Thanks Ryan, I would like to add to the worship of paler skin though.

It was excactly the same here in Europe historically. The reason was likely the same as you find in Asia today: Paler skin meant that you were not a worker. Farmers and labourers would get a tan from being outside in the sun. Aristocrats could stay inside and get pale.

This changed when almost everybody became office workers. Today having some tan is more prestigous because it means you had money to go on vacation to Spain, Thailand or whatever.

Especially here in Norway, the sun is such a rarity, that people go kind of crazy about sunbathing when the sun is finally out.