As I’m getting ready to go out I start thinking how easy it must be for a man to get ready. They shower, get dressed, put on some “axe” spray, comb some gel through their hair and out the door they go. The act of going out for the night is a process and ritual that every woman seems to have. We shower, apply moisturizer, blow dry hair, set hair in rollers or curl or straighten it, spray on some hair spray, apply face cream, apply concealer, apply foundation, brush on powder, apply eye shadow, apply eye liner and mascara, put on some blush while sucking in our cheeks, apply lip liner, lipstick and/or lip gloss. That my friends, is just her face and hair. Why do people put so much time into looking beautiful?
The beauty industry is a multi-billion dollar business. By setting the trends of beauty, it shapes and defines the culture of beauty itself. While I was growing up looking at magazines, movies, TV shows and ads, beauty was identified as someone who had big eyes, was tall, blond and Caucasian. So how does a dark haired, slanty eyed, not-so-tall Asian even compare in the beauty market?!?
I have dealt with that question my whole childhood through to my high school years. Coping with my adolescent perception of beauty I often found myself wearing coloured contacts to get away from my dark “almost black” brown eyes and trying to go blond with a box of Nice n’ Easy shade 104 Natural Medium Golden Blonde but instead, always ending up with a shade of atomic tangerine! It’s also no wonder why you see almost all Asian women wearing four inch heels because there are no short models out there. Then try having to explain to your friends and strangers what a double-eye lid is! (For those who don’t know, most people have a crease in their eye lid giving them a double-eye lid). Me, I have a mono-lid making my eyes small and squinty.
The double-eye lid surgery is one of the biggest, if not the most popular surgery in Asia. Mama Nguyen has even suggested that I get my eyes done to have the sought after crease in the my eyes to make them bigger and beautiful. In South Korea, plastic surgery is a rapidly growing industry. Girls coming out of high school are getting surgery to make their eyes bigger, noses smaller and legs longer. Parents are giving plastic surgery to their daughters as gifts in order for them to succeed and compete with others in finding a husband and a job. When submitting a resume in South Korea most companies ask that you submit a picture with your application. Interesting.
When first looking into this topic, I was questioning if people in Asia are really trying to mould themselves into the “Americanized” idea of beauty. After some self-reflection and talking to others about the topic, I came to realize maybe it’s not about looking more Caucasian but more about increasing your “value” in the world. People all seem to agree that being attractive gives an advantage in life and in most Asian countries the US is seen as a symbol of success; plastic surgery could be a way for them to boost their “beauty currency” in society.
If more people continue to turn to plastic surgery to build the perfect person they want to look like, how would we measure beauty if we all look alike? If you study the 2013 Miss South Korea contestants, they all resemble each other and it’s quite hard to tell them apart. How do you judge a beauty contest if all the contestants had plastic surgery? Is it equal to an athlete taking steroids to enhance his/her performance in competitions? This brings me to a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode where Will is stuck in the basement with a girl and he sings a little song….
“I’m stuck in a basement,
sittin’ on a tricycle, girl gettin’ on my nerves
I’m goin’ outta my mind,
I thought she was fine,
don’t know if her body is hers.”
… I can’t help but think with the growing turn to plastic surgery – how will we know if her body is really hers?
On the flip side, it’s interesting to mention that when I asked some of my friends, family and a few strangers what beauty is, people answered in a way that did not touch on physical traits, but more so about inner beauty. Beauty was defined as having confidence in yourself, the courage to be comfortable with yourself, being happy with who you are, beauty being everywhere and ” beauty as something that is unique to every person”. When I asked a five year old little girl if it was more important to be smart or pretty, her answer was smart. Maybe this gives us hope that the world is not only about vanity after all.
Photo Credit
Photo by Lien Nguyen – All Rights Reserved
Guest Author Bio
Lien Nguyen
I’m currently a student with Royal Roads University working on my Masters in Intercultural and International communications. My parents came to Canada as refugees and because of that I have always been interested in doing “small” things to change the world in some way.
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Great article Lien! So proud of you girl!
Great article. I love my single eye lids :).