Is it just me

its a Korean culture thing they have and grew up with, because the Korean Social Beauty Standards are “white milky skin” like how Dojin was worried about how he “damaged his beauty” its because Koreans see it as a wonderful thing that shouldnt be “tainted”. Obviously not all Koreans think this way, but a lot of other asian countries think this way too.

dont know if this was helpful but yeah. (=・ω・=) just wanted to help a fellow reader

Thank you, it was really help. And yes, I've seen some thai dramas as well. Even there, the characters seem to obsess on white milky skin.

Most Japanese mangas are like this too, i mean i cant disagree that milky white skin is beautiful but a lil’ variety wouldn’t hurt you know (▰˘◡˘▰)

I believe it is class issue. If you have the pale skin, that means you weren't out in the sun doing labor. You had the wealth to send others to do that. Sort of like how overweight people were seen as beautiful and a sign of nobility. If you were overweight, you were wealthy enough to never be hungry.

And what if you never lifted a finger yet you got color from birth? I think in asian cultures white skin is so important similar to how white people generally get more privilege. Though in the US white people became more obsessed with tans bc beautiful immigrants of color became relevant. Who knows why white is revered. I myself prefer darker tones. Otherwise, they can just look like dead corpses or mere pale af mannequins and like (￣∇￣") I'm like: ppl where's you're mellanin... are you ALIVE??? You need some colorrr, even a dash of beige would make more sense. -There rlly are some rlly pale ppl out there and it's whatever to me that they're pale. Such a lack of mellanin can be its own disadvantage if you're sensitive to the sun.

Very true. I know in historical times, nobility or those who wanted to appear "noble", would do literally anything to appear pale. Lead makeup, bleaching, etc. Anything for that deathly glow. I personally prefer some melanin. My family is pretty diverse, my maternal grandfather was native american, he married my grandmlther who was mostly European. She had a bit of color, not much. She had 7 children. Genetics played funfetti cannon on her kiddos. Hair from blonde to black, skin from my mothers lovely copperish tan tone to my aunts white. She is so white she burns looking at pics of the sun. Lol.

Lol. I'm Mexican so it's pretty hard getting details of our full ancestry, it cuts off at some point bc the documents weren't stored in a great way back when in Mexico. Those genetic tests are tempting . Maybe one day. My mol claim's we jad a french descendent a a few generations back on her mom's side.
In my grandpa's birth documents he is "Mestizo" which means mixed, so one parent was native and the other white/european. There is also some native american in my dad's side and he's got more color. Mexico is melting pot central as far as genetics go lol. My sister's more like my mom in skin tone and they are more sensitive to the sun. I tan easier and tend to get an even tan pretty easily, but I don't go out much and we're in quarantine now so the fact that we live in a hot desert is whatever. Whenever we go to the beach, my mom's shoulders get red and they stay red and my sister's careful too. I have more resistence to the sun. Since there's mixed genes on both sides of my family, I got hazel eyes like my mom and aunt [the two oldest siblings out of 7]. Out of 12 total cousins from that side, I'm the only one that was born with blue eyes that became hazel. My sister's were always brown but under enough light, they are actually like a dark hazel. I mean those european genes are fairly strong if I had to wager how likely hazel eyes are to get passed on. My aunt that also has hazel eyes had two kids too, but both have brown eyes. ╮(￣▽￣)╭.
Anyway, I always take a liking to yaois that involve other cultures than just european or japanese bc then the characters vary in skin tone a lot

Same. My grandpa's tribal office burned down in the 60s so no history there though we tried. I do know a bit about my grandma's side but not much. Science may say that darker genes are more dominant but like yoir family we have them strong euro genes. My dad is italian and german, my mom is mostly native. So bkth have dark eyes and hair. Of my siblings i am thd only one with tanner skin, used to tan great till age hit, my sis and bro were white with platinum blonde hair. My sis ended up with auburn hair and ice blue eyes, my bro with medium brown hair and hazel. Funnier still, my sister had babies with 2 different latin men. My nieces were the whitest latin kids. One is still white skinned, ice blue eyes, though her hair got dark.

I also love a couple with different skin tones in a manga. Either a tan uke or tan seme. Just looks good to me.

Italian genes can be somewhat like mexican genes in my opinion. I feel like latin related countries are likely to have more mixed genes & you do see plenty mixed tones in those cultures compared to others. I have a friend who is half mexican and half italian. With their personality tho, they like english a lot more than either parents' native language. That being said, his mom did make him learn proper spanish and he can converse with his grandma in italian. I mean, I have to wonder exactly what their dna composition is like lol.

True. Makes me really want to pull out the money for genetic testing.