As a person who *cannot tan*, no matter what, I can say that there was a definite pressure to be darker when I was young. I don't know if it stopped because I got older or because society changed it's ideas about "healthy sunlight". It was most intense in Florida, where there was a large latino/islander population of dark skinned people. There was some racism to it, for shizzle. When I was a teenage girl, pale skin was seen as ugly, and uncool, not just different or a product of my genetics, and people would make rude comments about my race and culture when I walked past. I therefore tried very, very, hard to tan. I sat out in the sun for hours and really damaged myself.I would say that a white girl damaging her skin due to societal pressure to be a different color, is not different than a black or latino girl getting skin damage caused by bleaching cream. In both cases the pressure and the treatments are about trying to hide your genetics.