Eyes On Down
Which brings us to the question: why stop at the eyes? Most articles talk about Northeast Asians and their double eyelid surgery, but what no one seems to talk about is the prevalence among Asian Americans of breast augmentation procedures, rhinoplasty and even jaw reduction through botox injections. Korean American models are practically shamed into getting their nose done while working in Korea, while Japanese American women succumb to micro-liposuction to conform to the hyper-skinny beauty standard of Tokyo.
In Dr. David Kim’s Beverly Hills plastic surgery practice, most of his Asian clientele consist of Filipinos requesting liposuction, breast augmentation and rhinoplasty, and Koreans desiring breast augmentation. “Umbilical breast augmentation is definitely a thing my Asian patients have been asking for because of minimal scarring,” he says of the relatively new procedure in which the implants are inserted through the belly button as opposed to the nipple or the underarm.
Dr. Edmund Kwan, a renowned plastic surgeon in New York City, finds that his Vietnamese and Filipino patients often request nose implants or resculpturing (making a wide nose thinner and raising the bridge). And according to Lynn, a 25-year-old Vietnamese American financial consultant, breast augmentation is commonplace among her Vietnamese American peers. “I see lots of [plastic surgery] advertisements in the Vietnamese language newspaper — sometimes on the front cover,” she says, adding that she also sees many nose jobs in the community as well.
Vincent, a 20-something Vietnamese American male who didn’t want his real name divulged, agrees. “I’d say it is a growing trend,” he says of Vietnamese American women getting breast implants. “Women in general that I see in the nightclubs, a lot have had breast implants.”
“I don’t know if it’s just Asians,” says Dr. Kim of the increased demand in breast augmentation and other cosmetic procedures. “It’s everybody, and Asians are a part of that.” Southern California plastic surgeon Dr. Mervin Low agrees. “I think the young women that get plastic surgery have the same concerns that other young women have, whether they live in America, Asia, South America.” They don’t want to look like anyone else, he says, “they just want to look better, feel better about themselves.”
Indeed, Dr. Kyeyoung Park, an associate professor of anthropology and Asian American studies at the University of California at Los Angeles, finds that the popularity of plastic surgery among Asians goes beyond just the white American beauty ideal. “Women have been more subjected to this kind of beauty myth than men, regardless of race and ethnicity. I mean, look here in the U.S., what women are doing to their bodies,” she says. “For a long time, women have been more judged by their appearance, so women are under more pressure than men.”
Another procedure that is growing in popularity among Asian Americans, says Dr. Kwan, is “profiloplasty” for the Asian face. When his Asian patients come in saying they want a nose job to look better, Dr. Kwan finds that what they really want is to look more “balanced.” A lot of Chinese and some Koreans have a flattened “mid-face” (located on either side of the nose), with a slightly protruding mouth area and shallow eye sockets, he says. Using implants, rather than shaving the bone, Dr. Kwan says he is able to achieve a more balanced face without the more complicated and invasive rhinoplasty procedure. “I’m not looking at European ideals; I’m looking at symmetry,” he insists. “I believe that a beautiful face comes in all shapes and sizes. I think that’s what patients need to know.”
And the future of Asian blepharoplasty? Eye enhancement, or opening of the eye without creating a fold. Lately, Dr. Kwan has been getting more and more requests for this procedure. “Especially men and some women,” he says. “They say, ‘I want my eyes to open up bigger, but I don’t want a fold.’” Essentially, what Dr. Kwan does is tighten the muscle that opens the eye and tack it to the tarsal plate rather than to the skin. And in a surprise reversal, Dr. Kwan says that he even gets some requests from patients to remove their eyelid fold. “They feel like without an eyelid fold, they look better,” he says. “I’m seeing more of it. Not a tremendous increase, but I see some.”
|
