Iiiiiiiiiiiieeeeee!!
Age: 19
Born in: Saigon, Vietnam
Current location: Houston, TX
Schooling: I graduated from Ball High School May '07 with honors. I am currently attending the University of Houston--majoring in Graphic Communications.
I got into web design and html when I was in middle school. My father had just bought the family a PC and I was so fascinated with the creativity of all the web designers that I had to try my hand at it.
My first webpage was on Geocities. I did very simple html--well, actually it wasn't even html! I soon ventured into Notepad (which is awesome!) and now here I am with a page on the net. :)
Last semester I took English 1304, and one of the major essays I had to write was a persuasive about any topic of my choice that I felt very strongly about. My professor highly recommended that it be creative and unique. Not a topic that has been pulled through the mud so many times before, like abortion, gay rights, etc. At first, I wasn't sure about what I wanted to write.
What did I feel very strongly about? Being an Asian woman living in a very diverse country of many different cultures and ethnicities, I have often felt myself pressured by my mother, the media, and my own culture to become a so-called "beautiful" woman---to their standards, of course. Inner beauty might be important, but outer beauty is even more important, I was always told. When I look in the mirror every morning, what am I supposed to see?
I decided to write about a topic of beauty that has been bothering me since the day I found out. I wanted to write about "Asian double eyelid" surgery. I think some of you have heard of this, and more haven't. When I presented this essay to my class, 90% of the people (most were not Asian) had not even heard of this. Or knew what a double eyelid is. But it is very popular in the Asian community.
I want to share this essay I wrote for anyone who wants to read it. It is pretty long (7 pages), so maybe no one will bother to read. But if you're an insecure Asian female, I hope you will finish reading this one day and learn to love & appreciate yourself for the unique looks that you were born with, and your heritage. Because Asian women are beautiful, with or without the double eyelid. :)
"The Disappearance of the Mono-lid"
A Persuasive Essay
By Ngoc Le
An alarming epidemic that has been widespread throughout Asia (predominantly in Korea and China) is now sweeping across the U.S. among Asian-American communities. We see it popping up everywhere in popular Asian cinema, TV shows, media, and pedestrians from Beijing to Seoul to Los Angeles. What is this atrocity that has struck out among Asians in their thirties, twenties, and even in their teens? Dubbed the “Asian eyelid surgery”, this procedure has enchanted fans and repulsed critics alike since its first manifestation. "Chinky eyes", "Slanty eyes", "Pointy eyes", and "Squinty eyes," these terms are beginning to disappear, along with the most distinguishing feature of our race, the unique Asian mono-lid. Today, this unique form of bletharoplasty is commonly known as the “Asian eyelid surgery”, a procedure that entails stitching a permanent crease into the eyelid to produce the more "beautiful" rounder, larger, and Caucasian-like eyes. It has been a subject of controversy amongst the Asian community, deemed by some as a "wonderful procedure to give me confidence and self-esteem," and to some as, "demeaning and shameful".
Most Asian women who choose to go under the knife to change their eyes give reasons such as, "enhancing your appearance and increase your self-confidence." But is this surgery really purely for aesthetic reasons, like getting larger breast implants? Online plastic surgery websites make statements that "the double eyelid is often sought after because it provides a youthful, attentive appearance," (5). Or is this procedure part conformist and part self-mutilation, in the sense that these women are literally "throwing" away the main physical feature that defines their ethnic identity as beautiful Asian females? Asian eyes are stunning in their own right, and to alter them to fit the Western ideal of the "round eye" as beautiful is to strip yourself of your identity as an Asian woman who is proud of her heritage and her natural beauty.
But what defines beauty today in the modern woman? We have to take a look back at history, and see the manifestation from to a more universal standard of beauty today, the Western look. Throughout the ages, since the beginning of verse, poetry, and song, tributes and homage have been made to woman's beauty. In the days before globalization and cross-cultural exchange, there were different standards of beauty around the world, each unique in every culture. In Europe, a beautiful woman possessed pure white skin, large bright eyes, rosy cheeks, and a large bosom with a small waist. The Japanese preferred a woman with a small petite frame, high thick painted on eyebrows, a round face, and small red lips. Women with tiny bound feet were coveted, which were a sign of beauty and high status, for centuries in China up until the Manchu dynasty. (1). The Mayans admired a high sloping forehead, so they would shaped the skulls of their newborn children by tying boards to the forehead. As Europe began its exploration and trade into the New World and the Far East , Westernization began to take place and influence over many cultures' way of living, and especially, the standard of beauty. The influence of the West on Asian standards of beauty began to take place in the 19th century, and to this day has dramatically prompted a change on how Asian women viewed their natural features. Whenever there was a large Western presence in Asia, like during the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, the demand for all things Western increases dramatically (5). The feature most affected by this change has been the one that defines our heritage the most, our unique almond-shaped eyes. Once viewed as exotic and beautiful in all of their mono-lidded-slanty-eyed wonder, Asian eyes have lost their place to the Caucasian eyes, the supposedly rounder and more appealing choice. Being bombarded with mostly images of beautiful Caucasian women everyday on television, media, magazines, and posters and billboards on the street, even in their own countries, it is no wonder that Asian women’s perceptions of beauty have been twisted. How many times have you seen an Asian woman with natural mono-lid eyes in the media? It is almost an unspoken requirement that Asian movie stars get the double eyelid surgery to be successful. It has driven many to the plastic surgeon's office, wailing in despair about how their eyes were so ugly and small, and pleading to get the surgery that would “open them up and make them beautiful.” (7).
"What is your opinion on Asian women opting for the double-eyelid surgery?" Posing this question to various females of different cultures, I have received a myriad of responses, ranging from perplexity to support to downright outrage. Most non-Asians will answer my question with their own, "Double-eyelid- what?!" or "Double? How can you have double? I thought everyone had two eyelids, one on each eye?" They would stare at me in confusion, prompting me to show them exactly what a double eyelid was, by touching and comparing theirs to mine. To the majority of Westerners, the knowledge of the Asian double eyelid surgery is as obscure and most times, nonexistent. Apparently, we have led ourselves to believe that large, round eyes are more attractive, more beautiful, and more "alive," leaving our natural almond shaped eyes in the negative connotations as tired, dull, and ugly, while our Western neighbors aren’t even aware they even had a crease in their eye, much less our lack of a crease! (7). This goes to show how something so small, so insignificant to outsiders, has such a huge impact on Asian women's ideal of beauty.
The Asian double eyelid surgery is not to be confused with Occidental "bletharoplasty". Approximately 50 percent of all Asians are born with the "Single eyelid" type, namely without an upper eyelid crease, while the rest are born with an upper lid crease." Asian double eyelid is the number one most popular plastic surgery procedure in Asia communities worldwide. (5). The surgery was made specifically for the reshaping of the Asian mono-lid eyes. For the Occidental eyelid, the primary goal of surgery is rejuvenation of the aging upper lid. Mostly, the operation is more of a removal of stretched or weakened skin and fat There is typically little to no attention given to reshaping the already-present crease. In the Asian eyelid surgery however, the primary goal is creation of a new crease where no crease exists or the enhancement of a crease that was not adequately defined or asymmetrical. Skin and fat removal is minimal to nonexistent in surgery, even with a full incision. Instead, the focus of the procedure is on the realignment of “youthful internal eyelid structure.” (4).
But to Asian women, the double eyelid surgery is a sensitive subject matter, because it touches all of the insecurities that we have about our ethnic identity and our standard of beauty in a world is becoming, or has become, more and more influenced by the West. A sixteen-year-old Indonesian girl that I had interviewed gave me her reason for getting the surgery as, "It was my frustration of not being able to wear eyeliner, because of the lack of a fold on my eyelid. I was also sick of having the sleepy, tired look from my eyes being so small." Most deny that they get this surgery to look more Caucasian-like, many would vehemently argue that it is just to "enhance" their Asian features, and by no means does this make it a dramatic change. (2). However, you can't help but wonder if they are just trying to cover the real reasons behind this. It is almost as if it is even shameful to have no eyelid crease. After browsing through many before and after photos of double eyelid patients, I am shocked at how drastic the changes of getting the surgery are to many faces. Their eyes sometimes don't even resemble or look anything like Asian eyes anymore! The once clearly distinctive Asian mono-lid eyes have been replaced with rounder, Westernized eyes. (4). In some cases, the change is so drastic that there are little to no traces of the person's Asian heritage left. Asian women are literally erasing a distinction or indication of their heritage by getting this surgery. Rather than embracing and loving what eyes that they were born with, these Asian women are cutting, slicing, and reconstructing their eyes to look more Western. It is one thing to get plastic surgery for aesthetic reasons, like breasts implants or lip injections, but it goes to an entire new level when a woman gets it to look like another race, whom she sees as having more beautiful features than her own. (3).
It is said that the eyes are the windows to your soul. What will be the message that Asian women are sending to future generations by getting these surgeries? Many Asian families treat this as a rite of passage of sorts, a coming of age for a child as young as 12 years old. In an article from Marie Claire magazine, Suchin Pak (A Korean American woman and MTV News Correspondent) writes that in Korea, getting double eyelid surgery was "just another life step: You get a degree, you get a job, you get your eyes done. It's about trying to succeed in global culture where people look and sound very different than they do in your native country." (5). By changing just a feature of our eyes to be successful and to be beautiful, are we not erasing our ethnic identity as Asian women? Can we even call ourselves Asian women anymore, because now, what really distinguishes us from Western women? If all Asian women were to get double eyelid surgery, the word diversity would cease to exist. We are quickly migrating towards one look, the buxom Barbie with the rounder eyes, and further away from what we have inherited, our almond eyes. The message that these women are sending to their younger sisters, nieces, and daughters is sickening and heart-wrenching. “To be beautiful, and to be able to love yourself, you must change what you were born with. You must change what distinguishes you as an Asian woman.” Because obviously, Caucasian eyes are more beautiful, right? A loved one's influence can have a very positive or negative impact on whether a girl grows into a strong, proud Asian female, or a woman who believes her worth is in the amount of creases in her eyes.
Whatever happened to Asian empowerment? It is a movement full of contradictions, both in Asia and Asian communities in America. After the Vietnam War, many children between American soldiers and Vietnamese women were left orphans or fatherless, subject to ridicule and spite because of their mixed heritage, which was considered "fraternizing with the enemy." Once ostracized and shunned by society, those "con lai" (mixed raced) children's Westernized features are now being coveted and demanded by the rich upper middle class in Vietnam. They are shelling out thousands of dollars to look mixed, to look more Western. The West, long ago seen as a devil bent on taking over the world in the eyes of Easterners, is now being emulated everywhere from clothing to music to beauty to lifestyle. China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, these countries are still tooting the horn about “keeping their culture alive” and damning Western influence, while at the same time they’re adopting everything Western into their lifestyle. Contradicting, much? The plastic surgery craze is booming in China and Korea because of this need to be and look more Western. Teenagers and young adults are walking around wearing Nike shirts, touting Louis Vuiton bags, dyeing their hair blonde and going to get their eyes creased like an ordinary trip to the dentist. Asian women can’t even think about becoming successful in their careers without getting the double eyelid surgery. Instead of empowering themselves and flaunting the features that make them so unique from other races, these women are gladly choosing to hide any indication of their heritage.
To change or not to change? Being a young adult Asian woman living in the U.S, I am faced with these questions every day. Rather than going under the knife for a surgery just to make a crease in my eyelids, my answer to being pounded with images of Western standards of beauty (blonde hair, long legs, and big blue eyes) in media, television, and magazines is to hold my head up high, and not be afraid of showing the world where I am from and who I am, a proud Vietnamese female. As Confucius says, “Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.” If only more Asian women could see with their own eyes how beautiful they are. Viva la mono-lids!