{"id":175147,"date":"2025-09-04T10:52:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T08:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/?p=175147"},"modified":"2025-09-04T19:12:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:12:38","slug":"the-little-story-of-tanning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/the-little-story-of-tanning\/","title":{"rendered":"The little story of… tanning"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the sun casts its last rays of summer and some people still show off their golden skin back at the office, here’s a brief history of sunbathing. Far from being a trivial activity, basking in the sun at your vacation spot is as much a social act as it is a status symbol. The practice, which has become socially acceptable in the West, has gone from having peasant connotations to becoming the golden myth of modernity.<\/h4>\n

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” <\/b>Tanning is a cultural invention of the 20th century,” recalls historian Pascal Ory in his seminal essay (L\u2019invention du bronzage<\/i>)<\/b>. Long associated with hard labor and social inferiority, tanning became a symbol of freedom, modernity, and leisure in the 20th century. From the sun gods of Egypt to the beaches of Saint-Tropez, from powdered aristocrats to Hollywood stars, the evolution of tanned skin illustrates a major cultural shift. Behind the apparent summer frivolity, it reveals social, political, and aesthetic issues, shedding light on our relationship with the body, power, and desire.<\/p>\n

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The sun, between divinity and danger in Antiquity<\/b><\/h3>\n

In ancient civilizations, the sun was not only a source of light, but first and foremost a deity. In Egypt, Ra\u2014the Sun God<\/b>\u2014embodied vital power, and the pharaohs, depicted with golden skin, associated this luminous complexion with prosperity. This tan was not a deliberate choice, but a religious symbol.<\/p>\n

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Columns of Karnak Temple, Egypt \u00a9 Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Among the Greeks and Romans, the ideal remained paradoxical: gods such as Apollo were golden and radiant, but the elites valued fair skin, protected from the sun by veils or ointments. Historian Jean-Claude Bologne<\/b> points out that, for Roman patricians, \u201ca pale complexion signified idleness and availability for cultivated leisure, as opposed to the tan of slaves and soldiers<\/b>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Click here to read the full article<\/a> on Luxus Magazine<\/p>\n

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Featured photo <\/b>: Unsplash<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the sun casts its last rays of summer and some people still show off their golden skin back at the office, here’s a brief history of sunbathing. Far from being a trivial activity, basking in the sun at your vacation spot is as much a social act as it is a status symbol. The practice, which has become socially acceptable in the West, has gone from having peasant connotations to becoming the golden myth of modernity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1882,"featured_media":175146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"%%post_title%% %%sep%% %%sitetitle%%","_seopress_titles_desc":"From ancient times to paid vacations, discover the cultural and political history of tanning, between myths, fashion, freedom, and social norms.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22488],"tags":[23283,24191,23030],"class_list":["post-175147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle-en","tag-beauty-en","tag-luxus-plus-mag-en-2","tag-riviera-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1882"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}