Suntanning in 20th Century America (review)

In thirteen short (and somewhat repetitive) chapters, Kerry Segrave delivers precisely what this title suggests: a history of suntanning in the United States over the last century. The author of ten other books published since 2000, Segrave relies largely on the popular press for his knowledge base, scarcely venturing into business or corporate history, the medical literature, or government records. The result is a breezy book on the rise and fall (and rise again) of the suntan as fashion-speak for "healthy."

Segrave begins and ends the book by asserting that the medical community has no one to blame but itself for the mania of sun exposure and the concomitant results of that exposure. He seeks to dispel the notion that Coco Chanel started the sunbathing trend in the 1920s; the legend is traced back to its source (a late twentieth-century newspaper story), which is then repeated in subsequent stories. Instead, he suggests, doctors urged patients to get fresh air and exercise in the late nineteenth century at exactly the same time that the working classes moved indoors for employment; color from the sun—burn, tan, or freckles—suddenly had the aura of wealth (leisure time to enjoy the outdoors) rather than the tinge of poverty (outdoor color was transformed to indoor pallor as the country became increasingly industrialized). Fashion followed suit in the 1920s with clothing coloration and cut that emphasized color acquired through outdoor exposure.

The book's organizational schema is semichronological, in that the chapter headings are clearly time-delineated, but blocks of time are rehashed from only slightly different perspectives. The period between 1946 and 2004, for example, is treated in seven chapters, some covering the entire period, others covering shorter blocks within this larger time frame. The author does not endorse simply sitting in the sun, but he finds fault with those who urge caution (or abstinence) without suggesting any benefits to be reaped from sun exposure, such as vitamin D. Some interesting questions are raised, but more obvious answers are omitted. One perplexing question is the rise of rates of melanoma: the hole in the ozone, and the time lag between sun exposure (or burn) and diagnosis, are mentioned as possible causes; other possible explanations, such as increased public awareness and diagnosis, are ignored. At other times, people who sunbathe are without agency: the companies producing suntan lotions might be at fault, Segrave suggests, for giving people a false sense of security of added protection and therefore added time outdoors. What about people relying on common sense, and their skin turning colors in response to sun exposure?

There are fascinating tidbits contained within. In the 1920s and 1930s, some companies installed glass that allowed UV light to pass through, so as to increase the health (and lower the absenteeism) of their workers. A man trying to avoid the draft in 1943 attempted to use sunburn as grounds for deferment (it didn't work). A mother in the 1980s was charged with endangering the welfare of her children because they got sunburned at a state fair. The advertisements of products are visually striking. The evolution of the three companies (Coppertone, Sea & Ski, and Banana Boat) that control one-third of the sunscreen market is interesting; the amount of money spent on these products is staggering ($410 million, in 1991). As light reading, this book provides answers to questions about fashion, sun, skin cancer, and whether one should use suntan lotion. For more serious, in-depth readers, there is scholarship in progress that will provide more complicated questions and answers, thus more fully enriching our understanding of this health issue.