The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed in Britain

This open access book explores tanning culture: how the desire for tanned white skin led to the phenomenal growth in sunbed use and how the practice spread through Britain. By analysing the role of the media, medical experts, and socio-political changes, The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed exposes how s...

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Հիմնական հեղինակ: Creed, Fabiola
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Հրապարակվել է: Bloomsbury Academic 2025
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Առցանց հասանելիություն:ONIX_20250204_9781350450356_10
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author Creed, Fabiola
author_browse Creed, Fabiola
author_facet Creed, Fabiola
author_sort Creed, Fabiola
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This open access book explores tanning culture: how the desire for tanned white skin led to the phenomenal growth in sunbed use and how the practice spread through Britain. By analysing the role of the media, medical experts, and socio-political changes, The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed exposes how sunbed providers, consumers and the ‘sunbed tan’ itself shifted from ‘healthy’ to ‘harmful’ in late twentieth-century depictions. Fabiola Creed examines print media, film, medical journals, trade directories, catalogues, and children’s toys to map this transition. The book begins in 1970s Liverpool when an affluent beauty businesswoman introduced sunbeds as a ‘revolutionary’ technology. In the early 1980s, the sunbed industry boomed with the mass advertising and fitness industry, epitomising Margaret Thatcher’s entrepreneurial spirit. Advertised as an everyday luxury for wealthy consumers, sunbeds became the acme of self-improvement. Yet, by the 1990s, sunbeds were a mundane technology associated with working-class people and ‘excess’ consumerism. Following the rise in Western countries’ skin cancer rates, and subsequent ultraviolet research and health campaigns, the media stigmatised ‘sunbed addicts’; these young white women and metrosexual men were condemned for being an ‘immoral’ drain on the National Health Service. Yet, tanning culture and its ever-evolving technologies remain popular to this day. Ultimately, The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed demonstrates how popular culture can reciprocally shape public health. It also sheds new light on key political, economic, medical and socio-cultural changes within everyday life in Britain. The book will appeal to those interested in the history of business, mass media, advertising, popular culture, public health, policy, and medicine, science and technology. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Wellcome Trust.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1512502025-07-21T15:44:26Z The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed in Britain Creed, Fabiola health and wellbeing history of health cosmetics cosmetic history health trends cosmetic trends sunbeds history of the sunbed history of tanning tanning culture sun tanning cosmetic enhancement health and media thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine This open access book explores tanning culture: how the desire for tanned white skin led to the phenomenal growth in sunbed use and how the practice spread through Britain. By analysing the role of the media, medical experts, and socio-political changes, The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed exposes how sunbed providers, consumers and the ‘sunbed tan’ itself shifted from ‘healthy’ to ‘harmful’ in late twentieth-century depictions. Fabiola Creed examines print media, film, medical journals, trade directories, catalogues, and children’s toys to map this transition. The book begins in 1970s Liverpool when an affluent beauty businesswoman introduced sunbeds as a ‘revolutionary’ technology. In the early 1980s, the sunbed industry boomed with the mass advertising and fitness industry, epitomising Margaret Thatcher’s entrepreneurial spirit. Advertised as an everyday luxury for wealthy consumers, sunbeds became the acme of self-improvement. Yet, by the 1990s, sunbeds were a mundane technology associated with working-class people and ‘excess’ consumerism. Following the rise in Western countries’ skin cancer rates, and subsequent ultraviolet research and health campaigns, the media stigmatised ‘sunbed addicts’; these young white women and metrosexual men were condemned for being an ‘immoral’ drain on the National Health Service. Yet, tanning culture and its ever-evolving technologies remain popular to this day. Ultimately, The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed demonstrates how popular culture can reciprocally shape public health. It also sheds new light on key political, economic, medical and socio-cultural changes within everyday life in Britain. The book will appeal to those interested in the history of business, mass media, advertising, popular culture, public health, policy, and medicine, science and technology. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Wellcome Trust. 2025-02-16T04:40:12Z 2025-02-16T04:40:12Z 2025-02-04T11:42:50Z 2025 book ONIX_20250204_9781350450356_10 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/98190 9781350450356 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/151250 eng open access image/jpeg Attribution 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/98190/1/9781350450356.pdf Bloomsbury Academic Bloomsbury Academic f75587da-2374-4722-9d42-9fffa7fa3f92 9781350450356 Bloomsbury Academic 264 London open access
spellingShingle health and wellbeing
history of health
cosmetics
cosmetic history
health trends
cosmetic trends
sunbeds
history of the sunbed
history of tanning
tanning culture
sun tanning
cosmetic enhancement
health and media
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine
Creed, Fabiola
The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed in Britain
title The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed in Britain
title_full The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed in Britain
title_fullStr The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed in Britain
title_full_unstemmed The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed in Britain
title_short The Rise and Fall of the Sunbed in Britain
title_sort rise and fall of the sunbed in britain
topic health and wellbeing
history of health
cosmetics
cosmetic history
health trends
cosmetic trends
sunbeds
history of the sunbed
history of tanning
tanning culture
sun tanning
cosmetic enhancement
health and media
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine
topic_facet health and wellbeing
history of health
cosmetics
cosmetic history
health trends
cosmetic trends
sunbeds
history of the sunbed
history of tanning
tanning culture
sun tanning
cosmetic enhancement
health and media
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine
url ONIX_20250204_9781350450356_10
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