Day.The goal is clear: a tan, and the darker the better. After all, in today’s reality, there is nothing more terrible than being caught with pale skin, the kind that looks as if it has not seen the sun since Hanukkah. And yet, had you walked around the world a little more than a century ago, all of this would probably have looked very different.8 View gallery Tanning (Photo: Shutterstock)The history of tanning is a story of a class reversal, of science’s influence on fashion, of the way tropical and exotic images seeped into the heart of Western culture, of the beach becoming a space of identity, prestige and desire, and of the way entire industries learned to turn a single aesthetic shift into a vast economic engine. It is also a story of a double message that has lasted for years: on one hand, the sun as a source of health, vitamin D, vitality and leisure, and on the other, as a source of cumulative damage, skin aging and cancer.For centuries, fair skin symbolized beauty and status, while darker skin, the kind burned by the sun, was associated with physical labor, life in the fields and a lower place in the social hierarchy. From ancient Greece and Rome to Renaissance Europe, pallor was considered a clear beauty ideal, to the point that people — or more precisely, women — were willing to take risks: lightening products based on lead and other toxic substances were used to whiten the skin despite the health risks. Culture reflected that ideal as well, with female characters described in literature as fair-skinned. In classic Renaissance paintings, such as Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” and “Primavera,” female figures were shown with light, almost glowing skin — an aesthetic ideal that at times seemed nearly inhuman.8 View gallery The ideal: 'The Birth of Venus' by 15th-century Italian painter Sandro Botticelli But whiteness would not reign forever. The first signs of a shift in perception began appearing as early as the Industrial Revolution, from the late 18th century and through the 19th. It did not happen overnight, of course. But as work moved from the fields into factories and cities, the old link between tanning and physical labor began to crack: More and more people spent their days inside closed buildings, far from the sun. At the same time, crowded urban life revealed a new problem — a lack of sunlight, which among other things led to a rise in disease.In 1890, British physician Theobald Palm identified the connection between sun exposure and proper bone development, laying a milestone in the understanding that light was not merely an environmental factor, but also a component of health. Palm noticed a striking phenomenon: In Britain’s industrial cities, where children grew up in crowded, polluted environments and were barely exposed to sunlight, rickets — a bone disease caused by a lack of vitamin D, which the body produces in part through exposure to sunlight — was very common. By contrast, in sun-drenched countries such as Japan, the disease was far rarer.In the years that followed, the first attempts emerged to translate that idea into therapeutic practice. One of the most prominent was American physician John Harvey Kellogg, who developed a device called a “light bath” — a chamber in which patients were exposed to artificial heat and light, based on the belief that these had a beneficial effect on the body. Treatments of this kind even reached Europe’s highest circles and became a symbol of a new medical approach.8 View gallery Niels Finsen (Photo: Wikipedia)The real revolution came shortly afterward. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, theories and treatments linking light, radiation and health gained momentum. One of the leading names in the field was Niels Finsen, a Danish physician and scientist considered one of the pioneers of modern phototherapy. Finsen, who suffered from chronic health problems himself, began systematically researching the effect of light on the human body. He developed a method based on concentrated light rays, which he used to treat severe skin diseases such as lupus vulgaris, a form of skin tuberculosis once considered nearly incurable. In 1903, Finsen won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work, giving scientific legitimacy for the first time to the idea that light — and in certain respects, the sun — had real healing power.Gradually, the sun underwent an image makeover: from aesthetic enemy to almost a medicine. In 1910, a scientific expedition was sent to Tenerife to study the benefits of “heliotherapy,” a treatment method based on controlled exposure to sunlight. By 1913, sunbathing was already being described as a desirable, even fashionable activity for members of the upper class. Do we smell change?The enthusiasm did not stop there. As with any new trend that spreads like wildfire, sun exposure also became a health craze, as if it were an ice bath in 2026. Medical institutions and doctors began recommending sun exposure not only for rickets and tuberculosis, but for almost everything: from skin problems to hormonal conditions, from chronic fatigue to heart disease. Children were even sent to special institutions where they received fresh air, regular nutrition and, above all, controlled exposure to the sun, in the belief that it would help prevent illness. In retrospect, some of the promises were exaggerated, to put it mildly, but culturally, the damage had already been done.Medical promises aside, the beauty ideal itself had not changed by the early 1920s. Personal parasols and long sleeves were common items of clothing even at the beach. Women’s magazines promoted powders to conceal tanning and whitening creams, and toxic lead-based products and various body powders were still used to lighten the skin or intensify pallor. But all of that was about to change very quickly.That shift can be seen in an almost fascinating, even measurable, way in the pages of the leading fashion magazines of the period. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health, which analyzed issues of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar from the 1920s, found a sharp change in attitudes toward tanning within just a few years.8 View gallery Covered as much as possible: women in swimsuits on the US East Coast, 1915 (Photo: Shutterstock)According to the study, at the beginning of the decade, tanning was almost absent from the fashion conversation: In the May-July issues of 1920 and 1927 combined, only three articles referred to tanning, alongside just two advertisements promoting a tanned look. But in 1928, a sharp turn began, and in 1928 and 1929 combined, researchers counted 30 positive articles and mentions and 99 advertisements promoting a tanned appearance. The change was reflected not only in the numbers, but also in the images themselves: In 1927, women in advertisements were shown protected from the sun with hats, scarves and parasols, while within a short time they were appearing exposed to the sun’s rays — a visual shift that clearly illustrates the cultural revolution. What happened in those years to bring about this transformation?8 View gallery No hat, no parasol: England, 1930 (Photo: Shutterstock, Travelling Tourist)We all know that the power of influencers should not be underestimated, and even in the 1920s, long before Instagram and stories, there were people who could move the cultural needle almost single-handedly. One of the most prominent was Coco Chanel, one of the most influential figures in 20th-century fashion, who became, almost by accident, one of the engines of the revolution. In 1923, during a vacation on the French Riviera, she was exposed to the sun and got slightly burned. But when she returned to Paris, something unexpected happened: Her tanned complexion, which until then would have been considered a flaw, instantly became the talk of the town. Photos of her, which circulated — or rather exploded — in the press, did not merely document the new look. They created a new aesthetic precedent.One of the most famous quotes in this context came from her friend, Prince Jean-Louis de Faucigny-Lucinge, a French aristocrat and prominent socialite in Parisian high society. “I think she may have invented sunbathing. At that time she invented everything,” he said. Even if the statement was exaggerated, it captures well the way tanning began to be associated with vacations, yachts, beaches, leisure and status. If only Chanel had known that one sunburn would help dictate the beauty ideal a century later. Now that is influence.8 View gallery Did she invent tanning? Coco Chanel, 1931 (Photo: Los Angeles Times)Of course, the Western imagination had prepared the ground even earlier. In previous centuries, and especially as European travel expanded, images of southern, sun-drenched lands became increasingly associated with freedom, sensuality and escape from the rigid European order. In the early 20th century, writers such as Jack London described Hawaii and surf culture as a world of body, sun and freedom — a physical ideal far removed from Europe’s refined pallor. At the same time, as surf culture took root, first in Hawaii and later in Southern California, an image emerged of a freer, more athletic and more natural body, one that did not hide from the sun but lived within it. When wealthy Americans began spending more and more time on the French Riviera in the 1920s, these images were already in place: The beaches of Cannes and Antibes became the stage where fashion, tourism and the new body ideal met, and the tan began to be absorbed as part of the scenery.It seemed the transformation was complete. Once tanning became a widespread trend, industry was quick to spring into action — because wherever there is a new beauty ideal, you can trust that someone will already have found a way to profit from it. In 1927, the first tanning oil designed explicitly for tanning was launched. In the 1930s and 1940s, content encouraging tanning became more and more common. At the same time, swimsuits began revealing more and more skin. Which came first, the tan or the bikini? You guessed correctly. The appearance of the bikini in 1946 marked another turning point, one surely connected in one way or another to the rising popularity of sun exposure.The 1950s also gave birth to one of the images most closely associated with American beach culture: the famous illustration for Coppertone, the sunscreen brand, showing a cocker spaniel tugging at a little girl’s swimsuit and revealing her tan line. And while we are talking about cultural images, in the 1970s Mattel — the company behind Barbie — launched “Malibu Barbie,” a summery, beachy version of the iconic doll, with a sunny look and a darker skin tone than classic Barbie, complete with a California beach aesthetic and a relaxed lifestyle.In those same years, an interesting paradox emerged: As tanning culture deepened, so did protective measures and alternatives. In 1962, SPF ratings began to be used for sunscreens, though in the United States they were not officially standardized until 1978. In the mid-1970s, the notorious tanning beds also appeared, turning tanning into something that could be achieved without the sea, without a vacation and without summer — and with a great deal of skin cancer. By 2007, it was estimated that about 50,000 indoor tanning businesses were operating in the United States, in an industry worth roughly $5 billion, around which a secondary industry of bronzers, enhancers and tanning accelerators was built.8 View gallery An industry worth billions; a tanning bed (Photo: Shutterstock)From the 1980s onward, tanning became an entire cultural code. If until then it had mainly symbolized vacation, leisure and status, in those decades it became embedded more deeply in the body itself, as part of the way the West defines health, sexuality and identity. The connection between tanning and health grew much stronger in those years, mainly through the rise of fitness and wellness culture. The ideal body of the 1980s and 1990s — muscular and toned — almost always came with tanned, sometimes overly tanned, skin. Popular culture embraced the image and contributed to it with the arrival of shows such as “Baywatch,” which not only reflected that ideal but turned it into a global role model. The muscular lifeguards, the female characters with glowing tanned skin, the endless beaches — all created one clear image: A tanned body is the right body. It is no coincidence that figures such as Pamela Anderson became icons that today symbolize an entire era.But if in the past tanning was the result of a vacation or a lifestyle, in recent decades it has become an aesthetic that can be produced, controlled and disseminated — mainly through the screen. Women with brown skin tones, such as Beyoncé, Halle Berry and Kim Kardashian, have stood at the forefront of 21st-century beauty standards. And, of course, social media — how could it not? — accelerated the process. Instagram, stories and selfies turned the body into something that is constantly documented and displayed, and tanning into an element that serves that medium. It is no coincidence that summer images such as the sea, the pool and vacations became social currency online, and tanning became part of the aesthetic that accompanies them.At the same time, a distinction also emerged between different kinds of tans. On one hand, there is the polished, controlled look associated with the fashion and celebrity industries. On the other, there are more extreme versions, sometimes deliberately artificial, as seen in reality television and shows such as “Jersey Shore,” where tanning became almost an identity marker in itself. Anthropologically, this is an interesting reversal: A skin tone that was once the product of an entire class became a trait one could choose, shape and use to send a message. A tan no longer necessarily indicates where you have been, but how you want to look.But while culture turned tanning into a symbol of health, leisure and beauty, science moved in another direction. Studies have repeatedly pointed to a link between exposure to UV radiation and melanoma, as well as other types of skin cancer. The rise in positive discourse around tanning in the late 1920s preceded the increase observed later in the 20th century in rates of illness — a historical connection that continues to spark debate over culture’s impact on health. In Britain, for example, there has been a sharp rise in skin cancer rates in recent decades, and it is considered one of the most common cancers among young people. In addition, according to World Health Organization data, using tanning beds at a young age significantly increases the risk of melanoma, by about 75% when exposure begins before age 30.8 View gallery Good for the soul? (Photo: Shutterstock)It is interesting to note that even in an era when awareness of the dangers of sun exposure is rising, many people continue to tan because they associate it with physical and emotional health, an active lifestyle and beauty. One study found that more than 90% of tanning bed users were aware of the risks of premature aging and skin cancer, yet continued tanning for cosmetic reasons. This may be one of the most interesting points in this history: Once tanning became a language of beauty, it became very difficult for science to undo it. For many, it remains associated with a healthy body and an active life. Perhaps that is precisely what makes its history so fascinating: It shows how difficult it is to uproot an aesthetic ideal once it has taken hold in the public consciousness, even as its health costs become increasingly clear.Still, it is important to remember that tanning is not a universal ideal. In many cultures around the world, especially in parts of Asia, the picture is almost the opposite. In China, Japan, Korea and India, for example, fair skin is still seen by many as a beauty ideal. There, tanning continues to be associated with outdoor labor and lower status, exactly as it was in the West before the turn of the 20th century. One of the clearest examples is the “facekini” in China — a head covering that conceals nearly the entire face at the beach to prevent sun exposure and preserve fair skin. Even in places where globalization, tourism and surf culture are beginning to introduce tanning into the local conversation, it is not taken for granted, but passes through a very different cultural filter.That may be the most interesting conclusion of this entire story: Tanning is, in effect, little more than a cultural idea that has taken deep root in our lives. Less than a century was enough to transform it in the West from a sign of labor into a symbol of vacation, luxury and glamour. At the very same time, in other parts of the world, that exact same skin tone continues to carry the opposite meaning. Ultimately, this is a story about the way cultures decide what is considered beautiful, what is considered healthy and which body deserves admiration. Perhaps for that reason, the discussion is less about color than about a mirror reflecting an entire era. So, will we see you at the beach this weekend? July is approaching, after all.