Great minds think alike, but I'm a lot happier when I post on my great ideas before Yglesias.
Here's Yglesias:
But in fact, obsessive tanning is American to the extreme. After all, all those actors and singers don't look so bronzed because they spend a great deal of time outside.Nothing says “just folks” working class credibility like owning your own tanning bed. My understanding is that this is fairly common among reasonably prosperous Alaskans — in the wintertime, of course, there’s very little sun. A tanning bed can help make you feel better during those long, dark months. And nothing says “I own a tanning bed” quite like walking around with a tan in the Alaskan winter.
But that’s all pretty weird. Normal Americans don’t live in Alaska, don’t experience 22 straight hours of darkness ever, and don’t own personal tanning beds. Long story short, tanning beds are about as all-American as moose stew, which is not to say not all-American at all but rather idiosyncratic elements of the culture of an odd state located northwest of Canada.
Tanning is especially American in Eastern Kentucky. Here's my crushing reply to Yglesias:
Matt really needs to get out into the country some. Tanning is ubiquitous in rural America. I live in a town of 8,000 in rural Kentucky (and yes, our mayor IS thinking about a run for the presidency in 2012) and there are tanning beds everywhere. There’s a least five or six businesses in town devoted entirely to tanning. Then, there’s the several gas stations/convenience stores which have tanning sidelines. I think there are a bunch of home tanning parlors as well.
The trick is that tanning is a business with heavy demand and low start-up costs.
The population here is 98-99% white and white men and white women both do a lot of tanning. It's not like tanning helps much in this area. With a very fair-skinned Scots-Irish population, Kentucky tanning usually creates a yellowish color. But tanning is as American in Eastern Kentucky as shooting hoops, growing marijuana, and going to church on Wednesday.
Well, maybe not as American as growing marijuana.
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Agreed. Not much is as American in Eastern Kentucky as growing marijuana. In fact, only two states produced more marijuana than Kentucky in 2006 -- California and Tennessee. Economists have concluded that ending marijuana prohibition would save Kentucky approximately $57 million a year in police, judicial, and corrections expenditures, with another $10 million saved if it were taxed like alcohol or tobacco.
I'm a tepid supporter of marijuna legalization. So I see your point. But I would like to see marijuana legalization mostly so it can be regulated.
I worked with a crew of drill-rig operators in Tennessee for about 6 months. These guys spent 12 hours outside everyday and looked it. Then they went to the tanning salon on the weekend.
Didn't make any sense to me either.
Ric: Just as with alcohol and tobacco, taxing marijuana would entail regulation, e.g., retailers must have a special license to sell it, you must be a certain age to purchase it, it would be a crime to transact with a minor, etc.
I can go with that.
With a very fair-skinned Scots-Irish population, Kentucky tanning usually creates a yellowish color. But tanning is as American in Eastern Kentucky as shooting hoops, growing marijuana, and going to church on Wednesday.
Stereotype much?
I swear, it seems that more often than not, you are quite judgmental of our culture here in the hills. While you often have good points to make, they would be received much better if you simply deleted your negativity toward those of us who trace our roots to the region. Your prejudices of the local peoples cloud your writing.
"Palin's Pot Problem: Why should other Alaskans be arrested for something Sarah Palin once did with impunity?" see: http://www.reason.com/news/show/128824.html
Where's the stereotyping. I've read tons of articles on the white population of Eastern Kentucky being "Scots-Irish." Tanning, hoops, marijuna growing, and Wednesday church are all really big here. Likewise, my observation is that tanning usually has a ridiculous yellowing effect on people. If Yglesias had gotten out here, this is what he would have seen.
The stereotyping is in your words. Much like a modern day local color writer, your work tends to portray people of the region one-dimensionally. It's an incomplete depiction that is as damaging to Appalachians as sexist remarks are to women and racial slurs are to racial and ethnic minorities. It seems that you easily identify people of the region as "the other," without regards as to the hazards of othering. Young readers of Miner's Nacirema often make the same mistake. Perhaps Appalachia is your Nacirema.
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