Erasing Ethnicity | the multi-million industry of extreme makeovers at Schema : more than ethnic

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Erasing Ethnicity | the multi-million industry of extreme makeovers

Marie Claire magazine issued a special report entitled ERASING ETHNICITY (here), which probes the dramatic jump of plastic surgery amongst ethnic minorities (a rise of 65% compared to 38% increase among the overall population). They boil it down to higher incomes and a range of ethnic-specific techniques available for their taking, such as double-eyelid surgery, rhinoplasty, and calf reduction.

The article also touches on other methods of "erasing ethnicity" from straightening hair, lightening haircolour, "whitening" skincare, using blue/grey/hazel/green contact lenses, and tanning. There is also a random notation of "the beauty and the challenges of being multi-ethnic".

More: "Erasing Ethnicity With a Knife: More and More Minorities Are Changing Their Features With Plastic Surgery" from ABC News @ http://abcnews.go.com | "Is Asian Plastic Surgery Erasing Ethnic Identity?" by Anni Zhu @ www.makemeheal.com

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Is this really about "erasing" ethnicity or trying to meet a global convention of beauty? Or maybe it's just the increased visibility of the spending power of ethnic minorities in the U.S. Plastic surgery and skin whiteners have always been popular in East Asia; Brazil boasts of having the most breast implants, and Japan has the longest history of breast implants: "Following World War II, Japanese prostitutes who were trying to attract American servicemen revolutionized the history of breast implants by having silicone injected into their breasts." (from http://www.aboardcertifiedplasticsurgeonresource.com/breast_implants/history.html). Perhaps it's not about hiding one's ethnicity, but more about trying to be more marketable. Just more evidence that European-esque features are still the most in demand.

Though not as dramatic as surgery, skin whitening products are still big business in Africa and Asia, and the messages used to market these products to women are always carefully tailored towards the local cultural trends / anxieties, as explored in a Mehfil Magazine article about the skin whitener Fair and Lovely here. Granted, no woman, whatever her ethnicity, can quite escape from the clever shill of the beauty industry:
"Perhaps the greatest irony is that Unilever is also responsible for the Dove “Real Beauty” campaign in the West. Unilever tells western women in its Dove ads that they can be themselves (“real women, with real curves”) and still be beautiful. The same company, albeit a different branch, tells South Asian women through its Fair and Lovely ads that they have to be something other than what they are — in this case, white and westernized — to be beautiful."

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Posted by Tamiko
October 29, 2007 at 12:42 AM
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