Reponse to "Rice Served with Apple Pie"

What is important to keep in mind here is that the most common cosmetic procedures are those that attempt to replace physical features that are socially constructed as "Asian" with those that are "American," which in Korea is synonymous with "White." For Asian American women, the reasons for wanting these types of procedures are also mediated by their experiences as racially marginalized people in the United States. In addition to the messages they may receive from Asian family members and peers about the esthetic superiority of White features, they are also engulfed in a racially stratified culture that reinforces the hegemony of whiteness in its standards of beauty.

These messages about the superiority of White physical features are reinforced through casual conversations. Features culturally constructed as "White" are complimented: "Oh, he's tall for an Asian." Conversely, features perceived as "Asian" are articulated as being boring or medically and socially disadvantageous. Clinics that promote these procedures, especially double eye-lid surgery, prevalently describe naturally forming epicanthic eye folds in the pejorative, claiming that these types of eyelids make Asians look "tired" or "sad" and "less youthful" and thus having these surgeries would “correct drooping” or remove "excess fat/skin" from the eyelids.

Growing up in a Korean American community in Portland, Oregon, I would often hear my peers at church discuss who among them got their "eyelids done" either in California or in Seoul, South Korea over the vacations. Not being able to afford the surgery on their own, which could range anywhere from $2000 to $5000, these women would have their parents pay for the procedure. The parents of course were happy to oblige their daughters, since such a surgery would in their minds make their daughter's more attractive to suitors. Some of my peers would insist that they were not internalizing racism because their new looks were intended to attract higher quality Korean men not White men, higher quality of course assumes higher socio-economic status. However this point remains: these women believe that "higher quality" Korean men find "White" features on Korean women more attractive and more unique than their naturally formed "Asian features."