This week, Rosie O’Donnell was criticized for contributing to the cachet of tanning and supposedly saying it wasn’t dangerous, according to PageSix of the New York Post.
The Ray Festa Melanoma Foundation, which is “committed to educating everyone 12 years old and up on the importance of being “Sun Smart,” called the comments “ill-informed” and “irresponsible,” and gained some press on New York Magazine and PerezHilton.com and other sites.
We of course have a ways to go to reverse tanning-appeal, because it’s been a fashionable aspiration since the ’20s, when Coco Channel was caught tan in those pre-sunscreen days, after days on a yacht. Until that time, being as fair as possible was the goal, inspired by royalty. There’s a well-written history of popular skin tone “styles” on the Livestrong.com site and the blog author’s own experience with how sun exposure worked out for him, if you’re interested. (Sadly, FYI, livestrong.com also features other blog contributors describing how to “tan safely.” But we’re making progress: the Rosie incident created some encouraging backlash, showing that Americans are starting to “get it,” and also served to bring the work of RFMF to light a little.)
All we can do now, is practice sanity and promote prevention.
So, exposure from “bad publicity” and outrage from the newly formed RFMF actually helps. By the way, the group was established in the name of “courageous man who sadly was diagnosed with malignant melanoma too late to save his life.” They describe the story of Ray Fest as
even more unfortunate [since] he had been seen by an oncologist every 6 weeks for the last 8 years of his life and had that medical practitioner been more aware of the signs of skin cancer, Ray may still be alive today.
And, coincidental to my October 21st post about educating our health care providers to better spot our spots (!), they go on to say that the work of RFMF is
dedicated to educating all those who are exposed to our skin about the warning signs of possible skin cancers. These people can be our first line of defense and include massage therapists, physical therapists, personal trainers, hair stylists, barbers and others.
So, I’m all about supporting a like-minded group, because together, we have a better chance to create a new “tipping point” about tanning…to the paler side of the spectrum.
Tags: awareness, Livestrong, Prevention, Ray Fest, RFMF, Rosie O'Donnell, Skin Cancer, tanning