Please Make Me Look White?

An issue was raised in class a couple weeks ago regarding the trend that in an effort to appear more white, Asians were demanding plastic surgery. I’ve often questioned this idea and wondered if it wasn’t instead a misperception perpetrated by the media.

Consider for example the argument which posits that the reason Asians flock to plastic surgeons for double eyelid blepharoplasty is to achieve larger, rounder, Caucasian eyes. It seems like a post hoc argument to me (hearkening back to the LSAT, it’s a necessary but not sufficient condition). Associating the rise in blepharoplasty procedures with the rise in Western media influence is certainly plausible, but it’s not an entirely sound argument.

I’m not discounting the fact that the media plays an enormous role in shaping perceptions of beauty, but I think that it’s just as important to look to the underlying evolutionary basis (that crosses cultural lines) behind plastic surgery trends. Obviously there’s much interplay between these two, but when it comes to this debate I often see the focus on the aforementioned cultural imperialist notion rather than on evolutionary reasons.

It seems almost universal that humans are drawn to big eyes—notice our penchant for babies, puppies, and kittens. Big eyes are associated with youthfulness, as evidenced by the popularity of brow lift procedures in older American woman seeking to “open up” their eyes. And seeing that there are almost four billions Asians in the world there are obviously those with varying eye sizes.

After college, I lived in Taiwan for a couple years and traveled extensively throughout Asia. I met a few people with plastic surgery, but none would say that getting their eyes done made them look more Caucasian. In fact, the surgery allowed them to look more like other Asians who had relatively larger eyes. Naturally occurring double eyelids are prevalent in those from the southern part of China and Southeast Asia, and to a lesser extent (but not uncommon) in Northern Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese.

Another issue that is often discussed is the fixation with skin lightening. Again, I’m wary of the media’s conclusions that it’s just another example of Asians desiring to look more Caucasian. Throughout the centuries in Asia, dark skin has been frowned upon because of its association with toiling under the sun and menial labor—thus, the reason fair skin is generally desirable.

I just had to throw it out there, but there are plenty of other reasons Asians prefer bigger eyes or lighter skin and it may be due to reasons other than trying to look like their Western counterpart. It’s more likely that their reasons for doing so are more similar to the reason Westerners prefer bigger eyes.

When two cultures collide there’s bound to be misperceptions. As someone who embodies both Asian and American cultures and has lived on both sides of the world, I think it’s important to take what you read with a grain of salt-- there are obvious reasons which needn’t be mentioned here why the Western media’s portrayal of the East is skewed (as with the East’s portrayal of the West).

Ellie