Is blech-pharoplasty Western-eyes-ation?

[imomus]

Japanese women -- at least as they appear in the Japanese pop media -- are turning into bug-eyed monsters. I first noticed it in pop and porn stars; these days, the free movies page of a Japanese porn site like CPZ is a freak show of Photoshopped, fish-eyed and scalpelled eyes mooning at the visitor. These girls no longer look like real people, so they're no longer sexy.

Who or what do we blame for this grotesque and sad development? Ayumi Hamasaki is the highest-profile pop star to have had the eye-widening surgery known as blepharoplasty. (Blech-pharoplasty, I call it.)

"Blepharoplasty is the scientific name for this eye-widening surgery," explains Kevin James Wong in The Cavalier Daily. "Its original use was to smooth out the skin around the eyes in order to decrease the signs of aging. The process itself involves cutting the upper eyelid into two halves. Flesh and fat is then removed from the eyelid, and the lower part of the eyelid is reattached slightly beneath the upper part in order to form a crease. Thus, the process succeeds in widening the eye, and it creates the appearance of a crease in the upper eyelid, which around half of Asians lack."

Two Japanese doctors on Pub Med, a medical site, have an explanation:

"The reasons for the popularity of this procedure relate to changing concepts of beauty among the Japanese people. Facial anatomy contributes to the appearance of sleepiness and lethargy in the flat, monotone Japanese face. The narrower eye opening does not allow for the maximum viewing of the cornea. The shortened lateral canthus presents a facial balance that is not considered as attractive as one with an extended lateral canthus. The double eyelid procedure corrects these features, producing a face that is considered more beautiful."

Kevin James Wong is more judgemental; "This desire to conform to a Caucasian ideal of beauty is weak-minded and demonstrates a lack of cultural pride," he says. "It is shameful that Asians feel the need to change their eyes in pursuit of this Caucasian ideal."

But is it a Caucasian ideal? The widest human eyes in the world aren't to be found on Western faces (we're somewhat piggy, in fact), but in the images of an indigenous Japanese form, manga. Look at Sailor Moon. Does she look like a Western person?

To call these vast, cute, extra-shiny eyes "Western" is to make the same mistake about a Japanese phenomenon as people like Alex Rich make about the postmodern Japanese city when they call it "Westernized". Modernization does not equal Westernization. To make your eyes big eyes is not to make them Western eyes. Surely what we're seeing here is the ocular version of leapfrogging. Just as the Japanese saw Western toilets and decided to leapfrog us, going straight from holes in the ground to the electronic wonders of the Washlet, so they've leapfrogged Western eyes, going straight for huge ones. It's just a pity it makes them look like frogs.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

From what I understand the big eye manga thing started with Osamu Tezuka's Astroboy, which was directly referencing the large eyes in Disney cartoons. So while not a direct desire to emulate "western" beauty, one could argue that that beauty ideal is rooted in American culture.

[(Anonymous)]

Isn't Disney more a part of contemporary Japanese pop-culture than it is American pop-culture?
Just cause Taiwan produces all the computers and Ipods of the world no one accuses them of influencing the world. That argument falls around the Japanese/American/European consumers who make their work profitable.
Disney produces and the Japanese buy it in astonishing numbers.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree that this phenomenon isn't just about copying some western idea of beauty. It seems elsewhere and creepier in a way. Similar to the attraction of skin-whitening creams that are so popular throughout asia, I wonder is it leapfrogging or something else. Or for that matter like any Ameri-European going to a tanning salon. I never understand where these beauty ideals come from. Is it really possible to get to the root of those things? Do we even want to find them out?
Yet certainly, you don't see folks like this on the street of Tokyo. And thank goodness, as personally, i'm attracted i to almost everyone I meet and rather like it that way.


The real question is what happened to ayumi Hamazaki, she is just gone these days.

[(Anonymous)]

I always thought that whitening cream in Asia and tanning methods in Europe and America are used because of the wealth-status attatched - either you're pale so rich enough not to have to work outside, or tanned to show you're rich enough to go abroad on holidays. beauty is often connected to wealth. although the example of eye-surgery can imply that this isn't always the case.

[wavy.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with you in that it's not a Caucasian ideal they're striving for.. just a beauty ideal. I could say it is similar to breast implants in the US -- only to us because it's on their *faces* it seems like they're trying to erase their identities. But then what about nosejob bandages in US high school cafeterias?

In truth, many Japanese people do have double eyelids naturally and plenty of them don't too. Plenty of people in the US have big knockers and many don't. Which is better is up to the individual or the way they percieve beauty...

In South Korea...

[(Anonymous)]

The same surgery is popular in Korea - widening the eyes and putting a crease in the eyelid - but there it seems to be entirely for vanity and emulating America to an extent.

It's hard to find an example of the wide-eyed American girls they're aspiring to change their eyes too, but if you ask them WHY they're changing their "small Asian eyes" it's because they think they look "too Korean" or "too Asian". In the "farmer" sense.

Same reason skin whitening products are massively popular in China.

Re: In South Korea...

[(Anonymous)]

Skin whitening products are massively popular everywhere, and have been since at least ancient Egypt. Really, this whole topic is a total non-issue; it's tabloid talk show fodder (Today: Teenage Asian Girls who have Eye Widening Surgery!).

Vanity motivates people and it always will, whether it's dieting or getting a perm or a tattoo or wearing the latest fashions. It's no more or less valid than having this year's top CDs or being conversant about whatever the latest artistic fad is.

[(Anonymous)]

"Modernization does not equal Westernization."

Perhaps not in theory, but certainly in practice. Every Eastern nation that has tried to modernize has copied the West. What other successful models are there to choose from?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That may be part of the motive, but Japanese national pride has always, quite clearly, said "We'll do what you're doing, but we'll do it much better. And as a result, when we Westerners visit Japan, we sort of recognize what we could be in a sort of ideal world.

[henryperri.livejournal.com]

It's just the fetishization of something that's uncommon in the given race. Most asians have eyes that are too small, most whites are too pale, and most blacks are too dark. Black girls tend to have larger posteriors than white girls; so when I see a black girl with a large ass, I don't usually get all that excited because there's nothing particularly unusual about it. This is the first time I've heard about this eye surgery thing. The girl in the first picture looks like she's about 8 years old; which is another fetish for Japanese men because it's unusual, out-of-bounds.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

I have hard to believe that EVERY japanese woman does this surgery thing though. Got any statistics?

[deadbatteries.livejournal.com]

Ayumi Hayasaki reminds me of Link from the Legend of Zelda.

http://faernis.free.fr/images/zelda%20assaut.jpg

http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/1101020805/story.html

It's not Westernization, exactly, though you can make certain associations with modernization to Westernization. For instance, with the Korean Wave of television dramas came increased popularity in plastic surgery in East Asia, especially since many of the actresses were well known to have had plastic surgery. The Korean Wave dramas themselves are based off of Japanese and Western dramas, depicting modernity in a way that does not seem totally alien to, for instance, Chinese or Taiwanese audiences who may find Japanese dramas too distant, Westernized, and seemingly more commodified. It's not necessarily true, though, that just because people want this kind of surgery or want to dye their hair blond that it means they want to live up to Caucasian ideals. There are more layers to it, I think.

[silenceinspades.livejournal.com]

that's sort of unfair.
link is much more attractive than hayasaki.

[(Anonymous)]

very smooth how you avoided the "termial decline" trap there...
I also like that you show us your preferences in porn. (the one in the middle remained unclicked, poor gal.)

der.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Research, dear Der, research. I work hard for you guys.

[dixie-flatline.livejournal.com]

AFIK, eyes in Japan represent human soul.
Like Chekhov sez - "Eyes - mirror of the human soul" :)
so, in anime, big eyes add more emotion to the cartoon characters. all this "Caucasian ideal of beaty" - bullshit.
typical for western civilization.

[mwmiller.livejournal.com]

Every time the subject of Japanese cartoons/comics comes up, someone trots out that old line about the grotesquely huge eyes. If it's true that they're drawn that way because they represent THE SOUL!!! then what do dinky little triangular mouths represent? What do minuscule (sometimes invisible) noses represent? What do utterly unnatural hair colours represent?

No, no, no. Japanese comics & cartoons have so many outsize ocular orbs for the same reason that Yankee comics have so many ripping-muscled superheroes with skintight costumes: because the culture is dangerously in-bred. Just because the slant-eyes do it doesn't make it deep and spyrytual ok.

[kidplastik.livejournal.com]

I first heard of double-eyelid surgery when I last visited China. I saw ads all over the place for this surgery and personally thought it was rather sad. I tend to agree with Wong, where as many of the surgeries I have seen were to create the crease rather than to actually widen then eye, which would lead to a more Caucasian looking eye.

But in the case of actually making the eye look bigger, which I had never noticed until this post, I think that's just creepy. Strange what people will do to conform to standards of "beauty" whether it be Western or Eastern standards.

[0260clothing.livejournal.com]

IMHO the reason behind the Blepharoplasty, eye-shining drops, fake eyelashes, whitening creams, etc. is to look youthful; their attempt to hang on to youth, beauty, and therefore power.
In Japan the look of pre-teen youth is mainstream sexy as opposed to in the US where a tan, blonde, leggy, more 20-something woman is mainstream sexy.
In the before & after Blepharoplasty photos in the back ads of Japanese magazines, the girls are always arranged to look "baby cute" in the after.

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

The narrower eye opening does not allow for the maximum viewing of the cornea

Yeah I'm a cornea man myself. First thing I check out when looking for a mate.

I remember looking at Playboy in the '70's and we said ah these photos have been airbrushed. Looking at those photos today those women look natural.

Today the models are airbrushed before the photos are taken.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_maldorora/]

so much for the ideal Japanese "moon face" right?

I agree with your commentors who say this isn't a bid to look more "western." its just face-fashion, just like puffy bee-stung lips are popular here because of an aesthetic ideal, not because some women want to look ?less caucausian?

i read a while back that in S Korean having part of your calves removed is a very popular surgery for women who think their legs are too meaty.

plastic surgery is so common among japanese celebrities, even the males, that its considered unusual to NOT have something done.

my mom sort of did that

[happiesachi.livejournal.com]

she got the double eyelid.
i was a little wiered out when she went to go do it.

Re: my mom sort of did that

[wingedwhale.livejournal.com]

Did she say why? I hear a popular response is to "look less sleepy."

[(Anonymous)]

The Japanese attachment to baseball has nothing to do with the West, either: if you look back into Japanese fuedal history, it was a popular sport for shoguns to bat around the severed heads of defeated leaders with wooden sticks and matching uniforms.

So once again, the influence of the West is proven merely a sham to the autonomus superiority of Japan. Urge others to take pride in their homes - at least somebody should!

[framework.livejournal.com]

I like it much better being non-human than I would if it were trying to look natural. The alien look is pretty awesome.

Then again, I am probably the only person who appreciates what Jocelyn Wildenstein has done, and can kinda empathize with why.

[maybeimdead.livejournal.com]

Who or what do we blame for this grotesque and sad development?

Good question. You are pardoned!

[rachaelnoel.livejournal.com]

I would think that the large eye fetish spilling over from popular animation to popular surgery amoungst the Japanese has something to do with the obsession they seem to foster towards the "cute". As was stated earlier in these comments, young teen-looking girls is the female ideal more than leggy busty twenty-somethings here. The ratio of large eyes to small mouth and nose are a tool of "cuteness" used by organisms to instill a feeling of joy and protection in others - as seen in babies (http://pda.physorg.com/lofi-news-cuteness-babies-preference_8444.html) and Sanrio characters (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Apr/16/il/FP604160318.html).

However, I would say, yes, Sailor Moon DOES look like a western person. She's blonde haired and blue eyed and pale skinned and leggy. I think it's impossible to separate the western ideal as a tributary to the influence of eastern feminine ideal. Our pop culture is one of American's most widespread export (expect maybe war), and our shallow attitudes are repeatedly represented to all the world to slowly be copted into thier own cultures. Cultural migration is inescapable.

Maybe this is just a facet of globalisation - young girls in american highschools yearn for the androgeny of asian figures while asain girls get thier eyes transformed. Are people all over the world trying to be Nordic with the recent trend of long white blond hair seeping into American fashion?

[wingedwhale.livejournal.com]

Maybe they're afraid of global warming.

tsk tsk momus

[(Anonymous)]

you came close to the perfect post title!

Is blech-pharoplasty Western-eyes-asian?

is what it should have read.

cheers!

[maybeimdead.livejournal.com]

"Over the last three years, there's been a 30-percent increase in foreigners coming to have plastic surgery," says Dr. Chung Jong-pil, who works at the Cinderella plastic surgery clinic in Seoul. "It's all because of the Korean wave. A lot of Chinese and Japanese have surgery to make themselves look more like Koreans."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5300970

[wingedwhale.livejournal.com]

Typical racist, west-centric bullshit. "THEY MUST BE TRYING TO COPY US!"

"Oh, how cute, that Japanese person is trying to be Western again. How quaint!"

Whenever Asians do anything, you'd be shocked how many think it's an imitation of what we great white people have already done.

"Asian girls wanna look white with the eye surgery!"
"Anime characters are supposed to look white!"
"They're trying to make their cities look like ours!"
"It's so quaint how they play baseball--just like a real person!"
"I hear they love Americans over there."
"So-and-so Japanese indie band is great because they aren't like other Japanese bands, just rying to copy American ones."
etc. etc. etc.

[(Anonymous)]

while i find your reaction a bit alarmist (for example if you follow baseball you'd know that some of the most talented players of the last 10 years were japanese or korean) could you offer instead a suggestion as to why *you* think this trend has started? just curious.

[nato-dakke.livejournal.com]

spindly legs on the verge of breaking in two, and permanently moist gigantic eyes on the verge of crying; it's the look that says "you will have to be careful with me".

from personal experience, most of these women are really really boring. the japanese female endomorphic personality?

[pinkplasticgun.livejournal.com]

Besides Blepharoplasty, there's "big eye" contact lens that you can wear to make your eyes look bigger.
the contact lens has a bigger ring? of color

I actually own a few of these myself
because i look so sleepy/ unfocused all the time
& who cares if it makes me look like an alien
even better :P

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

i have big eyes and almost no mouth...I don't think I look like a frog, though I think I do look ethinically confusing. I'm fairly certain that the large eyes are inherited from the Filipina side of my genetics, and the small mouth from the Russian/Jewish/Western side. I recall in grade school speaking to some East Asian friends who told me they were jealous of my eyelids and the shape of my eyes. That was the first I heard of that surgery, though I did not know the name of it until now. I'm frequenly told that I resemble some anime or video game character or another. I'm also very pale and sometimes wish I were half-Japanese instead of half-Filipina.

anyway.

i'm not a monster i'm just an animated robot.

&i think i'm listening to too much Momus today.

Dear MOMUS

[zzberlin.livejournal.com]

I think you do not understand the intoxicating power of plastic surgery.

Take your average vain person (and there are many of us). We see our reflection in the mirror maybe seven times a day. If there is something we can do to that reflection to make it more pleasing to ourselves, is it not understandable that we would want that?

For me, one goal of my art is to make my every day environment more aesthetically pleasing. I want to be pleased, aesthetically, when I open my refrigerator. I open my refrigerator six times a day, does it not make sense that I, as an artist, would want that vista to be beautiful?

Such as it is with plastic surgery, for vain people. We have it because it makes us much more pleased with ourselves, aesthetically, when we see our reflection. It is an aesthetic enhancement.

So please don't undervalue cosmetic surgery as an art form. Sure, maybe to some the results of the surgery make us look ridiculous. But what counts is how we see our own reflection. And that's all that should count.

Not to say we wouldn't be healthier if we could abandon vanity. I don't like the fact that I'm vain. But I fear that, much like trying to change one's erotic core, attempts to eliminate vanity tend to be unsucceesful.

Respectfully yours,
Harriet