Skin

Today is "Melanoma Monday" according to the Academy of Dermatology.  So, this is a day where my health education degree compulses me to tell everyone to wear sunscreen and floppy hats and to remain at least 100 yards from a tanning bed. 
In my time as a health educator, I have found that this topic makes you the most annoying to your friends of any other health topic.  They don't want to hear that base tans are a myth and that there is no such thing as a healthy tan and that skin cancer is the most common cancer.  They would much rather you tell them to stop drinking, wear a seatbelt, and lose weight than you say something that might infringe on their fun in the sun.    Culturally, we have accepted at least one sunburn a year as some sort of right of passage that indicates you had a vacation and you're really living.  (Though this is often not true for farmers and construction workers and the like whose job requires them to work in the sun.)  Tanning has become intwined with social status, and many folks have reconciled the risk with their immediate wants and needs.
I really don't mean to sound as bitter and judgemental as this is coming out.  I mean, I get it.  I had two extra-large chocolate chip cookies on Saturday, just because I could.  I decided to totally ignore the risk of two giant chocolate chip cookies in exchange for the joy of the chocolate chips and the perfect chewiness, even if I had spent part of my morning complaining of how fat and puffy I felt.  We've all got our thing.  I'm just saying I feel like folks really want me to shut up about the sunscreen and I can tell my friends feel like I judge them for tanning.  I admit I have often said getting in a tanning bed is no different than asking to be a ninja turtle because you're mutating your DNA either way (except one comes with cool nunchuck skills and the other doesn't). I understand that may seem a tad dramatic to others.  It's the side effect of doing health statistics for a living. 
I'm getting it all out now and I'll do my best to keep my mouth shut in social settings for the rest of summer.  Unless, of course, you ask me a question about SPF :).
Since I'm on this topic, I admit to using self-tanner.  I often wonder whether that is a totally hypocritical thing for me to do and whether I should stop.  Even if UVA rays aren't involved, I feel like I'm buying in to the culture that says tan equates with beauty, which is not something I want to support.  But, I do have really pale legs with lot of bruises and scars, and dimples and such - and I do want to confidently wear summer dresses and shorts.  And, I do have flappy chicken wing arms and I do want that to be slightly less noticeable so I can wear sleeveless tops and dresses as needed.  So, I buy the self-tanner.  If this is hypocritical, then tell me.  You won't hurt my feelings.
OK - I'm done now, promise :).