“That’s colonialism all over your face!”
The quote is from one of favorite Asian American Studies professors on eyelid surgery, nose bridge implants, and any other kind of cosmetic surgery that transforms Asians physical features into more Caucasian ones. She meant that there is one standard of beauty—the Western one—that gets imprinted on our faces, our bodies, and our senses of self.
It’s easy to see that the Western ideal of blond-haired, blue-eyed, All-American (or Ayran, if you’re more sinister) beauty is the dominant standard. Look no further than the all-present world of popular media. Advertisements, TV, and movies glorify beautiful faces, but these beautiful faces don’t look anything like me—or you, probably. Every billboard says, “This is Beauty, and you are not quite it. Envy my bag, my hair, my look and my, uh, eyelids.”
Racialized plastic surgery is a popular topic on talk shows like Tyra and Montel. They raise the question: does eyelid surgery erase or enhance race? The audience nods along in agreement that eyelid surgery is a way for Asians to conform to white prettiness. The plastic surgeon and his patients say that they are just enhancing Asian looks. I may not have big, round eyes, but I can see perfectly well what’s going on here.
These girls feel really bad about themselves. Liz and Keyounga (guests on Tyra and Montel) both say they were “the only Asian girl at school” and remember being called “chink.” They have memories of face-to-face racism. I can sympathize with that. Eyelid surgery is not simply a matter of wannabe white, it’s also about trying to remedy their experiences of racism.
The crease, that coveted fold, is such a small thing, but it has come to mean so much. This is because the eye is the quintessential sign of Asian difference. The “Asian” eye is the focus point of racial taunting, like “slant-eyed” you-know-whats and “ching chong” jokes with the accompanying hand gesture. Going into surgery, Keyounga says, “Maybe I won’t get called chink anymore.”
Plastic surgery offers a way to hide those physical features that have been denigrated. Getting new eyelids or a new nose is a form of racial covering. The term is Kenji Yoshino’s, who explains that to cover is to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream. And covering is something everyone does because behaving mainstream is a social necessity. (I’m not a plagiarizer, so you can read this on page ix of his book Covering).
So, in effect all this westernizing plastic surgery is a form of assimilation. You can swim in the mainstream instead of upstream by transforming your appearance. The slanted monolid eye is the marker of Asian difference, so changing it brings you closer to sameness. Does it really?
Liz and Keyounga are aware that plastic surgery doesn’t make them look white. “I’m still Asian,” says Liz, but she doesn’t seem too happy about it. Eyelid surgery patients are probably not trying to pass as white, but they are at least trying to appear part white. They come out of surgery Eurasian, with a few European features like a “tall” nose or slighter bigger eyes added to their generally Asian faces. It’s a double-bind of wanting to be Asian, but not too Asian. In other words, wanting to be different and the same as “everybody else.”
Getting cosmetic surgery is a personal choice, but even our most personal choices are influenced by dominant culture. Internalizing western notions about what is beautiful (and what is ugly) happens almost subconsciously. Knowing that Western beauty is dominant, has helped me question its standardization. I guess that means I won’t be getting my face “colonized” any time soon.
Lisa Leong is a senior at UCLA majoring in Art History. She also studies French and Asian American Studies. Lisa writes for the online magazine Asia Pacific Arts.
11 comments:
I applaud you for your decision to remind the beautiful person you were designed by God to be. It saddens me that a lot of Asian women feel that they need to change anything about themselves so that they can better fit into the Western culture. Look at it this way: an Asian woman goes through the changes to make herself look more like her white counter-part…so after the work she becomes a white knock-off…what decent man would want a knock-off? He would just get a real white woman. Asian woman were designed with a beauty that is uniquely theirs and I personally love the look of an Asian woman, of whom my wife is and has been for the nine years of our marriage, as well as all of her life (without any physical changes)…I am African American. So, do you as an Asian woman want a man who loves you for all of the Asian features you were born with? Or do you want a man that wants an Asian history in a white woman package?
What are you talking about?
Asian women want to look like other beautiful asians. That is why they get their surgery. I am positively sure they are not doing eye lid surgery to look western. I am not sure where you are with this thought. Girls just see themselves with prettier eyes or bigger eyes so they get their makeover. Mostly they just want to be like other beautiful asian women.
Even though I'm not Asian I have always liked the way Asians looked better than any Caucasian-- no offense to anyone. I think it's terrible that people go to extremes to change the way they look because they're afraid of what others might say about them. There's nothing wrong with being a little different from the people around you. Maybe someday Caucasians will want to look Asian? who knows...
Lisa Leong, I hear you girl and I am greatly upset that many Asian woman are going threw with the operations to loook more white instead of Asian! How dare they! Asian woman are the most beautiful women in the world in my eyes! Asian men are so lucky to have you ladies since a lot of asian woman won't date out of their race! However I'm very open mined too. If it will keep a woman happy then I am down but I'd rather see a woman with her natural beauty instead of cutting their face and changing their brease size and other things! I believe That we all have to learn how to be happy with what god has givein us!
It's easy for me to say this being a man. I've writen to you before and I just gave Patrick Lee the same message so I'll shorten the letter! As a man we will never know the presure and the pain you ladies feel to be beautiful. However not all men are so damn judgemental. I love asian woman, their faces their eyes their natural beauty. I just wish that most younger girls would just be themselves and stop letting passing fads become trends that makes the waters of life change the natural path that most young asian women take for cuting their face to get the operations. I and we all can blame the media, there are very few Asian women or strong role models in American tv. Other then Juju Chang, Julie Chen and Ann Curry! However the only Asian actress that have had great roles on tv have been Nia Peeples and Kelly Hu! Marial Law and Walker Texas Rangers now she's on the Young and the restless! (Nia Peeples) The media here in the states are still a bit racist! Just like the Power Rangers shows. They usually on have 1 asian person and 1 black person never more then one! I wish they'd give me a job so that we can change that! Be seeing ya! Try to talk to your friends if they are concidering the operations. Tell them not to do it! Tell them to Honor Thuy Trang the Yellow Ranger and keep true to their asian heritage, leave their eyes alone damn it! No operations to make any asian girls look white! Be true to Asia! nuff said!
I am an American of Jewish and Scotch/Irish genetic extraction. (that's what my mother says I have to call myself, since I skipped Hebrew school I can't call myself Jewish). When I was a girl the thing was to get yr. nose broke and reset so it wouldn't look Jewish. I grew up praying at night to wake up looking like Laurie of the Partidge family; long STRAIGHT hair. I hated my hair and I hated being called "'Fro". I spent evenings bugging my friend Audrey Eng to let me brush her hair; so shiny, so neat, so straight!
I had so hoped that this kind of "colonialism" was on the way out with the whole celebration of diversity ya-da-ya-dah, but I guess it's not. Asian women, you are beautiful, and single lids are hot--just like mediterannean noses and kinky hair are hot. Besides, it's all in the smoldering glance,which can be achieved with any eye-shape. Brigitte Lin could make Gwynneth Paltrow disapear in a puff of pale smoke with just one of her "bad" looks.
evilyngarnett@swst.blogspot.com
Lisa - it saddens me to think that people are being racially ostrasized to the point that they would change their looks. Physical racial differences offer a spectrum of beauty that I wish we could relish rather than abhor. your blog reminds me of the fairy tale i learned when i was a child. it was about an "ugly duckling" that all the other ducklings made fun of. But you know what? she wasn't a duckling at all. she was really a BEAUTIFUL swan!
You can change everything on your body, but there are certain things you can't change about yourself... the color of your skin. You can pass yourself off as "Euro" but when those babies come out... they will look like mixed babies. How would you deal with your children's self-esteem when it comes to their looks? Asian people should be proud with whatever it is that they have and learn to deal with it instead of satisfying the need to change with surgery.
Thank you for the post Lisa, well thought-out...it raises some deeper questions about the American (not necessarily Western) ideal of beauty...have you thought for example, why is it that Asians in Europe don't flock to the plastic surgeons for eyelid surgery, at least not in the numbers we see in the US? Could it be that this American ideal of beauty is just another "packaged, marketed, ready to be sold" consumption idea, as so many others in this country? In this case with the plastic surgeons cashing in?
Being both a European and an American, I can argue that this tendency to conform is more American than Western in general...and it covers many more facets of life than we sometimes think. For example, I'm sure your Asian first name is not Lisa :)
Talking about Western ideals, the ancient Greeks used to say "know thyself", in other words, they believed in the individual, and in individualism. This American "standardization" is quite an oxymoron for a country that is the most culturally diverse in the world, or perhaps because of it.
Elias Zachariadis
The current Ms. Universe is Asian, she was judged the most beautiful in the world. I did not notice that she needed to have eye or nose surgery.
Yes, it is hard to be the only Asian at your school, to not feel that you fit in, but to need to have surgery to radically change your appearance? Is that going to make you fit in better?
We are what we are, we were put on this earth for a purpose, to change how you look really does change how you are perceived by others and changes your own perception of self.
Is it worth it?
totally agree with you! No to the colonization of our faces! :)
you go Lisa Leong! go girl! :) *cheers*
I really enjoyed reading your post and thought you made some excellent points, especially about the "colonization" of your face. As a white American who often is in interracial relationships, I have noticed many different beauty ideals and come to appreciate the many forms of beauty. I think it's very sad that Asian women feel so much pressure to conform to a Western idea of beauty and find it a sad commentary on our culture in general that every major celebrity and beauty icon today has had some form of plastic surgery. I think society's comments on a woman's looks begin when she is very young and only intensify with age. I know I personally struggle with accepting my own looks at times and feel that maybe I would feel more confident or people would treat me better if I looked more like (insert celebrity here), had longer legs or longer hair, etc., etc.
I think it's sad that women have such unrealistic expectations to live up to and we spend billions a year on beauty and diet products, which is just what marketers want. Yet I still spend a lot on beauty, I admit, and I can only imagine how much harder it would be to be a person of color. Thanks for the thoughtful post.
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