The Westernization of Asian Cosmetic Surgeries.
research thesis:
Since the beginning of time we’ve been following certain cultural beliefs depending on where you live and interact with. As our society is pressuring beauty standards, most of us blindly follows, but we make up society, then why are we so pressured by our own actions and decision? This particular question will still be unanswered because an article that is written by one person cannot speak for every individual that’s part of our society and makes up our culture. But as technology became big, we got more exposure to peoples’ cultures’. We became more aware of our differences, but that didn’t not improve our satisfaction of what we already have as different individuals. specifically speaking, the popular double eyelid surgery is one very interesting case. Since that surgery came up before a strong western presence in Asia, now it became one really important step to become closer to Westernization. The intent of the surgery changed over time after technology became a core element in our society, but not many people know that and i think that’s a really important piece of information of the double eyelid surgery history that should be culturally confronted.
Annotated Bibliography
Limer, Eric. “There Us a Laser Surgery That Can Permanently Change Eye Color.” The Mary Sue. November 3, 2011. https://www.themarysue.com/laser-surgery-eye-color/. The author was talking about a different kind of eye surgery then the sources I looked up before. It’s a laser procedure that takes some of the pigment of the eyes to the base color of the pigment. (ex. brown to blue) this article was also technical, but it had a different procedure.
Rosa, Christopher. “Will Surgically Changing Your Eye Color Make You Go Blind?” VH1 News. October 23, 2015. Accessed April 06, 2018. http://www.vh1.com/news/216905/will-surgically-changing-your-eye-color-make-you-go-blind/. In this article the author was talking about how two celebrities got the eye color changing surgery and changed their eye color permanently. Vaguely mentioning that this is what sparked his interest in researching this surgery and what are the outcomes from it, he asks doctors and specialists about the surgery trying to get answers about the safety of it. that is relevant to my research because the article was written heavily influenced by the author’s opinion of this social trend, also some of its comments were helpful.
Shen, Lucinda. “Here Are the Vainest Countries in the World.” Business Insider. August 13, 2015. http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-vainest-countries-in-the-world-2015-8. This article shows data of the countries that has the most plastic surgeries done and ranked them as “the vainest countries in the world”. the whole article just represents data of the most plastic surgeries done per capital. I used the data in the article in my research to know what countries do the most surgeries in comparison to south Korea.
Wallop, Harry. “100 Years of Plastic Surgery.” The Telegraph. July 10, 2015. Accessed April 17, 2018. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11731223/100-years-of-plastic-surgery.html. the article here talked about the origin of plastic surgery in general, whether it’s for aesthetic reasons or for medical reasons. it went hundred years back when plastic surgery shifted to more aesthetic reasons and how that started. this was very helpful for my research because it went back when the double eyelid surgery- that is very popular now mostly for aesthetic reasons, came up before the presence of many westerns in Asia and turned into a trend. i used that point to support my argument in my research.
Nguyen, Marilyn Q., Patrick W. Hsu, and Tue A. Dinh. Seminars in Plastic Surgery. August 2009. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2884917/. this journal was written by three Doctor of Medicine, and they were discussing the significance of the double eyelid surgery and how the lids are different specifying on the Asian lid and the kinds of folds different eyelids has. Also mentions the medical effects and detailed explanation of the surgery. This is relevant because the article mentions data about the surgery and the different kinds of lids in Asia.
“Plastic Surgery Statistics | Global Plastic Surgery Statistics.” ISAPS. https://www.isaps.org/medical-professionals/isaps-global-statistics/. it’s the International Society of aesthetic plastic surgery (ISAPS) website. it provides data and statistics of the plastic aesthetic plastic surgeries done yearly around the world. the data and statistics helped my research to further familiarize their heavy influence in Asia.
Marx, Patricia. “The World Capital of Plastic Surgery.” The New Yorker. June 19, 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/23/about-face. this article talks about the nature of how looks effect the daily lives of people in South Korea. also mentions the heavy cultural aspect of the plastic surgery there. this gave me a better insight of how plastic surgeries have a role in their society and how important it is to them.
Research Table
| Observation | Location | Analysis and Interpretation |
| In this article, the author was investigating the safety of the eye color change surgery. By looking up any possible information about the safety of it and its results, contacting doctors and experts, and observing celebrities that did the surgery. |
http://www.vh1.com/news/216905/will-surgically-changing-your-eye-color-make-you-go-blind/ by Christopher Rosa , 10/23/2015 “ will surgically changing your eye color make you go blind?” , VH1 News
|
The author here was very motivated to be informed about this surgery since it was new back then as he stated in the article. Even though he didn’t want the surgery for himself, but he wasn’t convinced enough to accept it. As he contacted doctors and experts the answer to his concerns aren’t very clear, as every doctor has a different answer. Potential blindness was one of the long-time effects to this surgery. But the article was emphasizing on the technical part of the procedure and not the social aspect of it. But I the comments were helpful. One comments that was posted 4 weeks ago said that their friend got the surgery 7 years ago and now is blind in one eye and very foggy vision in the other, and they got a cornea transplant. Then didn’t recommend the surgery for anyone. |
| In this article the author talked about a surgery that changes eye color and could cause blindness. | https://www.themarysue.com/laser-surgery-eye-color/
by Eric Limer, Nov3rd, 2011 The Mary Sue “There Is A Laser Surgery That Can Permanently Change Eye Color” |
The author was talking about a different kind of eye surgery then the one I looked up before. It’s a laser procedure that takes some of the pigment of the eyes to the base color of the pigment. (ex. brown to blue) this article was also technical, but it had a different procedure. |
| this article shows data of the countries that has the most plastic surgeries done, and ranked them as “the vainest countries in the world”. | Shen, Lucinda. “Here Are the Vainest Countries in the World.” Business Insider. August 13, 2015.
http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-vainest-countries-in-the-world-2015-8
|
the whole article just represents data of the most plastic surgeries done per capital. i used the data in the article in my research to know what countries do the most surgeries in comparison to south korea. |
| this was very helpful for my research because it went back when the double eyelid surgery- that is very popular now mostly for aesthetic reasons, came up before the presence of many westerns in Asia and turned into a trend. i used that point to support my argument in my research. | Wallop, Harry. “100 Years of Plastic Surgery.” The Telegraph. July 10, 2015. Accessed April 17, 2018. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11731223/100-years-of-plastic-surgery.html | the article here talked about the origin of plastic surgery in general, whether it’s for aesthetic reasons or for medical reasons. it went hundred years back when plastic surgery shifted to more aesthetic reasons and how that started. |
| this is relevant because the article mentions data about the surgery and the different kinds of lids in asia. | Nguyen, Marilyn Q., Patrick W. Hsu, and Tue A. Dinh. Seminars in Plastic Surgery. August 2009.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2884917/ |
this journal was written by three doctors of medicine, and they were discussing the significance of the double eyelid surgery and how the lids are different specifying on the asian lid and the kinds of folds different eyelids has. also mentions the medical effects and detailed explanation of the surgery. |
| the data and statistics helped my research to further familiarize their heavy influence in Asia. | “Plastic Surgery Statistics | Global Plastic Surgery Statistics.” ISAPS. https://www.isaps.org/medical-professionals/isaps-global-statistics/ | it’s the International Society of aesthetic plastic surgery (ISAPS) website. it provides data and statistics of the plastic aesthetic plastic surgeries done yearly around the world. |
| this gave me a better insight of how plastic surgeries have a role in their society and how important it is to them. | Marx, Patricia. “The World Capital of Plastic Surgery.” The New Yorker. June 19, 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/23/about-face | this article talks about the nature of how looks effect the daily lives of people in South Korea. also mentions the heavy cultural aspect of the plastic surgery there. |
