Oh, and just to add .... the fact that people back then equated fair skin with beauty wasn't because of "racism" or "supremacism" or crap like that. It was because of the same sort of celebrity worship that causes the hoi polloi to ape what the hollywooders do in this day and age, from stupid things like monocultural lawns and wall-to-wall carpeting right down to botox and weird fashion crazes and all the rest you see today. Humans were always like that. Chimps do it, too (see: Chimp grass ear fashion craze).
Is not racist, people liked fair skin without seeing a black person in their lives. People tend to not realize how rare it was to see a black person in Europe.
As an idea, in Germany there were exhibits to go see black people. A form of zoo for humans, horrible and disgusting but it does make a point on how rare it was to see a black person. Even now, a lot of Europeans that live in poor rural areas have not seen a black person in real life.
I think having fair skin it is also connected to being young, young people have a whiter and cleaner skin then those in their 30s, even if we stay an unhealthy amount of time indoors. And since youth is associated with fertility and we are just apes with better brains and less hair it makes sense that fair skin is considered beautiful.
Also how having a "healthy" tan went from "working class thing" (because the elites didn't have to work in the fields) to "elite thing" (because only elites have time to relax on the beach/by a pool/to afford a proper tanning salon/bed), etc...
Oh, and just to add .... the fact that people back then equated fair skin with beauty wasn't because of "racism" or "supremacism" or crap like that. It was because of the same sort of celebrity worship that causes the hoi polloi to ape what the hollywooders do in this day and age, from stupid things like monocultural lawns and wall-to-wall carpeting right down to botox and weird fashion crazes and all the rest you see today. Humans were always like that. Chimps do it, too (see: Chimp grass ear fashion craze).
Is not racist, people liked fair skin without seeing a black person in their lives. People tend to not realize how rare it was to see a black person in Europe.
As an idea, in Germany there were exhibits to go see black people. A form of zoo for humans, horrible and disgusting but it does make a point on how rare it was to see a black person. Even now, a lot of Europeans that live in poor rural areas have not seen a black person in real life.
I think having fair skin it is also connected to being young, young people have a whiter and cleaner skin then those in their 30s, even if we stay an unhealthy amount of time indoors. And since youth is associated with fertility and we are just apes with better brains and less hair it makes sense that fair skin is considered beautiful.
Also how having a "healthy" tan went from "working class thing" (because the elites didn't have to work in the fields) to "elite thing" (because only elites have time to relax on the beach/by a pool/to afford a proper tanning salon/bed), etc...
Irony.
I actually enjoyed that, thanks for the suggestion