How Much Sunscreen Should You Be Wearing?

From: http://www.visualnews.com/

David McCandless at Information Is Beautiful wanted to answer one simple summer question: just how much sunscreen should a “pale geek who burns” wear? As with many simple questions, the answer was quite complex, but thanks to David’s voracious apetite for information and his equally strong drive for making it readable, we bring you his clarifying “Sunscreen Smokescreen:” an in-depth look (without all the smokey, confusing hype) at how much sunscreen you should be smearing on this summer. Surfs up!

Via: informationisbeautiful.net

TANNING BUTLER: Dream Job or Male Sexual Exploitation?

by Annie Scott

from http://www.luxist.com/

The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach has created an unusual profession: The Tanning Butler.

Affectionately known as the "world's greatest job," tanning butler duties include strolling around the luxury hotel pool and rubbing attractive people (and presumably unattractive people, but let's not think about that) with complimentary Hampton Sun products from 12pm to 4pm.

The tanning butlers wear signature "Tanning Butler" t-shirts -- so don't believe that guy in a Speedo who's pretending to be a hotel employee -- and are armed with various SPFs, Evian spritzers and sunglasses cleaner in a custom-made holster.

"Good afternoon, I'm the Tanning Butler," they've been instructed to say. "Can I offer you some complimentary sunscreen? If you like, I can apply it to your back and shoulders that might burn easily, as well."

In my fantasy, that line is delivered with a very sexy accent. I hope the Ritz-Carlton's HR department is reading this.

"This modern twist on the English butler is beyond guests' expectations," says Michelle Payer, creator of The Tanning Butler. "It's a light-hearted service we created to cater to our guests as they sunbathe by providing an unexpected, luxury service they won't see anywhere else in the world."

An added perk of the profession? Celebrity rubbing. Jessica Simpson, Nick Lachey, Johnny Knoxville and Vivica A. Fox are just a few names the Ritz-Carlton, South Beach claims to have tanned.

If you're interested in staying at The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach, Miami's newest oceanfront hotel -- "a complete restoration of an original 1953 Morris Lapidus-designed landmark hotel in the city's historic Art Deco district" -- visit the website to book.

Alternatively, click here for job openings.

So Much for the Sun Tan

So Much For The Sun Tan

See more like this on kontraband.com

Ow. It hurts just looking at these scorched bodies, what's wrong with them? They're either on a death wish or they just don't get that big, bright burning yellow orb in the sky that we orbit around. It gives off heat as well as light :(

In France, a New Generation of Women Says Non to Nude Sunbathing

By Bruce Crumley / Paris

A woman sunbathes on the beach during the 62nd International Cannes Film Festival in May 2009

Kristian Dowling / Getty

For decades, the French have relished any opportunity to mock Americans for their supposed childish Yankee puritanism when it comes to matters of sex. These days, though, France is experiencing its own blush of youthful prudishness as an entire generation of younger French women says "Non, merci," to the summer tradition of topless sunbathing.

Since France's summer vacation season kicked off in early July, the French press has repeatedly sounded the alarm over the shrinking number of topless women on the nation's beaches. As eagle-eyed reporters have made quite clear, the prevailing trend among sun-loving women these days is to use both pieces of their bikini. Le Monokini, C'est Fini! , shouted Le Parisien in its report from a Mediterranean beach. "Nude Breasts Are Less Trendy" concurred free daily Metro France. "The practice has become common, and therefore less compelling as a fashion," says sociologist Jean-Claude Kaufmann. "When the local baker takes off her top despite her 60-year age and sagging breasts, the gesture loses its social distinction as one of youthful beauty." Some note that the return to more modest costumes is in part a response to rising concerns about skin cancer. (Read "In France, a Government-Led Revolution in Entrepreneurship.")

But the trend is also part of a wider social movement by younger French women who are shunning the less-inhibited habits of previous generations. If burning bras and going topless were the ways French women of the 1970s and '80s demonstrated their freedom, their daughters and grand-daughters seem less comfortable with exposed flesh. "The values of our time are more conservative, traditional and familial," says Kaufmann.

A survey titled "Women and Nudity" by polling agency Ifop captures the mood. It found that younger French women not only have a problem with nudity — but actually consider themselves prudish. Fully 88% of the women questioned qualified themselves as pudique — a term that can mean anything from "modest" or "prim" to "priggish." And they aren't joking. Though 90% said they get naked with their husband or partner, 59% avoid being nude around their children. Sixty-three percent said they refused to undress around female friends; 22% said they considered a woman in her underwear already naked. (See TIME's France covers.)

With sensitivities like those, it's little wonder the poll found French women had strong opinions about public nakedness. Nearly 50% said they were bothered by total nudity on beaches or naturist camps, and 37% said they were disturbed by publicly exposed breasts or buttocks. Forty-five percent of respondents reported they'd prefer to see a lot less flesh hanging out in full view — male or female.

Those attitudes got even more pronounced with respondents aged 18-24. A quarter of women within that group described themselves as very pudique, and 20% saw any nudity as tantamount to indecency. That, sociologists say, explains the changing scenery on French beaches. Younger women disinclined to baring themselves make up the majority of female sunbathers; those still willing to go topless are usually older French women. (See pictures of sunbathing in France on LIFE.com.)

"There aren't any rules, but, yeah, it's true when you're at the beach and look around, the only topless women anymore are older," says Elodie, 19, as she visited an artificial beach along the Seine known as Paris Plage recently. Elodie pointed out that a municipal fine — and frequently lousy weather — make going topless at Paris Plage a nonstarter. When asked whether she went topless on vacation beaches — and what factors made her decide when she did and didn't — Elodie's reply was as chilly as it was logical. "All those things," she said, "are personal concerns."

The contrast with U.S. practices is hard not to notice. American women visiting France these days have few qualms about going topless. And plenty of young American women are only too happy to playfully flash their wares in exchange for a few beads. In some ways, the puritanical swimsuit now seems to be on the other torso — a new French squeamishness that will doubtless leave some Americans, well, titillated.