The Skin is a Virtual Reality: A Multicultural, -Exploratory, and Anthropologic Study

No other organ in the human body has as many functions as the skin-biologic, cultural, social, and psychologic. The skin is the first attribute we notice, and it is the basis of our first impressions. It provides information about our state of health, our moods, our age, and sometimes our cultural background. Above all, the skin is an organ like the heart or the lungs. The objective of this exploratory anthropologic study was to shed light on the people's global perception of the skin. More precisely, we wanted to explore how people think about their skin and whether they think of it in terms of its biologic role and importance as their body's largest organ. We wanted to know how aware they are about the skin's anatomy, functionality, and the pathologies that most concern them. Do people consider their skin merely as an envelope of beauty or as something more? To find out, we conducted a prospective anthropologic study of a random sampling of multicultural individuals in and around Paris, France. Participants were given a questionnaire with six semi-structured questions and one open-ended question about their per-ceptions and attitudes of their skin. Responses were analyzed on the basis of word groupings within the six major categories of considerations represented by the available literature on the skin in both French and English. The results of this study demonstrated the mutable nature of people's perception of their skin. Rather than remaining with one fixed vision, their thoughts about their skin changed in conjunction with their age, life experiences, and lifestyle in accordance with wider societal and environmental realities. In addition, their perspectives tended to go beyond cultural groupings, displaying a certain homogeneity of vision across demographic categories. As such, we concluded that the skin is a form of virtual reality that is constructed and reconstructed as one moves through life in the society.