Tuesday, February 2, 1999
View world through own eyes
ETHNICITY: Surgery alters outer image, but beauty comes from
accepting self
By Remi Tani Craig
A couple of years ago, one of my friends got an "Asian eyelid"
cosmetic surgery. She had the "Oriental look" – small stature,
almond-shaped eyes, small lips, light-skin, black hair, etc. She
said she wanted the procedure done because it would help her apply
makeup better. I met her after the surgery. Her eyes were rounder
and bigger. She didn’t look as Far-Eastern as before, and she said,
"If you ever wanna get it, (the surgery) isn’t so bad."
"Nah, that’s alright," I said. But I admit, when she told me
that the surgery only took a day and that it wasn’t so bad, I felt
somewhat tempted to see what it would be like to change the look of
my "almond-shaped" eyes.
What would it be like?
First, having rounder eyes would help me to put on more makeup.
Many Asian women outline their eyes to make them look bigger and
more appealing. If they already had rounder eyes, they wouldn’t
need to use eyeliner so much.
If I had rounder eyes, maybe people would stop automatically
assuming that I can’t speak English and fewer people would ask me,
"Are you Chinese? Korean?" "What’s your nationality?" "What are
you?!"
Having rounder eyes would also help me to blend in more easily.
By looking more European, it would be easier to assimilate amongst
my non-Asian friends. If all Asians at UCLA got the eyelid surgery
and looked Europeanized, maybe people will stop calling UCLA the
University of Caucasians Lost among Asians.
So, overall, fixing my Asian eyelids would move me up toward
becoming a perfect being.
Let’s see, what else can I do?
I can wear fat-solid shoes to make me look taller, push-up bras
to accentuate my chest, layer my hair to look like Jennifer Love
Hewitt, and I can’t forget – always apply Max Factor Eye Mascara
2000 to keep my eyes big. There, I’m perfect … but wait, I don’t
like the shape of my nose!!
The bottom line is, who cares if I have big, slanted or small
eyes? What matters is what’s inside, right? Sure, ideally. Ideally
or realistically, I do believe in the cliched phrase, "Beauty comes
from within."
I don’t think changing the shape of my eyes would help me finish
my homework or compose a piece of music more quickly. I really
don’t care if I am "Oriental-looking."
What I really care about is whether I can accomplish something
that I’m passionate about. And when I have accomplished that
something, I will then feel pretty and gorgeous. That "surgery"
will be the real method of beautifying myself.
Comments, feedback, problems?
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