Eyelid Surgery: Is True Beauty Only A Crease Away?
By April Gu, Special Contributor

Some of my earliest memories recall a painful sensation in my neck and a longing in my heart. I am five years old, shifting excitedly in the middle of an aisle, staring fixedly at a shelf that is slightly above eye level. On it stands a perfect Barbie doll in a princess costume wrapped in a whirl of pink, purple, and clear plastic. She is perfect – thin, blonde, with blue eyes and a high nose. I remember dragging my mother into the aisle with me so we could admire her together. .

A few weeks later, when my birthday rolled around, my parents handed me a gift-wrapped box that was just about the size Barbie came in. I enthusiastically tore off the paper and stopped dead. Staring at me from inside the plastic window was not the glittering doll of my dreams but a different creature wearing an ugly pink and lime green nylon swimsuit. Her skin was darker and she had long black hair. Irritated, I glared at my mother, who shrugged and replied: “I thought it would be better if I got a doll that looked more like you.” She obviously didn’t understand. In dressing her up in various outfits, lovingly brushing her golden hair, or admiring her huge, thickly lashed eyes, I could pretend that I was her, that I didn’t have boring black hair and eyes or a nose that no glasses would stay on.

We all grow up in a culture where a beautiful face is equated with strictly Caucasian features. It’s difficult for any Asian American to break apart from the barrage of these impossible standards and come to terms with our own appearance. Sure, there have always been trends where looking Asian is considered diverse and exotic, especially the stereotypical Asian girl’s “long straight hair” and “almond shaped eyes”. These terms describe Asian beauty if terms of differentiation. They imply that possessing Asian features makes you interesting looking in comparison to Caucasian features. However, there is no acknowledgment of Asian features being beautiful in and of themselves.

The trend in China, Korea, Japan, and United States has been for monolid men and women to undergo blepharoplasty, or eyelid surgery, to correct that little imperfection their parents passed down to them. Monolid eyes are characterized by the lack of a noticeable crease. Surgery creates a double lid look. Small incisions are made where creases are desired and a thin sliver of excess fat, muscle, and skin is removed. The incision is stitched back up and sutures are removed after area has healed, usually several days after the surgery. The procedure is relatively simple and takes as little as thirty minutes. Since 50 to 70 percent of the Asian population is monolid, there is an enormous potential market for this surgery- its popularity is growing year by year. It is the third most requested surgery in the United States and the most requested in many Asian countries. In Korea, proud parents give their daughters double eyelid surgery as a graduation present.

All this begs the question -- why? Is it cultural imperialism? Have so many Asians, no matter where they live, bought into the notion that big, Caucasian eyes are the standard of beauty? Some protest this view, pointing out that there are also Asians who have a natural double eyelid, so the result of the surgery is not to look white, but actually to look more like other Asians. In parts of southern China, as many as 70% of the population are born with double eyelids. This practice has been long established before the permeation of Western media. Therefore, the surgery is merely a reflection of Asians wanting to look like the “more attractive” members of their own Asian community.

Still, it is undeniable that eyes remain the central physical feature by which most Asians are identified. Many prominent Asian-Americans have spoken out against the procedure, saying that it is a symptom of trying too hard to fit into mainstream ideals of beauty. Writer David Mura explains: “It's evidence of internalized racism. It really indicates something about the way in which Asians in America are indoctrinated by white standards of beauty. They feel less beautiful than those who fit the Caucasian standard of beauty. […] The power of the American media and American culture stretches all over the globe, and can cause people to devalue their own culture.”

If this is the case, then eyelid surgery is just the tip of the iceberg. From rhinoplasty to whitening creams, leg lengthening to face shaping, some Asians are going all the way. In the case of Asian America, the question surrounding plastic surgery is how much is too much? Not just in terms of the amount of surgery, but should we be alarmed as millions of faces with Asian features gradually morph into Asian faces with distinctly Western features? Is eyelid surgery really a manifestation of the self-hate that Asian Americans internalize in an effort to fit into a more dominant culture?

My friend and I were discussing this issue. I argued that eyelid surgery wasn’t a signal of the desire to look white. Despite the barrage of media and advertising exposure we Asians experience here in the States, blepharoplasty isn’t nearly as popular as it is in Asian countries, where Asians actually make it onto most covers of magazines and television shows.