Fresh out of spring break and teasing at summer, the girls and guys are coming back to Iowa City from Florida, Punta Cana, Cancun, and the like with crisp, bronze tans. Everyone’s always looking to get some sun, and with that comes the fear of melanoma, skin cancer, and painful, peeling sunburns.

But I think we have another thing to be afraid of — excessive, dark tans. There was a time when I could tell my brown sisters apart from my white ones. However, as soon as the season’s tide turns from crude winds to sunny breezes, it’s like the campus’ diversity statistic rocketed from 25.9 percent to well over 50 percent.

At least in the winter, you can tell which tans are fake. Now, everyone’s brown. Just the other day, my friend pulled her arm out next to mine and said we were matching.

For me, though, it’s not a seasonal look that I wear three to four times a year. I think I tanned a few days out of the womb, and I’ve been that brown since. No burn, no tan lines.

I’m not at all saying that I dislike tanning. As soon as I stepped foot in Florida over spring break, I wanted to lay under the sun and watch my tan lines form. That’s a huge part of the appeal.

And of course, everyone loves the sun. We’re just big vineyard plants hiding under flesh and emotions.

First-year University of Iowa student Charlotte Derdeyn agreed.

“I like tanning because I love the look of tan lines. It’s so cute to see them peeking over a dress or tube top, and that tanned look definitely compliments my blonde hair. Not to mention, being in the sun makes me feel physically happier. It’s a great way for me to relax. Photosynthesis isn’t just for plants,” she said.

Also, there’s not much else to do at the beach. No one really swims laps in the ocean. Sometimes, tanning’s also a non-consensual act — you might just be playing in the sand with your girls or doing yard work, and surprise! Farmer’s tan.

Still, there is a limit to everything. A line between enjoying the hot, sticky feeling of the sun and being obsessed with looking darker does exist. I believe one side teeters on the edge of colorism.

For decades, we’ve defined colorism as prejudice and discrimination against darker skin tones. I suggest we expand on that. Colorism is also the incessant idolization and desire to be dark-skinned without taking on any of the identity associated with it.

Second-year Vivian Odubasa has never tanned before but is sick of the tan obsessions.

“Tanning to the point of looking a different race just does not make sense,” she said. “I find tanning to be problematic, especially given how colorism works in other communities.”

White and light-skinned people, including me, get to experience tanning as a luxury, a no-strings-attached relationship. Fake tanning is an industry of its own, less expensive than Botox or fillers but just as life-altering. Although, I think it breaks up with you every time you shower.

“I don’t like the orange look of fake tanning. You can tell when someone does it, like Trump is known for his skin’s orange hue,” Derdeyn added. “Also, I’ve always just praised being natural in a society where unnaturally altering your body to fit beauty standards has become a norm.”

I second that. People online are always concerned with GMOs and organic food when half the population is already plastic. We are living, walking, breathing GMOs.

Then, back home in India and Pakistan, we are also married to the idea of being pale. Skin-bleaching products like Fair & Lovely take the forefront of the makeup and beauty industries.

So many olive, brown, and dark-skinned people spend their lives ashamed of their skin as a result of age-old racism and colonialism, but in the Americas, it’s not just a trend. It’s a carefully crafted hobby. Dare I say, an art, with levels of skill and different tools.

Being good at tanning means you have an even one during the winter that’s fake but not orange, use tanning oil in the summer, time how long you’re on your front and back, and refuse to move your bikini because you don’t want the lines blurring.

“Thank God I don’t have a tan routine. That’d be expensive and too much, but I just make sure to apply sunscreen regularly depending on the UV. I also don’t tan for a specific amount of time. I just listen to my body,” Derdeyn said.

Why is it only attractive when white people do it? It seems everything from our colored cultures is resignified and gentrified by the West — scarves, gold jewelry, nose piercings, butter chicken, Y2K fashion, and now, our skin.

“The adaptation of traits and characteristics of people of color should not just be up for grabs. I do understand tanning in moderation, and although I’ve never done it, there are benefits for people of color included, like evening out skin tone,” Odubasa said.

It could even be that it’s less about us people of color and more about pale skin. There’ve been several instances where my friends have looked in the mirror and said that they’re “too pale” or “need to get tan.” They reminisce about the summer because their skin wasn’t just sunkissed but smothered, incredibly bronzed and, honestly, darker than mine.

Odubasa said this is an urgent issue.

“The dependency on being ‘tan enough’ is actually a disorder, which I feel many do not know, so it is not taken seriously,” Odubasa said.

I’ve always wondered if that’s colorism, too. Shouldn’t we be satisfied with our complexions as we are born with them instead of literally risking our health to change them? The pain these people go through is absurd. Blisters, peeling, red hot skin that stings under the shower, and tanning beds that are moments away from cooking you alive, as demonstrated in “Final Destination.”

Derdeyn told me about her own tanning nightmare.

“My baddest sunburn was about a year ago in Belize. It was so bad. It blistered and trapped sweat particles under my skin that eventually burst, leaving uneven, patchy, colored skin on my shoulder and upper back. I’m also very prone to skin cancer, genetically,” Derdeyn said.

Isn’t that enough indication that we’ve taken tanning too far past a leisurely vacation activity? Clearly, brown skin isn’t meant for everyone. If it were, we’d all be born with it.

The root problem is the same as it’s always been — beauty standards keep us from accepting ourselves for who we are.

Like all fashion trends and toxic beauty standards, the bad ones need to cycle out and die. I just hope this tanning fad fades soon.