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When I enrolled in “Writing 101: Violence and Su!ering in the Contemporary World,” my mind conjured images of war, destruction,

weapons, and bodily injuries. However, I quickly learned that violence is not always physical, tangible, or even visible. In this course, the term “violence” became associated with structural violence, a form of institutionalized violence in which social structures harm or disadvantage speci"c groups of people. #is completely shi$ed my view on violence; rather than focusing on blatant destruction, I began to consider the pervasiveness of structural violence and how society can favor one group of people while harming another. I focused on a topic close to home. Blessed with a button nose, a round face, and a short stature, I have always struggled with my self-image. My mother o$en teases that I was lucky to even be born with eyes. During my travels to China, I have noticed that the standard of beauty is shi$ing to a universal, Eurocentric one. Even Asian models are selected based on European features – light skin, round eyes, a long nose. #is observation correlated with the increased reports concerning the incidence of plastic surgery in Asia. I began to wonder from where this Eurocentric ideal arose and why Asian women were going to such extremes to meet this unrealistic ideal. What does it mean to be “beautiful,” and why does society place so much emphasis on meeting this expectation? How does having this Eurocentric ideal harm diversity and women of color? In the end, I hope that readers of my paper will realize that cultural diversity makes us unique. We should not be ashamed of our ethnic heritage and the physical markers of our race. And upon "nishing my paper, I have begun to acknowledge this fact and accept myself for who I am – tiny eyes and all.

Abstract As globalization and Western media have increased their in%uence in East Asia, the universal ideal of beauty has become increasingly Eurocentric. Many Asian women, through plastic surgery and cosmetic products, strive to achieve features associated with Western beauty, such as round eyes, de"ned noses, and double eyelids. Focusing on the causes of this Eurocentric ideal of beauty, I examine the convergence of historical Asian classist divisions, Western colonialism, and globalization to uncover the historical basis of this standard and examine how it persists today. I also examine how these Eurocentric standards of beauty have become a form of structural violence, causing unique ethnic characteristics to fade as women of color unconsciously conform to a single perception of beauty while viewing this conformation as an investment for the future. While Asians may claim that their motives for undergoing surgery is to appear more attractive overall and not to look more “Westernized,” an understanding of societal factors allows us to recognize that the Eurocentric standard of beauty is indeed the global ideal to which Asian women unconsciously conform. #is standard of beauty, naturally unattainable for most Asian women, leads to detrimental psychological e!ects and can result in poor self-image and self-esteem. Movements by individual activists and companies have begun to promote natural beauty as a response to the “cultural imperialism” and uniformity of Eurocentric beauty.

Introduction An advertisement featuring Emma Watson for skin-whitening products was the "rst thing to greet me as I stepped o! a sixteen-hour %ight into Beijing Capital International Airport. As someone who has visited China every other year since 2006, I have noticed the increasing in%uence of the West on Chinese culture. China’s economic growth has not been unheeded by other countries, which have seen in it a vast "eld of marketing opportunities. American superstars appear on the covers of Chinese magazines while advertisements for European designer brands are emblazoned on the billboards above major Chinese shopping districts. #e images of Western faces appear everywhere in Chinese cities. I counted at least twelve more advertisements depicting Western models before boarding my connecting %ight. #e emergence of Western media is a phenomenon not unique to China but increasingly seen throughout Asia. Intermingling and intimacy of Eastern and Western cultures in Asia is seen in the use of Western models for distinctively Asian cosmetics products. #e message in these advertisements is clear: if you, as an Asian,

Eurocentric Beauty Ideals as a Form of Structural Violence:Origins and E!ects on East Asian WomenLei Zhang

Violence and Su!ering in the Contemporary World (Spring 2013)Professor Saiba Varma

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use this company’s products, you too can look like a Western model. !ese Western models, with their elongated noses, large eyes, and light-colored skin, represent the Eurocentric ideal of beauty, an ideal naturally and ethnically unattainable by the majority of Asian individuals. In a world in which appearance can determine job opportunities, young women across Asia pour their money into cosmetic products and alter their bodies with plastic surgery to try to "t this unrealistic Eurocentric ideal. !rough Western imperialism, the historically ingrained Asian cultural values of beauty converged with the universal Eurocentric/Western ideal of beauty, and present-day globalization only further ingrains and perpetuates this ideal to Asian women. !is Eurocentric ideal of beauty, with its institutional and historical roots, now serves as a form of structural violence by constricting Asian women, in#icting onto them harmful psychological e$ects, and leading them to choices such as plastic surgery. Structural violence is de"ned as long-term, systematic, historical, oppressive, and unintentional “social arrangements” that either “harm individuals and populations” or otherwise “disadvantage them” (Farmer, “Structural Violence,” 1686). Paul Farmer claims that these arrangements are “embedded in the organization of our social world” and that through historical processes and forces, structural violence “constrains individual agency,” the ability of an oppressed person to act or make change (1686). Structural violence today continues to hinder social progress by targeting particular populations by factors such as race or class. Because of the common belief that Asian women undertake plastic surgery or make up their faces just to “make themselves feel beautiful” and not to “look more European,” it is important that we recognize the Eurocentric ideal of beauty as a form of structural violence, as it is oppressing Asian women into conforming to a standard of beauty they cannot naturally obtain and labeling them as inferior to Western women. !is paper will explore the causes and e$ects of the Eurocentric ideal of beauty in present-day Asian society. Initially, I examine how historical Asian social divisions and Western colonialism merged and solidi"ed the Eurocentric ideal of beauty. I will investigate how globalization further cements the Eurocentric beauty ideal as the universal beauty ideal. A%er examining how Eurocentric ideals of beauty constitute structural violence and the e$ects of this form of violence on Asian women, I will discuss the rise of the plastic surgery and cosmetics markets in Asia, which leads to controversy as women who undergo plastic surgery forego their unique, ethnic features for more Western characteristics. Next, I will examine the responses of many activists to this Eurocentric ideal of beauty and the movement to promote “natural beauty.” In the "nal sections of my paper, I will discuss the e$ects of this ideal on my own struggles as an Asian American who grew up in the United States.

!e Roots of Beauty Certain aspects of the Eurocentric beauty ideal, such as having fair skin, were ingrained into Asian society before Western colonialism. A fair complexion has been historically valued in Asian societies as it serves as a marker of class; this is a parallel also seen in early European societies, though this worship of fair skin in Asian societies predated European in#uence. Light skin is associated with wealth (Bray). Historically, the poor, constricted by poverty, were forced to perform manual labor outside under the sun. Even today, poor people in Asian countries

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tend to have dark, tanned skin. !us, Marianne Bray states that a “white complexion was seen as noble and aristocratic... Only those rich enough could a"ord to stay indoors.” One ancient saying in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese societies goes, “A white complexion overrides three appearance #aws” (Wagatsuma 407; Bray; Tsai), emphasizing the long-standing importance of light-colored skin in multiple countries across Asia. According to Eric Li et al, Japanese men have long valued white skin as a “signi$cant element in judging the beauty of Japanese women,” associating light skin with “femininity, chastity, purity, moral virtue, and motherhood” (445). As a result, women in Japan have been lightening their faces with lead-based products since the Meiji era (1868-1912) (Li et al. 445). Similarly, Li and colleagues state that during the Koyro dynasty (918-1392), Korean children, striving to be “respected” and to achieve a “noble” appearance, would “wash their faces with peach #ower water to make their skin clean, white, and transparent” (445). Certain characteristics of the Eurocentric standard of beauty, such as white skin, have been culturally and historically ingrained into Asian societies long before Western in#uence. In !e History of White People, Neil Painter argues that Western scientists and scholars $rst propagated the general idea of Eurocentric beauty as the universal ideal. Painter claims that beauty became a “scienti$cally certi$ed racial trait” from the inception of the term “Caucasian” (80). J. F. Blumenbach coined the term “Caucasian,” referring to people of European descent, from “Mount Caucasus” because “both its neighborhood, and especially its southern slope, produces the most beautiful race of men” (qtd. in Painter 81). !us, the historical background for the term “Caucasian” itself suggests that Europeans and their features create the “most beautiful race.” Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the father of art history, openly criticized non-European features. For example, he was known to have openly pronounced Chinese eyes as “an o"ense against beauty” (Painter 59). Painter also argues that the value of white skin as beautiful came from Winckelmann, who investigated many Roman copies of Greek statues; these statues were carved from marble that “shone a gleaming white” (61). In this way, Painter states that Winckelmann “elevated Rome’s white marble copies

of Greek statuary into emblems of beauty and created a new white aesthetic” that would apply “not only to works from antiquity, not only to Greek art, but to all of art and all of humanity” (61). !us, with the assistance of Western scholars, the “gleaming white” skin of ancient Greek statues became a universal notion of beauty to strive towards. !ese Eurocentric ideas of beauty from early European scholars thus spread to the rest of Europe through scienti$c books and articles that these scholars would eventually write. European imperialism and colonialism would later spread their ideas to the rest of the world. Colonialism fused European ideals of beauty with Asian cultural values to produce the universal Eurocentric

beauty ideal that we see today. According to Christopher Houtkamp, Europe’s rise to power on the world stage following the Industrial Revolution, combined with social-Darwinism and the “white man’s burden,” caused Europeans to believe that they had the “right to dominate the rest of the ‘inferior’ world” and the “obligation to educate the ‘others.’” Houtkamp claims that Europeans decided that they needed to “export… values to all other parts of the world” because European leaders “$rmly [believed] that Western values were universal, that all people from all di"erent cultures ultimately wish to live just like [they did].” !e Eurocentric ideal of beauty was just one of these values

that “was exported” and thus became universal through colonialism. Due to the dominance, power, and in#uence that Europeans held in their colonized countries, the idea of “white privilege” heavily spread to colonized people. In Dutch-occupied Indonesia, Luh Ayu Prasetyaningsih claims that half-Indo half-Dutch children, due to their European features and lighter skin, were given favorable treatment, and half-Indo half-Dutch women became the “most desirable marriage candidates for European men in the colonial Indies” (20). Even countries that remained independent felt the increasing in#uence of the West. As a result, Li et al note that eventually “contemporary meanings” of Western features, such as white skin, combined with “Western mass-mediated ideologies and traditional Asian cultural values” (445). As Western in#uence rose, John G. Russell claims,

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“Western-centrism and cultural hegemony [interacted] with Asian ideologies in strengthening these [beauty] ideals,” including that of whiteness (qtd. in Li et al. 444). As a result, certain Asian values, such as the popularity of the voluptuous body type (Kolesnikov-Jessop), shi!ed to match the modern Western ideal of beauty (slenderness), while other values that aligned with Western ideals, such as white skin, became even stronger.

Globalization Globalization has become a force that is quickly propagating cultural values, such as the perception of beauty. Western media is now virtually inescapable in Asia; its omnipresence has made Western features and beauty a kind of social “norm,” as increased exposure leads to something becoming more and more familiar and normal. "e remaining Asian models in Asian advertisements also have Westernized ”round-eyed Asian faces” (Lah), further perpetuating the Eurocentric ideal of beauty. Li et al claim that the increased prevalence of Caucasian models in Asian advertisements “raises the possibility that beauty ideals are or are becoming global” (444). Indeed, a study conducted by Katherine Frith and colleagues demonstrated that Western models appeared more frequently than Asian models in both Western magazines and in Asian magazines throughout Asian countries, further leading to the rise of the “universal” view of the Western woman as the ideal symbol of beauty (56). Perhaps the most compelling evidence for the universal standard of beauty being Eurocentric is how Asians themselves believe that Western features are beautiful— even more beautiful than Asian features. A study by William Jankowiak and colleagues found that ordinary Chinese females ranked Caucasian models of both genders as more attractive than their Chinese counterparts (249). "ese Chinese women based female attractiveness on “angular noses, wide and deep set eyes, and whiteness of skin” (Jankowiak et al. 256), all traits associated with Caucasians and rarely with Asians. "is study further links attractiveness and the global ideal of beauty with European features and underlies the reason why so many young Asian women eventually choose plastic surgery. According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, more than two million aesthetic plastic surgeries were performed in China in 2009, ranking it third in the world, with the “number of operations doubling every year” (LaFraniere). "is trend is not speci#c to China, as a survey conducted in Korea revealed that a stunning 58% of women have had plastic surgery by age thirty (Chosun). If Asian women are viewing Caucasian models as the epitome of beauty, then to become “beautiful” themselves, they must then have these Caucasian features, leading to the rise of the cosmetic products and plastic surgery markets. "e use of Caucasian models to promote Asian products, including the distinctively Asian skin-whitening cosmetic products, forms the “universal beauty standard” we see today. While some may see a problem with using naturally light-skinned models to advertise for a skin-whitening product, these advertisements are omnipresent across Asia. Most Asians view the Western models as “brand representatives” (Tsai). According to Wan-Hsiu Tsai, the prevalence and ready acceptance of these advertisements featuring Caucasian models in local Asian media “is an implicit understanding that Caucasian models are symbols of the Western, and by extension global, culture, thus constituting a universal beauty standard.” "e responses of the Asian women from Tsai’s interview “revealed that the beauty standard depicted by Caucasian models was accepted [by them] as a global beauty ideal.” Speaking about a perspective from the other side of the world, Hall claims that in the United States, while Americans o!en fetishize and “admire

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“Ultimately it’s...

a form of cultural

imperialism.

It’s aesthetics...

It’s the beauty myth.”

the exotic image” of Asians by virtue of Asians being a minority in the U.S., white American men ultimately “tend to prefer white American women physically,” and thus “white female beauty still remains the standard” (Hall 11). White beauty places unrealistic expectations on women of color, as most of them cannot naturally reach this standard.

Eurocentric Beauty Ideals as a Form of Structural Violence In Asian countries, receiving a double-eyelid surgery as a present from your parents is not uncommon. Jang Hyu-Hee, mother of Lee Min Kyong, a twelve-year old girl, pushed for her daughter to undergo double-eyelid surgery for “Westernized eyes” (Lah). When asked about her reasoning for the procedure, Jang Hyu-Hee stated, “I think it’ll help her. !is is a society where you have to be pretty to get ahead” (Lah). !is sentiment is one that is shared throughout East Asia. In China, Ms. Tong gave her daughter Xiao Juan, 18, a gi" of double-eyelid surgery as a reward for an outstanding performance on the Chinese National College Entrance Examination (Hua 92). Her reasoning echoed Jang Hyu-Hee’s: “Society is so competitive... I know that appearance is absolutely an important element in the keen job market today... A pretty face is a worth-while long-term investment for my daughter’s future” (Hua 93). “A pretty face is a worth-while long-term investment” is the motto among many Asian parents throughout East Asia who believe that their daughters’ attractiveness and conformation to the Eurocentric ideal of beauty will lead to better job or marriage opportunities and success in life. !is view of plastic surgery as an investment for the future has also been directly internalized into young Asian women themselves. As victims of structural violence, many Asian women see no choice but to turn to plastic surgery. In China, women are undergoing plastic surgery at a “much younger [age] than their counterparts in Western countries” (Hua 94). Wen Hua notes, “High school and college girls are among the most enthusiastic groups seeking cosmetic surgery in China” (94). Hua then relates the story of Jing Wang, who, a"er having di#culties for months in securing a job, spent all of her savings and borrowed money from classmates for double-eyelid surgery and rhinoplasty (94). Wang’s reasoning was, “I need an edge to stand out! It’s an age of beauty! Being good-looking is capital!” (Hua 95). !is turn to plastic surgery for Westernized features demonstrates the e$ect that structural violence has on the agency, or the capability to act or make change, of East Asian women. As a result of the structural violence of the Eurocentric ideal of beauty, many Asian women use their agency by turning to methods such as plastic surgery, leading to the loss of classic racial characteristics and identity. !e stories of Lee Min Kyong, Xiao Juan, and Jing Wang illustrate how the Eurocentric ideal of beauty acts as a form of structural violence on East Asian women. !e prevalent idea in Asian societies that being beautiful aids in obtaining success is supported by research, conducted by Madeline Heilman, that consistently demonstrated attractiveness, based on the Eurocentric ideal of beauty, to be an advantage for job-searching women (360). Because the vast majority of Asians do not naturally have Western features such as double eyelids, the institutionalized and historical Eurocentric standard of beauty “constrict[s] the agency of its victims... tightening a physical noose around their necks... and [determining] the way in which resources are allocated” (Farmer, “An Anthropology,” 315). !is ideal, which has long-standing historical roots, systematically oppresses Asian women by a$ecting the way they choose to express their agency, as many alter their ethnic appearance to try to appear more Western. Studies have also shown that, based on the Eurocentric ideal of beauty, society selects for light skin, as light skin has been associated with higher wages in women of color (Hunter 175). Margaret Hunter states that skin color has become a form of social capital, working as a “stratifying agent for women on the dimensions of education, income, and spousal status” (175). As psychology has shown, “beautiful is good” (Eagly et al. 109), and when

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you cannot naturally meet society’s de!nition of beautiful, you may be predisposed to poor self-esteem and !nd fewer opportunities in society unless you take action. Habitus, de!ned by Pierre Bourdieu to be an unconscious and culturally “learned behavior” (qtd. in Day 21), predisposes Asian women to be aware of their body from childhood. As Amy Chua demonstrated in her famous and controversial essay on Asian parenting, it is socially acceptable in Asian society for parents to say to their daughters, “Hey fatty— lose some weight” (Chua). Habitus is thus observed in Asian women, as they become sensitive to their body image from childhood due to their upbringing. Asian women express signi!cantly more dissatisfaction with their bodies than their Western counterparts (Hall 11). In the pursuit for thinness, an originally Western ideal that has now become universal, they also tend to misperceive their weight as being higher than it actually is (Hall 12). "us, habitus combined with the Eurocentric standard of beauty can lead to negative psychological e#ects in Asian women. "e omnipresent in$uence of Western media only serves to exacerbate the issue. "e “standards of beauty primarily based on Caucasian-European-American ideals” (Hall 8) that $ood the media can cause “psychological e#ects of low self-esteem, poor body image, and eating disorders,” particularly in women of color (Hall 8). Asian women, as women of color, are oppressed by the structural violence of racism, as “the concept of beauty is based on racially discriminatory criteria” (Hall 10). "e larger exposure to Western models over Asian models already associates Caucasian features as beautiful, and the higher depictions of Western models as “sexy” (versus Asian women being depicted as “cute”) can cause Asians to feel that they are not adequately sexy by virtue of not being white (Frith et al. 57). By having a standard of beauty that most women of color cannot naturally attain, this Eurocentric ideal of beauty lingers over Asian women, constricting them and acting as a form of structural violence by altering their agency and in$icting psychological trauma.

Plastic Surgery, Cosmetics, and the Issue of Identity To achieve unattainable Western features, many Asian women ultimately choose to use cosmetic products

to give the illusion of Western features or permanently alter their features through plastic surgery. As a result of Asia’s economic boom, the Asian cosmetics and plastic surgery market have grown considerably as more women have assets to spend on aesthetic purposes (Li et al. 444). Skin-lightening products are intensely popular in Asia; Mikiko Ashikari claims that the “whitening cosmetics boom started in the late 1980’s” in Japan (89). Other cosmetic products claiming to “Westernize Asian features” include “Nose-

Shadow,” a stick that is supposed to de!ne your nose and make it appear longer, “eyelid glue/tape,” which temporarily creates double eyelids, “circle lens,” a special type of contact lens designed to create the illusion of bigger eyes, and various “nose-roller” devices, which claim to trim and squish- down wide noses (Hall 8). However, many Asian women transition from cosmetic products to plastic surgery, as plastic surgery’s e#ects are immediate, dramatic, and permanent. "e majority of Asian cos-metic plastic surgery operations alter typical racial characteristics. In the United States, 80% of white female plastic surgery patients desired liposuction, breast aug-mentation, or the removal of wrinkles, while 40%-46% of Asian American women undergoing plastic surgery wanted double-eyelid surgery (Hall 13). Another

15-23% of Asian American women undergoing plastic surgery wanted a more de!ned nose (Hall 13). "e surgeries for white patients “do not change the conventional markers of racial identity” (Hall 13), but for Asians, “the surgeries change ‘stereotyped genetic physical features’” (Hall 13). Eugenia Kaw believes that this plastic surgery in Asian women re$ects “self-and-group hate” caused by “patriarchal (sexism) and hegemonic (racism) oppression,” (78) Asian women who undergo plastic surgery believe that they are simply making themselves more beautiful and thus raising their places in society. Asian women’s loss of the “markers of racial identity” from plastic surgery and their denial to conforming to the Eurocentric ideal of beauty speaks to the unconsciousness of Eurocentric beauty ideals as a form of structural violence. Perhaps these women are not intentionally disowning their racial identities, but through methods like plastic surgery, they are unconsciously conforming to this beauty ideal and striving to look Western. A pressing concern is the view that “Westernization surgeries” are a form of “cultural imperialism,” in which one

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standard of beauty (the Western one) is imposed on people of all cultures. !e resulting fear is that over time, unique ethnic characteristics will be lost as society selects for one appearance type, leading to a “push towards uniformity.” Asian-American activist and writer Martin Wong criticizes the use of plastic surgery to achieve a Westernized appearance:

Ultimately it’s... a form of cultural imperialism. It’s aesthetics... It’s the beauty myth. Everything from children getting pushed into these eyelid surgeries to Asian adults westernizing their faces for globalization smacks of racial self- hatred. !ey’re making a statement about their own race, about where they come from, about who [sic] they are. !ey‘re not doing it on purpose. !ey’re not saying that they think that they’re inferior-looking. !ey’re not saying that they’re ugly, but that’s the message that they’re giving nonetheless. (qtd. in Lah)

To activists like Wong, even if Asian women are not consciously striving to look Caucasian, modifying the features that are characteristically associated with their ethnicity is almost a form of “selling out” their unique racial features to conform to the Eurocentric standard of beauty. Wong’s criticism exempli"es the argument that this Eurocentric beauty ideal, through the vehicle of plastic surgery, becomes an incredibly unconscious form of structural violence, as many Asian women do not recognize that their agency is only perpetuating this unrealistic ideal of beauty.

Movement to Promote “Natural” Beauty !e rise of the perspective that white people are the epitome of beauty is a shared experience that many Asians can actively see in things such as Western advertisements. As a response, some Asians have displayed agency by beginning

to speak out against conforming to the Western standard of beauty as a form of “worldbuilding,” a process that involves employing creativity to positively cope with structural violence (Nordstrom 15). !ey have started blogs or found other outlets to praise natural beauty, criticize cosmetic plastic surgery, and discuss the dangers of skin-bleaching products. Companies have also been involved in this process of promoting “natural” beauty, or beauty untouched by “cultural imperialism,” that emphasizes diversity and the unique ethnic features of Asians, such as almond-shaped eyes, rounder faces, and youthful appearances. Dove’s Real Beauty Asia Campaign features average Asian women (non-models) with captions that address the beauty and uniqueness of certain Asian

features, such as single eyelids (Tsai). An example caption asks, “When surgery adds an eyelid, does it remove your identity?” Dove is stating that ethnic features are beautiful in their own unique respects and is questioning the need for Asian women to conform to the light-skinned and double eyelid Eurocentric ideal of beauty.

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Ashikari, Mikiko. “Cultivating Japanese Whiteness: !e ‘Whitening’ Cosmetics Boom and the Japanese Identity.” Journal of Material Culture 10.1 (2005): 73-91. Web. 3 Apr. 2013. Bray, Marianne. “SKIN DEEP: Dying to be White.” CNN World. 2002. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.Chua, Amy. “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior.” !e Wall Street Journal. 2011. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.Chosun. “90% of Korean Women would have Plastic Surgery, Poll Shows.” !e Chosunilbo. 2009. Web. 17 Aug. 2013.Day, Leslie Kirsten. Bitch that I Am: An Examination of Women’s Self-Deprecation in Homer and Vergil. Ann Arbor: Proquest, 2008. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.Eagly, Alice H., et al. “What Is Beautiful Is Good, But...: A Meta-Anatytic Review of Research on the Physical Attractiveness Stereotype” Psychological Bulletin 110.1 (1991): 109-128. Web. 4 Apr. 2013.Farmer, Paul. “An Anthropology of Structural Violence.” Current Anthropology 45.3 (2004): 304- 325. Print.Farmer, Paul, et al. “Structural Violence and Clinical Medicine.” PLoS Medicine 3.10 (2006): 1686-1691. Web. 4 Apr. 2013.Frith, Katherine, Ping Shaw, and Hong Cheng. “!e Construction of Beauty: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Women’s Magazine Advertising.” Journal of Communication 55.1 (2005): 56- 70. Web. 7 Apr. 2013.Hall, Christine C. Iijima. “Asian Eyes: Body Image and Eating Disorders of Asian and Asian American Women.” Eating Disorders 3.1 (1995): 8-19. Web. 4 Apr. 2013.Heilman, Madeline E. “When Beauty is Beastly: !e E"ects of Appearance and Sex on Evaluations of Job Applicants for Managerial and Nonmanagerial Jobs.” Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 23.3 (1979): 360-72. Web. 5 Apr. 2013.Houtkamp, Christopher. “Eurocentrism part I: !e origins of the Western sense of superiority.” European Tribune. Eurotrib. 12 Apr. 2011. Web. 5 Apr. 2013.

Hua, Wen. “’Being Good-Looking is Capital’: Cosmetic Surgery in China Today.” Asian Anthropology 8.1 (2009): 89-107. Web. 3 Apr. 2013.Hunter, Margaret L. “‘If You’re Light You’re Alright’: Light Skin Color as Social Capital for Women of Color.” Gender & Society 16 (2002): 175-93. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.Jankowiak, William. “Globalizing Evolution: Female Choice, Nationality, and Perception of Sexual Beauty in China.” Cross-Cultural Research 42.3 (2008): 248-69. Web. 3 Apr. 2013.Kaw, Eugenia. “Steven Polgar Prize Essay (1991). Medicalization of Racial Features: Asian American Women and Cosmetic Surgery.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 7.1 (1993): 74- 89. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. Kolesnikov-Jessop, Sonia. “Asian Beauty: Beyond Skin Deep.” Newsweek. 2007. Web. 3 Apr. 2013.LaFraniere, Sharon. “For Many Chinese, New Wealth and a Fresh Face.” New York Times. 2011. Web. 19 Aug. 2013.Lah, Kyung. Plastic Surgery Boom as Asians Seek ‘Western’ Look. Prod. CNN World. 2011. Video.Li, Eric P. H., et al. “Skin Lightening and Beauty in Four Asian Cultures.” Advances in Consumer Research 35 (2008): 444-9. Print.Nordstrom, Carolyn. A Di"erent Kind of War Story. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1997. Print.Painter, Neil Irvin. !e History of White People. First ed. New York: W. W. Norton: 2010. Print. Prasetyaningsih, Luh Ayu S. !e Maze of Gaze: !e Color of Beauty in Transnational Indonesia. Ann Arbor, Proquest: 2008. Web. 12 Apr. 2013.Tsai, Wan-Hsiu Sunny. “”!ere are no Ugly Women, Only Lazy Ones”: Taiwanese Women’s Social Comparison with Mediated Beauty Images.” Advertising & Society Review 13.4 (2013): n.p. Web. 12 Apr. 2013.Wagatsuma, Hiroshi. “!e Social Perception of Skin Color in Japan.” Daedalus 96.2 (1967):406-43. Web. 5 Apr. 2013.

Works Cited

My Struggle Born into a culture in which there is no hesitation to call out physical #aws, I, like many other Asian women, became hyperaware of my body from a young age due to habitus. I was born as a chubby baby and retained my chubbiness for a large portion of my childhood. My mother and her Asian friends o$en remarked on my weight, making me sensitive to weight ideals as a child. Growing up in the United States, I was overwhelmingly exposed to advertisements depicting only slender Caucasian models with very European features, which further shaped my perception of beauty. Even on my trips back to China, I have noticed the increased prevalence of advertisements depicting Caucasian models in Asia. I associate beauty with a heart-shaped face, large, round eyes, slenderness, and fair skin – all features matching the Eurocentric ideal of beauty. While I, like many other Asian women, do not consciously strive to look Western, my distaste for Asian racial features echoes the Eurocentric standard of beauty as a form of structural violence. Even now, I struggle with my small eyes, tiny nose, weight, and wide jawline because unconsciously, I know they

do not conform to the universal ideal of beauty – an ideal that is Eurocentric. Globalization is a double-edged sword. While many people believe that globalization increases diversity by exposing us to ethnicities and races all around the world, globalization, combined with the power of Western media, can also perpetuate structural violence, such as the unrealistic Eurocentric ideal of beauty onto women of color. !is form of structural violence is dangerous, as it may lead to uniformity as women of color arti%cially trade their ethnic features for European ones. However, globalization and social media have also increased awareness for the need to promote ethnic diversity. Slowly, the victims of this form of structural violence have begun to speak out, setting up websites calling society to rede%ne beauty and organizing marches to celebrate diversity and “natural” beauty. Rather than focusing energy on buying gizmos like nose rollers or developing makeup tricks to give the illusion of European features, Asian women can perhaps use this positive channeling of creativity to remind us that diversity is beautiful and to be comfortable in one’s own skin – no matter how dark or how light.