Cosmetic Surgery
Asian-American women are now visiting their cosmetic surgeons to have their eyelids creased, their nose bridges heightened, and their nose tips sharpened. Such radical alteration cannot simply be viewed as a personal celebration of the body, insists Eugenia Kaw, an award-winning anthropology student at the University of California in Berkeley. Rather, the selfimposed mutilation reflects the Asian-American woman's attempt to fit a culture that links beauty with social and economic success. They seek to overcome Western society's racist stereotypes, which equate "small, slanty" eyes and a "flat" nose with "passivity, dullness, and a lack of sociability." The medical community does little to solve the basic problem. According to Kaw, cosmetic surgeons use medical terminology and racist descriptions to convince potential patients that eyelids without folds are "sleepy" and that flat nasal bridges signify a "lack of force" in character. So much for beauty being only skin deep.
