- “You’ve got some nice Caucasian features,” Dr. Edmund Kwan says, inspecting my face at his Upper East Side plastic-surgery practice, where the waiting room includes an ottoman larger than my kitchen table. “You’re half-Asian mixed with what?” Chinese mom and white dad, I reply. “You inherited a Caucasian nose. Your nose is nice. Your eyes have a little bit of Asian mixed in.” He proposes Asian blepharoplasty, a surgical procedure to create or enlarge the palpebral fold, the eyelid crease a few millimeters above the lashline that many Asians lack. “You’ve got nice big eyes,” he admits, but eyelids more like my father’s would make them look bigger.
It's interesting to me to note that it seems many of the people who undergo these procedures are chastised for "caving" to pressures--the backlash is centered on the ethnic person, rather than the society and standards.
The notion of what is and what is not beautiful ebbs and flows with time and it also varies widely by region; globally, nationally and regionally. Consider that this body type was once the standard of beauty: Now we have this: I personally think that it's extremely unfortunate that any society makes its members feel insecure about their looks etc. That said, adults that are able to make a decision to get a surgery should be held accountable for that decision. They are "caving" to pressures. When people stand up tall and are proud of who they are, that is far more attractive than have less "asian like" eyes. -Which by the way I think can be quite attractive. Different strokes for different folks. Still, I agree that it's a shame that hollywood and it's like have a predilection towards marketing skinny white people. So weird.
