My Small Breasts and I

No, not actually my small breasts and I, but building on my brief claim to search fame for being the top hit for “blog breasts” back in 2004: it’s apparently Body Image Season on BBC Three and one of the latest episodes was a special on women with small breasts and how their breast size affects their body image, lifestyle, etc. Having the opposite problem, it was pretty interesting, especially watching one woman attach a suction apparatus to her chest every day in hopes of boosting her cup size.

However, the most interesting thing I learned about was the site myfreeimplants.com. Cosmetic surgery financing at its finest, the site basically pairs up women who want to get breast implants with men who are willing to “donate” money to their cause.

Only in America. You’ve got to love a free market.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to next week’s episode My Big Breasts and Me.

The case of the double eyelid, part 3

Believe it or not, but yes, I have been asked to appear on the Montel Williams Show. Next week, they are taping a show on race and one of the topics they are focusing on is the idea of “erasing race.” One of the guests will be an Asian woman who has had Asian blepharoplasty (double eyelid surgery) to look more “westernized” and the representatives from the show contacted me to see if I (or someone I know) would be interested in appearing on the show as someone of Asian heritage who is against such surgery.

I assume they found me by stumbling on my 2005 blog posts on the topic (part 1 and the very brief part 2), but I’m not quite sure of the path they took to find the posts since, unlike some Google searches, I don’t show up as one of the top results for “double eyelid surgery” or “Asian blepharoplasty.”

In any case, while Montel is one of the more respectable daytime talk shows, it sounds like I would basically be going on the show to tell this woman that I think what she’s already done to herself is wrong. And to be honest, while I am against this desire among some Asian people to try to, as the folks at Montel say, “erase their race” and look more westernized, this desire to deny one’s own heritage, and (for the most part) purely elective plastic surgery in general, at the end of the day, like most things, I don’t feel so strongly about it that I expect other people to replace their own judgement and choices with mine. While I may not make the same choices, your body is yours and, as long as you’re not hurting anyone else, you are free to do with it as you wish. If you think double eyelid surgery or breast implants or liposuction will make you happy and you really want to do it, you should do it.

So, given all that, one of the things I’m really against is staged conflict (I have enough problems without having to create drama) and that is exactly what most daytime talk shows and going on Montel would be. Sorry America, I won’t be launching my talk show career just yet.

The case of the double eyelid, part 2

The double eyelid has gone away from both eyes finally. I’m back to my old chinky self again. Whew.

The case of the double eyelid

In my weeks of illness and lack of sleep lately, I’ve noticed that my eyes have been doing some weird things– specifically, one or sometimes both of them will develop a “double eyelid.” It’s not really consistent and it will stay sometimes for a few hours or a few days and it will switch between eyes, but it’s definitely weird.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m talking about the disappearance of the Epicanthal fold, the fold of skin that covers the inner corner of the eye and makes Asian people (among others) have “slanted” eyes. I’ve had this on and off thing as far as I can remember, but it’s never stayed around as long as it has lately. I’ve kind of grown to expect it considering my dad actually only has the fold in one eye and it’s always been like that. Strange, no?

When I was younger, I, like many Asian women and probably men too, wished that I had a double eyelid to make my eyes bigger– that is, look more “American.” You know, basically more “white.” I remember my first little boyfriend in eigth grade (who was as white as they came) pointed out once how he was fascinated by my almond shaped eyes. Can you imagine? You just moved to a new school and you’re one of the handful of Asian students in the whole school and this is what your first boyfriend says to you? And for the longest time, half jokingly, half serious , everytime my brother and I would pose for a picture, we would say, “open your eyes as wide you can!” to avoid looking chinky in photographs. If you ever take a look at our family photographs, you’ll see we’ve taken a lot of photos with our sunglasses on.

It’s a huge complex that Asian people have. And that’s why so many Asian people, mostly women, have gotten Asian blepharoplasty– plastic surgery to create the crease in the eyelid. Isn’t that horrible? How desperately we’re trying to look more “American?” I suppose its the same as someone getting a nose job or liposuction to fit into some idealized American standard of beauty. But unnecessary plastic surgery (as in anything other than reconstructive surgery) has always made me a little uneasy and certainly so when it’s part of some weird cultural and racial inferiority complex. People will pay something between $3000 and $5000 dollars for the surgery and frankly, a bad one will make you look like a fish. Do they think everyone won’t notice when it’s done? With liposuction, it’s plausible that you actually lost the weight.

And somewhere in the time that blepharoplasty became increasingly popular is when I finally accepted, even among some Asian teens I knew that were way too young to be getting any type of plastic surgery, that this is the way my eyes look and this is the way I look. I’m Korean, I’m Asian, and nothing I will do will change that, so why obsess? And of course, years later now when I least expect it, I’ve started to develop some phantom double eyelid that passes unexpected in and out of my life. Well, at least I saved myself a few thousand dollars and maybe putting on eye makeup will get a lot easier.

LIVESTRONG Fashion

It looks like the LIVESTRONG wristband that I mentioned in a previous post has really taken off. I’m spotting the bright yellow wristband everywhere (including my own wrist). John Kerry was wearing one during a public appearance as he pointed toward a hopefully Bush-Presidency-free future. Tom Brokaw, in a spot on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, was also wearing one.

In the mid-nineties, it was the red AIDS ribbon. A few years ago, it was the pink pony from Polo (for breast cancer care and prevention). I guess right now, the fashion accessory for the fight against life-threatening diseases is the LIVESTRONG bracelet. If there’s one thing celebrities are really good at, it’s certainly starting a fashion trend and this one at least helps a good cause.

The shell toe and the throwback craze

I’m very excited about my new sneakers: old school adidas Superstar basketball shoes, introduced in 1969 as the first basketball shoe with an all-leather upper and rubber shell toe (not to mention the trademark adidas stripes). All Day I Dream About Sindy. Or Sex. Or Shoes, as the case may be.

All this throwback stuff is coming back into fashion and I can’t help resenting the appropriation of my childhood pop culture. I know, I’m starting to sound like a bitter old person who starts every phrase with “back in my day…”, but it’s strange to think how we spent so much time making fun of the 80’s and early 90’s and how embarassed most of us Generation X kids (hey, I still fall into the 1961-1981 bracket) became of cheesy 80’s fashion, music, and culture filled with consumerism and conspicuous consumption. And now, we embrace it in a throwback craze (like in the VH1 show “We Love the 80’s”) and Generation Y is buying old adidas shell-toe shoes and off-the-shoulder Flashdance t-shirts and sweatshirts. And look at celebrities like Will Smith– he owes his celebrity to the cheesy flourescent-colored fashions and pop rap of the Fresh Prince of Belair and now he’s promoting the old Converse basketball shoes in I, Robot.

Of course, when we embraced the old school basketball shoes, we were in a throwback crazy to 60’s style. Every generation steals from the previous one– in my mind, Baby Boomers were the last ones to really come up with something new. Since then, we’ve merely been recycling cultural artifacts and repackaging them for consumption. The commoditization of culture!

Bliss

A guilty pleasure: great spa products. I’m currently addicted to the Bliss suite of products (also available at Sephora). Especially the super minty soap’n scrub (its directions actually say to scrub “until you can’t stand it anymore”), the mammoth minty scrub soap (giant bar of soap almost too big for my small hands), and the lemon and sage softening soak (especially helps with those migraine days). I’m clearly obsessed with all things minty. Very refreshing all around and leaves your skin extra soft, smooth and kissable.