Women's Views on Cosmetic Surgery | Asian American Poll

PLASTIC SURGERY
(Updated Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 06:39:10 AM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

Assuming you are an Asian American woman, what is your attitude toward cosmetic surgery?
I would never consider undergoing it. | 42%
I might consider it in the future. | 27%
I am considering it. | 21%
I have had it performed. | 10%

Assuming you are an Asian woman willing to consider cosmetic surgery, which of the following procedures would you be most likely to consider?
Hip/thigh reduction | 4%
Breast augmentation | 33%
Reshaping the nose | 18%
Thinning the eyelids | 17%
Facelift | 8%
Removing skin irregularities | 20%

What is your attitude toward people who have had cosmetic surgery?
I have no particular feeling toward them. | 45%
I scorn them for being so vain and/or insecure. | 24%
I pity them for having the need to undergo it. | 23%
I envy them for being able to afford it. | 8%

This poll is closed to new input.
Comments posted during the past year remain available for browsing.

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WHAT YOU SAY

[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]

Sahang-Hee,

"As a Korean-Aemrican who is born with sang-gah-puhl, (eyelid crease), a Caucasian-like nose, and other non-Korean features, i don't feel pressured to look more Western; i get accused of being of mixed heritage as it is. But if i hadn't been born that way, I don't know WHAT i would have considered or undergone. We're all in this 'assimilative fight' together, why criticize others in the decisions they have chosen? "

So what's your point? If you hadn't been born looking somewhat Caucasian and you had money, you'd probably have surgery to make yourself appear more Caucasian? That's the most depressing thing I've ever read.

And "assimilative fight" who's in it and what does it have to do with appearance. Assimilating to get along better with the larger society in terms of language, cultural mores ect., is one thing, trying to look like another race is self-hatred, plain and simple.

Is it a Korean thing, I mean I've never encountered a group of Asian women so self-hating and so appearance conscious. You guys insult Korean women who are more typically Asian featured and worship those who have been cut and pasted together. Learn to love yourself, already. I'd hate to see this generation of Korean women get old with all that nasty plastic surgery, its gonna get scary.

Oh and while you're at it, why don't you just go all the way, get some breasts and some butt, lengthen and straighten your legs. Why stop at the face?
Perplexed Monday, August 20, 2001 at 10:31:38 (PDT)

Is asian blepharoplasty closer to braces or a boob job?
contemplating Saturday, August 18, 2001 at 21:48:39 (PDT)

Hey... so i've been reading a lot of peoples comments on this topic... i'm 5'3 and weigh 125lbs... which i feel is quite on the heavy side.. cause if you look at majority of asian girls, they are all really tiny and look good... i mean i don't want to be a stick or anything... but would like to be more on the slender side... would most ppl call me heavy?
another thing about the whole boob job thing.... when it comes down to it, i don't know if i would really consider it, but my friends and i always joke about it and that would be the first thing i'd get done... to me i feel like it's basically up to the person... if they've taken enough time to think about what could happen with implants and what you have to go through after the implants are put in and still want to go through with it... then i feel they should have the right to. but age factor is a big thing also... i would never think that someone who is still developing or what not should do so... cause i read in a magazine one time about high school kids already getting implants... i mean seriously.. what's the rush!! you could still grow and have a bigger chest...
but honestly... i think asians tend to be smaller than other ppl... and when it comes down to it.. is having no chest really better than having implants? i'm still pretty undecided on that... cause i'm smaller than an A cup.. which is really really small... and it's not like i'm skinny either... so what is really better? to have a no boobs... or go through the whole hassle of getting implants?
deep down i know people should be happy with how they look... just be happy with who you are... but in reality it is a hard thing to do... in reality a persons appearance does take into play...
m^_^m Thursday, August 16, 2001 at 00:06:43 (PDT)

As a 2nd generation Korean American teen who has spent most of her life in the U.S., I can undestand what it means to feel the pressure to 'fit in,' . . . which inevitably (for teenage girls) to look a certain way. I have never undergone plastic surgery and never will; however I don't 'scorn' people or criticize those who do. I'm not even sure I can afford the luxury of pitying them. I doubt there's a single Asian American woman in the U.S. who has not had to compromise her appearance to conform to a Western ideal of beauty: make-up, clothing, weight, hair styles, etc., etc. Our levels of 'compromise' depend just as much on our own physical appearance as it does on our sense of insecurity and financial resources. As a Korean-Aemrican who is born with sang-gah-puhl, (eyelid crease), a Caucasian-like nose, and other non-Korean features, i don't feel pressured to look more Western; i get accused of being of mixed heritage as it is. But if i hadn't been born that way, I don't know WHAT i would have considered or undergone. We're all in this 'assimilative fight' together, why criticize others in the decisions they have chosen?
Sahang-Hee xstorkx83x@aol.com Wednesday, August 15, 2001 at 12:33:07 (PDT)

Dear "Girl"

The "Epicanthic Fold" (Asian eyes) has nothing to do whether the eyes have single or double eyelids. That is why it is possible to term them as "Asian Eyes". The "Epicanthic Fold" is present in both single and double eyelids in the peoples of Asia. To say that only the Chinese, Korean and Japanese are the only ones to have epicanthic folds is misinformed, and plain blatant ignorance. All Asians have epicanthic folds, whether it’s on a single or double eyelid. Its true, in the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese the single fold tends to be more common. This alone, however, does not mean it does not occur in other Asians. Hence, it is not single eyelids that are defined as "Asian eye". Instead it is the "Epicanthic fold" itself which is called "Asian eye". Which if you read the post made by "Proud to have been an Asian woman" properly, you would realize, she did not refer to single eyelid as Asian, she said the Epicanthic fold was Asian, which is scientifically true.

Yours truly
Dr. Cindy Tran Wednesday, August 15, 2001 at 05:55:36 (PDT)

Asian,

Us "negroids" have double lids as well as single lids. And "negroid" eyes tend to more closely resemble Asian eyes than Caucasian eyes as a generalization. "Negroids" usually don't have heavily indented eye sockets like many Caucasians and portruding brow bones but there are exceptions to every rule.

Some Asians do have eye surgery to appear more Caucasian, if you can't see it you're blind. Certainly eye surgery doesn't make an Asian look Caucasian, rather it sometimes has tendency to make them look bi-racial, which I imagine was the point.

Just because you like fake women doesn't mean its right. And next time, leave Blacks completely out of your conversation, there are African tribes Bushmen for instance who have eyes similar to Asians. Know what it is you are talking about before you open your mouth.
From a Negroid to a Mongoloid Tuesday, August 14, 2001 at 13:00:48 (PDT)

I think it is sad that some asian women want to look caucasian and therefore have surgery on their eyelids. I think Asian womens eyelids look beautiful, I wish my eyes looked like that (but i still wouldn't get surgery) ;-)

girl ThickeTXC@bolt.com Sunday, August 12, 2001 at 23:24:51 (PDT)

To "Proud to have been an Asian woman", Asian eye is not appropriate to discribe asian people. Only the Chinese, Korean and Japanese have those single eyelids. You should change it to Chinese eye. That describes yourself better. a double eyelid doesn't have to make you look caucasian. If it really does, then all southeast asian people look caucasian? Heck no!!! If you look caucasian right now I think you came to the wrong doctor; he made your eyes caucasian! Black people all have double eyelids, do they look like caucasian? Heck no! how come you people always think that making single eyelids double eyelids will make you look caucasian? why not negroid or your own race? they have double eyelids too. I assume you are extremely stupid to think! asian double eyelids look hella different from caucasian eyelids or any other race!!! You should have gone to a doctor that knows about about asian eyelids.

You have only one life to live. So make yourself happy by doing whatever you want! when you die! It's the end of the world! period!
asian Sunday, August 12, 2001 at 18:41:02 (PDT)

Hey Proud to have been an Asian woman: Thank you for speaking the truth and telling us your experience. And that's essentially what all us anti-cosmetic surgery advocates have been saying in here. Of course it's your body and it's a frickin free country to do as you please. We're not arguing civil liberties here. We're just saying it's pretty disgusting to get yourself fixed artificially to boost your self-esteem. Because it really is all about vanity. If you have to pay money to someone to cut you up and make you look like someone else, that's just fundamentally wrong. Don't try to use the argument of equating cosmetic surgery with buying name brand clothes and having a nice car as similar tokens of vanity. You see, clothes and cars are materials and objects that come and go with time. Your body is not an object. It's a temple. A shrine. You should be proud of it because that's all you have when you come into this world and when you leave it. Inevitably the impression that others have of you(at least those who mean something to you) is the result of your personality, your interactions with them and how you behave and conduct yourself as an individual. The people you care about the most will remember you for what you have on the inside, not on how you look on the outside. Do you think babies care what their mothers look like? It doesn't matter how they look, because to them their mother is the most beautiful person in the world.
TC Sunday, August 12, 2001 at 14:07:56 (PDT)

As an asian woman who had my epicanthic folds (asian eyes) fixed I have come to understand one important thing. Many people on these posts think that we (Asian women, & even men) are not getting this surgery to look more "white". I assure you, it is.
I also used to say to everyone and to myslef, "the reason i was getting the surgery wasn't to immitate the caucasian look, I just want to make my eyes more beautiful". Then I realized, the reason I thought they would be more beautiful is because they (my eyes) would indeed look more caucasian. For a while I was happy. But then I realized they I thought was WRONG and SICKENING. The way which i realised this was horrible, it was after I had my first baby child, a lovely daughter, 2 years after my eye lid surgery. When I saw her after birth for the first time, my little baby girl, I unfortunately and shamefully saw an ugly asian baby. I am ashamed to admit this now. But this is how I felt at the time.
This was the moment when my life changed. I finally came to terms with my self hatred, and the denial of my race and herritage. The way many (and i know many will still deny) asians feel about our looks. I final realized what I had done to myself was a attrocity, an abomination! I had become a monster. Someone who hated her child because she looked asian. Because she looked like her mother, like the REAL me. The me i knew i hated. Her father is caucasian. Now i want to get my asian eyes again, so she can grow up a healthy young lady confident in her race and her looks, her herritage. Unlike i did. I grew up hating myself. I plead to all other asian people. Please don't deny our race. Make our race proud. Keep our features, I am ashamed to look the way i look, and i am seeking to restore my Asianness. The more we get cosmetic surgery to look less asian. The worse we make our self esteem. We think it makes us feel better. All it is doing is ensuring future Asian descendants have even less self-esteem than we have today.

Proud to have been an Asian woman Sunday, August 12, 2001 at 09:01:25 (PDT)

Me too. I don't like breast implants. IT'S wak! Those chicks don't impress me like they do all you corny Hollywood people. Hell no they don't look better than me or any of my women. But like the true philosopher said, "it's their bodies".
Kamen Hanya Wednesday, August 08, 2001 at 23:41:12 (PDT)

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