I just walked out of my basic drawing class on Monday nights, and after having spent a few hours working on portraits, I felt I knew fairly well the common aspects of the human face. If you imagine the face as an oval, the eyes are about halfway down from the top; the nose and mouth are spaced evenly in the half below the eyes. The top of the ears usually protrude from the same level as the eyes, and the tips of the mouth are directly below the irises of the eyes. But, as my professor said quite emphatically, “These are just basic guidelines, because everyone differs slightly.”
From the artists’ standpoint, the individual diversity creates for a broader range of nuances that require attention to detail and skill to portray. But from the viewpoint of Asian Americans, plastic surgery seems to be an increasingly popular option for fitting oneself to an ‘ideal’ image.
According to statistics cited by Michelle Man in an article (published in BN Magazine and New American Media), minorities went under the knife 2.3 million times in 2005, 65% more frequently than only a year before. Asian Americans specifically saw a 58% jump, accounting for over 400,000 procedures in 2005.
More interesting is the type of surgeries most popular among Asian Americans: rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery, and breast augmentation. For the United States as a whole, liposuction, breast augmentation, and eyelid surgery are the most common. Although the category “eyelid surgery” does not distinguish between the procedure for making “Asian eyes” bigger and other, more common anti-aging procedures, the sheer increase in plastic surgery’s popularity among Asian Americans raises questions about the cultural norms being perpetuated by the media and advertisements. A quick look through any fashion catalog will yield few, if any, Asian American models posing for photos: the blond hair, blue eyes standard seems inextricably linked to the pop culture image of America.
As a result, whether or not Asian Americans are flocking to the plastic surgeon for typical procedures or for “de-Asianing” procedures should not be the point of focus: what should be the point of discussion are the cultural forces that are contributing to racialized standards of beauty and, inevitably, happiness. Popular culture permeates everyone’s lives everyday in the form of thousands and thousands of advertisements, and although it might seem to be a futile attempt to try and counteract such a potent force, the good news is that there are many points of intervention.
3 comments:
I feel that the beauty of the Asian American is in their wonderful features and their jet black hair. The slanted eyes make for a greater interest in my eyes and I am not an Asian American. Keep your beauty as nature intended. You are a beautiful race without the patice surgery. Keep your beauty and heritage.
Hi Patrick Lee. I am James Williams Jr! I'm not what you would concider an asian man like yourself bro! However I'm part Native American Indian (Cherokee) I'm also Black & White. I am highly upset at these young Asian women cutting themselves for the aproval of others! Fuck that! Sorry Bro! I have a myspace page with mostly hot asian women on it and you can feel free to join me there under the name James Williams jr the other one is Fang Greywolf in honor of my Native American Indian heritage! However back to the subject at hand!
I watched the speical that was on AZN called Western eyes. It hurt my fillings to see how many women of all asian cultures have let this passing fad become an over whelming trend! I love Asian woman and I think the are the hottest women on the planet! They have a natural beauty about them and most of it is drawn from the eyes! Besides now a days in America it's now the time of the hot and sexy Asian woman! Now there have been plenty of front runners before Tila Tequila, like on ESPN'S work out shows Kianna Tom a Hawaiian babe whose was the most beautiful girl on tv! Not to mention some of the hotest news casters like Julia Chan, Ju Ju Chaing and my all time favorite Ann Curry. However Ann Curry is a Halfbreed so that maybe what attracked to me since I am Multicultural myself.
But it greatly hurts me to see these young Asian woman ashamed of their heritage! That's kind of what it boils down to bro! See there are times when I am a shame to have Black and White Blood in my bloodline! The only time I've ever been ashame to be Cherokee was when I learned that I was one and I use to always play cowboys and Indians but thanks to the lies in history I never wanted to play the Native Americans, mostly because we were protrayed as the bad guys! You feel me on that! Since learning I've imbraced it full stream though!
However I'm good and have come to terms with who and what I am. Lots of people are lost within themselves and can't get a grip on who or what they are suppose to be! As of the early 2000's I had learned a hard lesson. I had been taught by my Korean friend that Native American Indians where also Asian! However I don't know if we can be concidered Asian since the time span has been gone from country to country! However histroy is still telling lies since they still don't want to admit that a Chinaman found America first! Be seeein ya!
I really never understand why people want to look different. Even though I'm not Asian, I always loved the way Asians looked and I can't understand why they would want to change. I think the Media is part to blame for pushing these ideas of what "beautiful" is. Even though surgery may seem harmless I think just not accepted yourself as who you are is harmful. But it's seen in Asian countries too that looking "white" is the style now. it's sad but true. It might be alright to change your looks, but when it goes deeper to changing your ethnic identity is seem disturbing.
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