There's Nothing Wrong With My Eyes

[Guest guest]

http://www.alternet.org/rights/19582/

 

There's Nothing Wrong With My Eyes

By Sandy Kobrin, Women's eNews

 

Posted on August 17, 2004,

http://www.alternet.org/story/19582/

 

Alyssa Lai grew up thinking she was pretty but

noticeably different from most of the blonde,

blue-eyed girls native to her San Jose, Calif.,

neighborhood.

 

This fact was not lost on her mother, father and

grandmother, who had emigrated from China. Five years

ago they offered to get her plastic surgery,

specifically, blepharoplasty, for her 14th birthday.

Commonly known as " Asian eyelid surgery, " the

procedure entails stitching a permanent crease into

the eyelid.

 

Her parents told her that when her eyes were rounder

and more Caucasian-like, her eyes would look even

" prettier. "

 

After quite a bit of soul searching, Lai opted to

decline the surgery. The pain of the surgery, which

can be intense for a few days to over a week, was only

a small part of her decision to keep the eyes she was

born with.

 

" To be beautiful you don't have to look beautiful in a

Caucasian sense, " she said.

 

With eyelid surgery the fastest-growing type of

plastic surgery in the Asian community in California

and across the country, numerous other young women are

facing the same decision. Approximately 75 percent of

all Koreans and 50 percent of all other Asians are

born without the double eyelid crease.

 

At the cost of about $2,000, a rapidly growing number

of young girls – both in Asia and the United States –

are opting to have the crease surgically added.

 

U.S. Women Grapple with Ethnic Issue

 

But unlike their peers in Asia – where blepharoplasty

is the No. 1 cosmetic procedure – young Asian-American

women who consider the surgery are more likely to

grapple with the idea that the procedure will also

alter their ethnic identities, according to Dr.

Charles Lee, a plastic surgeon in Los Angles who

specializes in blepharoplasty.

 

" There is more resistance to the procedure here than

in Asia, " he told Women's eNews.

 

Lee said he has seen an increase in his practice for

each of the past eight years. He noted that the

surgery has long been popular for Korean, Japanese and

Vietnamese women and this year the number of surgeries

for Chinese-Americans have increased.

 

" In Asia, people don't see it as ethnically altering

the same way they do here . . . But we believe we are

just trying to make them look prettier. Just a

prettier Asian eye, not a Western eye. "

 

Lee acknowledges, however, that the surgery's

popularity has risen along with the advance of Western

culture and fashion.

 

" The increase is due to more exposure to Western

goods, culture and makeup in China. It has been that

way a long time in Korea and surgery there has been

popular since the 1950s. "

 

Golden State Transformations

 

In California, groups of all ethnicities have vied to

transform themselves into a Caucasian standard of

beauty. Jewish women undergo rhinoplasty, or " nose

jobs, " and African Americans have undergone the same,

along with lip reductions and skin lightening.

 

Despite an era that seems, at least superficially, to

celebrate multiculturalism, these procedures suggest

that many women still nonetheless experience physical

characteristics that indicate ethnicity as negative

features. For Asians, ethnically defined by their

unique eyes, eyelid surgery is a particularly dramatic

example.

 

The Alexandria, Va.-based American Academy of Facial,

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery reported that

125,000 blepharoplasty procedures were performed in

2000 in the United States.

 

The numbers are highest in California, where both the

Asian and plastic surgeon populations are growing

rapidly. A study by the American Academy of Facial,

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery also indicates that

facial cosmetic and reconstructive surgery increased

exponentially among minorities from 1999 to 2001. It

has more than quadrupled among Asian Americans,

compared to a just 34 percent increase among

Caucasians.

 

Carrie Ching, the Chinese-American editor of New York

based Monolid Magazine, has led a mini-crusade against

the surgery, evidenced by the magazine's provocative

name.

 

" It's unfortunate that for many Asian-American women

there's peer pressure and pressure from parents to

assimilate to white culture, " Ching said. " We're just

living in an environment that pollutes the culture. "

 

Martin Wong is editor of Giant Robot, a Los

Angeles-based magazine for young Asian-Americans that

focuses on art and culture. He believes that the

impulse behind the surgery is coming from the older

generation of Asian women, particularly the new

immigrants who are pushing their children to

assimilate.

 

Criticized as 'Self Mutilation'

 

" Double eyelid surgery is unnatural and people who do

it are buying into a beauty myth that is not

Asian-based. It's really just self-mutilation and a

lot of it sadly is interjected by parents and their

ideas, " Wong said. " It's heartbreaking that these

young girls don't have cultural pride; that they're

ashamed of who they are and how they look. "

 

Many Asian-Americans say that the idea that

double-lids are beautiful and single-lids are ugly is

reinforced by the beauty standards projected by

Hollywood, television and beauty magazines. Few Asian

celebrities are still single lidded, they say, noting

that even Jackie Chan, action adventure superstar, has

had the surgery. They also note that Asian-American

women represent less than 3 percent of all actors in

Hollywood's movie history.

 

" Everything you see in the media is big blue-eyed

blondes and for Asians the ideal look seems to be to

look more Eurasian, more westernized with big eyes, "

said Ellen Hwang, editor-in-chief of Jade Magazine, a

New York-based magazine that caters to Asian-American

women. " Here in the U.S., even more than in Asia, the

models and movie stars you see and that girls want to

emulate are Caucasian. Yes there is a Lucy Liu, " she

said, referring to the Asian-American actress and

model, " but most models are Western. And young girls

often want to look like those models. "

 

Perhaps reflecting the intensity of emotions

surrounding the surgery, no woman reached by Women's

eNews who had the surgery was willing to be

interviewed.

 

Rethinking Privilege

 

San Diego native Shin-Yu Wang, 19, who is Chinese by

descent, was born with double-lidded eyes. " When I

found out that other people wanted them and I already

had them I felt privileged, " she said. " I have been

affected by growing up in San Diego in a white world.

When you look at magazines and TV and the media in the

U.S. you see gorgeous women, but you don't see

gorgeous Asian women. You see white women because that

is how beauty is portrayed in American culture. "

 

Wang, who goes to the University of California,

Irvine, which has a 50 percent Asian-American

population, speaks for a large group of Asian women on

her campus.

 

" Being white is also often portrayed as being 'cooler'

than being Asian, " Wang said and went on to explain a

concept that only Asian-American women would have to

consider: being a " Twinkie, " or – like the

mass-marketed sugary dessert product – a person who is

regarded as yellow on the outside and white on the

inside. Some Asian-American girls, said Wang, consider

it a compliment. But she finds it offensive.

 

" Asian girls that are Twinkies are just trying to

assimilate, " said Wang. " They are just trying to fit

in and belong, but I don't think it's cool. Young

Asian girls now have a very tough time dealing with

the ideals of beauty they see in the media and in

magazines. I think it is important for Asian women to

keep their culture and learn to appreciate

themselves. "

 

© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights

reserved.

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