What Sammy Sosa’s skin says about us all

The dramatically lighter skin that baseball great Sammy Sosa has purchased for himself is now a source of controversy. Sports commentator and former basketball star-Charles Barkley has clowned Sosa on camera, going so far as to have a makeup artist apply pale cosmetics to his laughing face while ribbing Sosa to knock off whatever he’s doing that has changed his complexion from caramel to vanilla.

The Dominican Republic native, who turned 41 on Nov. 12, is being hammered by some who say he has succumbed to societal pressures to make himself appear more white - or at least less black. Others speculate that the depigmentation is actually vitiligo kick-started by steroid use.

Sosa, however, claims the lighter, brighter him is a side effect of a cream he’s been using to soften his skin. I suppose he could be unaware of the scores of face potions available that soften skin without bleaching it.

But maybe his critics should lighten up. (I couldn’t resist.) What Sosa has done to himself says much about human nature and the never-ending quest to be “better.” In America alone, hundreds of millions of dollars a year are spent on face lifts, nose jobs, bust enlargements, breast reductions, cheek implants, lip-plumping injections, hair-straightening products, hair-curling products, hair plugs, toupees, tummy tucks, butt reductions, butt lifts, penile implants, wrinkle erasers, false lashes, fake nails and colored contact lenses.

Some people wish they were taller while others want to be shorter. Some crave more curves or muscles, others want to be thinner. Some don’t want their freckles, others apply fake beauty marks. The redhead wants to go blonde and the blonde dyes her locks brown. Someone with pale skin maintains a tan while one with dark skin secretly wishes to be lighter.

Talk to the most drop-dead gorgeous models on the planet and the honest ones will tell you that there’s something about their physical appearance that they don’t like. There’s at least one physical attribute they would change if they could. Most everyone possesses at least one physical feature that we would change if we could.

That’s because there’s some insecurity - and perhaps even self-hatred - in all of us. We alter our appearance, sometimes permanently, because we think it will make us feel better about ourselves. Or we hope it will make us more attractive to others. And then we cover up the feelings of inadequacy with high-sounding words like “augmentation” and “enhancement.”

It’s not hard to see shades of Michael Jackson in this whole Sammy Sosa color-change thing. But when you get down to it, they aren’t the only ones who had issues with the man in the mirror.