Cosmetic Surgery Is Moving Toward Multiethnic Beauty Ideals Essay Example for Free

enhancive Surgery Is Moving Toward Multi heathenish Beauty Ideals Es wordThe increasing egress of non sportys getting nonfunctional mathematical process is helping society accelerate from a crawl to a full-bore sprint toward cardinal truly melted, fusion community.In the hobby rack, Anupreeta Das questions whether minorities go under the knife to boldness more Caucasian. She suggests that as ethnically am life-sizeuous beauties emerge in entertainment and the media, many African American, Asiatic, and Hispanic ornamental-surgery patients motive shifts that harmonize with their ethnic features. In fact, Das states more surgeons today be specializing in race-specific procedures. This blending and reducing of racial characteristics through cosmetic surgery allow minorities to fit in with stunner standards that are moving a substance from a Caucasian noble-minded, she claims. Das is a journalist based in Boston.As you read, consider the following questions1.As sta ted by Das, how do rhinoplasty procedures differ among Caucasians, African Americans, and Asiatic Americans?2.Why did Jewish quite a little flatter cosmetic surgery, according to the viewpoint?3. accord to Das, what do critics say about the increase of ethnic models in the fashion industry?For almost a century, the women who control turned to cosmetic surgery to get through beautyor round Hollywood-meets-Madison Avenue version of itwere of all ages, shapes, and sizes but almost always of integrity hue white. But now, when there seems to be null that a few thousand dollars cant fix, women of coloring are clamoring in skyrocketing numbers to have their faces and bodies nipped, snipped, lifted, pulled, and tucked. This is a step forward, right? In the sphere of opportunity, we applaud when barriers break down and more people get to sidetrackake in the good life, as it were.There are many explanations for the new go forthingness of minorities to go under the knife their swell ing numbers and disposable income, the popularization of cosmetic surgery and its growing acceptance as a normal beauty routine,and its relational affordability. Whats significant are the procedures minorities are choosing. More often than not, theyre electing to surgically narrow the span of their nostrils and perk up their weaves or suture their eyelids to fabricate an extra fold. Or theyre sucking out the fat from buttocks and hips that, for their race or ethnicity, are typically plump. It all could lead to one presumption These women are making themselves look more whiteor at least less ethnic.But perhaps not to the extent some suppose. People exigency to keep their ethnic identity, says Dr. Arthur Shektman, a Wellesley-based formative surgeon. They want some change, but they dont really want a white nose on a black face. Shektman says not one of his minority patientsthey make up about 30 percent of his practice, up from about 5 percent 10 years agohas said, I want to look white. He believes this is evidence that the dominant Caucasian-centered idea of blond, loved beauty is giving way to multiple ethnic standards of beauty, with the likes of Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, and Lucy Liu as poster girls.No way is the answer Tamar Williams of Dorchester gives when asked if her desire to surgically reduce the width of her nose and get a perkier tip was influenced by a Caucasian standard. Why would I want to look white? Growing up, the 24-year-old African-American bank teller says, she longed for a nose that wasnt quite so wide or flat or big for her face. It wasnt that I didnt like it, Williams says. I that wanted to change it. Hoping to become a model, she thinks the nose job she got in November 2007 will bring her a life-time of happiness and opportunity. I was always confident. But now I can show off my nose.Yet others are less convinced that the centuries-old fixation on Caucasian beautyfrom the Mona Lisa to Pamela Andersonhas slackened. Im not read y to put to rest the idea that the white ideal has not permeated our psyches, says Janie Ward, a professor of Africana Studies at Simmons College. It is lock away mold our expectations of what is beautiful.A Peculiar FusionWhether or not the surging number of minority patients is influenced by a white standard, one point comes with little uncertainty The $12.4 billion-a-year plastic surgery industry is adapting its techniques to meet this demand. The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), for example, has in recent months held meetings on subjects ranging from Asiatic upper-eyelid surgery to so-called ethnic rhinoplasty. The discussion will come to Boston this summer 2007 when the academy will host a five-day even offt that will include sessions on nose reshaping techniques tailored to racial groups. And increasingly, plastic surgeons are wooing minoritieswho make up one-third of the US populationby advertising strong suits in race-specific sur geries and utilise a greater number of nonwhite faces on their Web sites.It could be that these new patients are not trying to erase the more obvious markers of their ethnic inheritance or race, but simply to reduce them. In the process, theyre pursuing ethnic and racial ambiguity. Take Williams. With her new smaller nose and long, straight hair, the African-American char seems to be toying with the idea of ambiguity. And maybe we shouldnt be surprised. The intermingling of ethnicities and racesvia marriages, friendships, and other interactionshas created a peculiar fusion in this country. Its the great mishmash where Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are celebrated in one long festive spirit, where weddings mix Hindi vows with a chuppah, where California-Vietnamese is a cuisine, where Eminem can be black and Beyonce can go blond. And the increasing number of nonwhites getting cosmetic surgery is helping society accelerate from a crawl to a full-bore sprint toward one truly melte d, fusion community.There were 11.5 million cosmetic procedures done in 2005, including surgical ones such as face lifts and rhinoplasties and nonsurgical ones such as Botox shots and collagen injections. One out of every five patients was of African, Asian, or Hispanic descent (separate statistics arent available for white versus nonwhite Hispanics). According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of minority patients undergoing cosmetic procedures increased from 300,000 in 1997 to 2 million in 2005.Although the total demand for cosmetic procedures in any case increasedfrom 2 million in 1997 to 11.5 million in 2005the rate of increase for minorities is higher(prenominal) than the overall rate. (Women account for more than nine-tenths of all cosmetic procedures.)Different ethnic and racial groups favor different procedures. Statistics compiled by the AAFPRS show that in 2005, more than half a dozen out of every 10 African-Americans getting cosmetic surg ery had nose jobs. Unlike rhinoplasties performed on Caucasians, which may fix a crooked bridge or shave off a hump, doctors say African-American and Asian-American nose reshaping usually leads to narrower nostrils, a higher bridge, and a pointier tip.For Asian-Americans, eyelid surgeryeither the procedure to create an eyelid fold, often giving the eye a more wide-open appearance, or a regular eye lift to reduce signs of agingis popular. According to the AAFPRS, 50 percent of Asian patients get eyelid surgery. Dr. Min Ahn, a Westborough-based plastic surgeon who performs Asian eyelid surgery, says only about half of the Asian population is born with some semblance of an eyelid crease. Even if Asians have a preexisting eyelid crease, it is lower and the eyelid is fuller. For those born without the crease, he says, creating the retell eyelid is so much a part of the Asian culture right now. Its probable that this procedure is driving the Asian demand for eyelid surgeries. dumbbell au gmentation and rhinoplasty top the list of preferent procedures for patients of Hispanic origin, followed by liposuction. Asian-Americans also choose breast implants, while breast reductionthe one procedure worthy for insurance grappleageis the third most preferred choice for African-American women after nose reshaping and liposuction. Doctors say African-American women typically drop liposuction to remove unembellished fat from their buttocks and hipstwo ambits in which a disproportionate number of women of this race store fat.The Culture of Self-ImprovementOf course, the assimilative nature of society in general has always demanded a certain degree of conformity and adaptation of every group that landed on American shores. People have alter in ways small and largesuch as by changing their names and learning new social mores. Elizabeth Haiken, a San Francisco Bay area historian and the author of the 1997 book Venus Envy A History of Cosmetic Surgery, says ethnic minorities m ay use plastic surgery as a way to fit in to the mainstream, just as another group used it in the early 20th century. The first group to really embrace cosmetic surgery was the Jews, says Haiken. Her research indicates that during the 1920s, when cosmetic surgery first became popular in the United States, being Jewish was equated with being ugly and un-American, and the Jewish nose was the first line of attack. Most rhinoplasties therefore sought to reduce its distinct characteristics and bring it more in line with the preferred straighter shape of the Anglo-Saxon nose.That people would go to such extremes to change their appearance should come as no surprise. Going back to early 20th-century culture, there is a deep-seated conviction that you are what you look like, Haiken says. Its not your family, your birth, or your heritage, its all about you. And your looks and appearance and the way you present yourself will determine who you are. In the initial sizing-up, the face is the for tune. Physical beauty becomes enmeshed with success and happiness.Plastic surgeons commonly say that minorities today choose surgery for the same reasons as whitesto empower, better, and preserve themselves. Its the universal desire to maintain youthfulness, and it doesnt change from group to group, says Dr. Frank Fechner, a Worcester-based plastic surgeon.The culture of self-improvement that surrounds Americans has also made plastic surgery more permissible in recent years. qualification oneself overones home, ones car, ones breastsis now a part of the American life cycle, writes New York Times columnist Alex Kuczynski in her 2006 book, Beauty Junkies Inside Our $15 Billion fixing With Cosmetic Surgery. Doctors have sold us on the notion that surgery is merely part of the journeytoward enhancement, the beauty outside ultimately reflecting the beauty within. nonentity captures this journey better than the swarm of plastic surgery TV shows such as ABCs Extreme Makeover, Foxs The Swan, and FXs Nip/Tuck. These prime-time televised narratives of desperation and triumph, with the scalpel in the starring agency of savior, have also helped make plastic surgery more widely accepted. Through sanitized, pain-free, 60-minute capsules showcasing the transformation of ordinary folks, reality TV has sold people on the notion that the Cinderella story is a purchasable, everyday experience that everyone deserves.Mei-Ling Hester, a 43-year-old Taiwanese-American hairdresser on Newbury Street, believes in plastic surgery as a routine part of personal upkeep. So when her eyelids started to droop and lose their crease, she rushed to Ahn, the plastic surgeon. He sucked the excess fat out while maintaining, he says, the Asian characteristic of her eyelids. Hester also regularly gets Botox injected into her forehead and is considering liposuction. I feel great inside, she says. With hair tinted a rich brown and eyes without lines or puffiness, her beauty is groomed and serene. I work out, I eat right, I use good products on my face. It was worth it, she says of her surgery. Although Hester says she pursues plastic surgery for betterment and self-fulfillment, she recognizes her privileged status as psyche born with the double eyelids and sharper nose so prized in much of the Asian community. I just got lucky, because if you look at my sister, shes got a flat nose. some other sister was born without the eyelid crease and had it surgically created, says Hester.The concept of the double eyelid as beautiful comes from the West. For many, many years, the standards for beauty have been Western standards that say you have to have a certain shape to the eye, and the eyelid has to have a fold, says Dr. Ioannis Glavas, a facial plastic surgeon specializing in eyelid surgery, with practices in Cambridge, New York City, and Athens. Sometimes, the demand for bigger eyes can be extreme. Glavas recalls one young Asian-American woman he saw who, in addition to wanting a double eyelid procedure, asked him to snip off some of the bottom lid to expose more of the white. I had to say no to her, he says.Glavas says both Asian women and men demand the double eyelid surgery because it is a way of looking less different by reducing an obvious ethnic feature. Presumably, Asian patients arent aiming to look white by getting double eyelids (after all, African-Americans and other minorities have double eyelids), but the goal is social and cultural assimilation, or identification with some dominant aesthetic standard.Across-the-Board AppealIn recent years, the dominant aesthetic standard in American society has moved away from the blond, blue-eyed Caucasian woman to a more ethnically ambiguous type. Glossy magazines are devoting more pages to this melting-pot aesthetic, designed (like the new Barbies) for across-the-board appeal. Todays beautiful woman comes in many colors, from ivory to cappuccino to ebony. Her hair can be dark and kinky, and she might even s how off a decidedly curvy derrierea feature that has actually started to prompt some white women to get gluteal augmentation, or butt implants.However, critics say these are superficial changes to what is essentially a Caucasian-inspired idealthe big-eyed, narrow-nosed, pillow-lipped, large-breasted, boyishly thin apparition. There has been a subtle change in the kind of models you see in Victorias Secret catalogs or Vogue, says Dr. Fred Stucker, the head of facial plastic surgery at Louisiana State University, Shreveport. But they take the black girl who has the high cheekbones, narrow nose, and pouty lips. Its not uncommon, he says, to find a white face with dark skin.Going by the recent surge of minorities demanding plastic surgery, it is plausible that this elbow grease by canny marketers and media types to promote a darker-skinned but still relatively uniform ideal is working. After all, they are simply following the money. According to the University of Georgias Selig Center for Economic Growth, which compiles an annual report on the multicultural economic system in the United States, minorities had a combined buying power of several trillion dollars in 2006. In 2007, thedisposable income of Hispanics is expected to rise to $863 billion, while African-Americans will collectively have $847 billion to hap. By 2010, Asians are expected to have buying power totaling $579 billion. And all of these groups are showing a greater willingness to spend it on themselves and the things they covet, including cosmetic surgery.Katie Marcial represents exactly this kind of person. The 50-year-old African-American is newly single, holds a well-paying job in Boston, and has no qualms about spending between $10,000 and $20,000 on a tummy tuck and breast surgery. Im doing this mainly because Im economically able to do so, says Marcial, a Dorchester resident whose clear skin and youthful attire belie her age. With her tether children all grown, her money is hers to spend. I can indulge in a little vanity, she says. Marcial says she chose a young, Asian-American doctor to perform her surgery because I thought she would hump the latest techniques and be sensitive to ethnic skin.Historically, plastic surgery has been tailored to Caucasian women. Glavas says that in medical texts, the measurements of symmetry and balancetwo widely know preconditions of beautywere made with Caucasian faces in mind. Such practices led to a general sense among minorities that plastic surgery was for whites and kept them away from tinkering with their faces and bodies. But even as the industry now adapts to its new customers, plastic surgeons are divided over whether surgical specialization in various ethnicities and races necessarily caters better to the necessitate of minority patients. Dr. Julius Few, a plastic surgeon at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine, hails the fact that plastic surgeons are customizing their procedures to focus on minorities, so its not just the one-size-fits-all mentality of saying, well, if somebodys coming in, regardless, theyre going to look Northern European coming out. He even sees a sort of subspecialty emerging in various ethnic procedures. Meanwhile, Dr. Jeffrey Spiegel, who is chief of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at Boston University Medical Center and has a large number of nonwhite patients, is skeptical of the notion of specialization in ethnic and racial cosmetic surgery. It strikes me more as a marketing toolthan a real specialization, he says.In 1991, Michael Jackson crooned It dont count if youre black or white. Jacksons message about transcending race may have won singalong supporters, but his plastic surgeries did not. His repeated nose jobs and lightened skin color (he has maintained he is not bleaching but is using makeup to cover up the signs of vitiligo, a skin condition) were perceived by minoritiesespecially African-Americansas an attempt to look white. Doctors say that Dont make me look like Michael Jackson is a popular refrain among patients. People were put off by dramatic surgeries and preferred subtle changes, says Shektman, the Wellesley-based plastic surgeon.The New Melting-Pot AestheticChoices have expanded since then. Minorities can now hold themselves up against more ethnically and racially ambiguous single-valued function models that may still trace their roots to the once-dominant Caucasian standard but are becoming more composite and blended. The concept of ideal beauty is moving toward a mix of ethnic features, says plastic surgeon Ahn, a Korean-American who is married to a Caucasian. And I think its better.The push toward ethnic and racial ambiguity should perhaps be expected, because the cultural churn in American society is producing it anyway. Sure, promoting ambiguous beauty is a strategic move on the part of marketing gurus to cover their bases and appeal to all groups. But its also a reflection of reality. Not only are mi norities expected to make up about half the American population by 2050, but the number of racially mixed people is increasing tremendously. The number of mixed-race children has been growing enough since the 1970s that in 2000 the Census actors assistant created a new section in which respondents could self-identify their race nearly 7 million people (2.4 percent of the population) identified themselves as belonging to more than one race.For minorities, this new melting-pot beauty aestheticperhaps the only kind of aesthetic standard that befits a multiethnic and multicultural societyisan achievable and justifiable goal. Increasingly, advertisements use models whose blue eyes and dreadlocked hair or almond-shaped eyes and strong cheekbones leave you wondering about their ethnic origins. The ambiguous model might have been dreamed up on a computer or picked from the street. But advertisers value her because she is a blended productsomeone everyone can identify with because she canno t be immediately defined by race or ethnicity. By surgically blending or erasing the most telling ethnic or racial characteristics, cosmetic surgery makes ambiguity possible and allows people of various ethnicities and races to fit in. For the Jewish community in the 1920s, fitting in may have had to do with imitating a Caucasian beauty ideal. For minorities today, its a melting-pot beauty ideal that is uniquely American. How appropriate this ambiguity is, in a culture that expects conformity even as it celebrates diversity.Das, Anupreeta. Cosmetic Surgery Is Moving Toward Multiethnic Beauty Ideals. The Culture of Beauty. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from The Search for Beautiful. Boston Globe 21 Jan. 2007. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. record URLhttp//ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?failOverType=query=prodId=OVICwindowstate=normalcontentModules=mode=viewdisplayGroupName=Viewpo intsdviSelectedPage=limiter=currPage=disableHighlighting=displayGroups=sortBy=zid=search_within_results=p=OVICaction=ecatId=activityType=scanId=documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010659218source=Bookmarku=lawr16325jsid=8af464626ea9692fea0cb02ef9c121a3Gale Document Number GALEEJ3010659218