Week 3 - Term Paper / Cosmetic Surgery

Cosmetic Beauty

The form of popular culture of choice to write about is cosmetic beauty and how it has re-shaped the way men and women of all ages are constantly seeking perfection. You might ask “what is perfection”? In the three unrelated blogs in Sociological Images all point to the fact that looking Caucasian is the standard that one should be striving for.

When did this standard get set? Who deemed Caucasian as the “look” we should all be struggling for? Why is the Caucasian features superior to Asian, Polynesian, Black or Arab?

In the first blog, a Dr. Sean Younai of Los Angeles advertises his cosmetic surgery services on the web for Asian rhinoplasty or nose surgery for those of Asian descent. The goal of the nose surgery is to make Asians appear more Caucasian. His strategy is to implement nose cartilage implants to replace “underdeveloped nasal bridges” from those in “Korea, China, Philipines, Japan, Hawaii and Malaysia”. (Thank goodness, I thought Hawaii might somehow be left off the list.) He goes on to explain that the result of the underdeveloped nasal bridge leaves the appearance of “eyes appear to be far apart” and “inadequate”. He adds other negative descriptions certainly making Asians further feel inadequate about the features they were born with as the tip of the Asian nose being “often round, wide, bulbous, and of poor definition.” He states even further that the “thickness of Asian nasal skin also contributes to the lack of nasal tip sharpness” and can be “flared and wide”. Lastly, his website describes the height of the Asian nose seeming “short”. http://contexts.org/socimages/tag/cosmetic-surgery/asian

The second blog is about another advertisement for eye tattooing positioned as “Permanent Makeup from a Las Vegas magazine. Like Los Angeles, Las Vegas hosts thousands of transient tourists and appeal to them through entertainment, beauty, star-studded utopias. The advertisements are shrewdly targeted to people who live and work in metropolitan areas like these who depend on looking beautiful to maintain their jobs and careers. The actual tattooing would be administered on an eyelid, eyebrow or to a liner around the lips for definition. The procedures are done to so that one appears “natural”. The author of the blog makes some very good points about how clever phrasing such as “non-invasive”, “simple and harmless” and “permanent makeup”, take the fear of using words that scare people, i.e. “cosmetic surgery”. http://contexts.org/socimages/tag/cosmetic-surgery/tattoo

The third blog with a how-to video on how to apply Asian eyelids with glue to achieve a Caucasian/Western look. The video features a young lady actually demonstrating for 10 minutes on how to create a double lid from her monolid. She is actually extremely adept at this procedure and her goal seems quite unselfish and ultimately wants to help other Asians achieve this look. In her little tutorial, she uses a liquid glue to create the fold in her eye and intersperses her precautions and tips throughout the video. She goes on to instruct ladies on how to apply the correct makeup, brands of makeup (Maybelline, MAC) and makeup procedures to further enhance the wide-eyed look. http://contexts.org/socimages/eyelid


All of these examples above show a pattern of cultural discrimination because each one of them overtly state that being who and what you are is not good enough. The first tells you that you are inadequate and not as good as a white person if your nose does not look like theirs. Permanent makeup, e.g. tattooing, enables you to wake up and look like you have make up on without having to actually apply it any longer to look better than you actually do normally each day. Finally, one’s eyes must look Caucasian to look beautiful and sexy. All of these new norms will allow you to compete in the game of life, to seek your dreams and feel confident doing so.

As far as examples I have noticed, I remember being in high school and watching my girlfriends (Japanese descent) manipulate their eyelids to make the “double lids” utilizing Scotch tape each morning and applying turquoise eye shadow to mask the tape. Because I went to a public school with a good portion being Japanese, I felt like the outsider. I remember one evening before going to a “canteen” (dance), I made my sister straighten my long hair with an iron just so I would be asked to dance. At least in the dark, he would think I was Japanese. There were cliques of the popular girls and guys – all Japanese. Even though my two best friends were Japanese, they never quite let me in to the group. I knew they liked me, but was never invited to hang out with the group. These are examples of social discrimination and the social distance they put between others of a non-similar background and in this case, ethnic background. Exclusion from this group is my most vivid memory of growing up as a teenager at Roosevelt High School.