Sunday, November 30, 2003
Boy, am I bored
I was bored, so I figured I'd check out The Chron's opinion page, which rarely fails to provide hillarity.
Today's is found at the bottom of the page in a letter from Ruby Turalba about how she's mad that Chinese women are trying to look more "western" (white, I assume) because it's seen as more attractive.
She starts off the letter with a bang:
As a Filipina-American woman, I am appalled to read in the news article, "China grows beholden to skin-deep beauty" (Nov. 23), that Asian women are increasingly having surgery to adopt Western features, such as widening of the eyes and narrowing of the nose.
Now, I'm no expert on geography, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but if I recall correctly, the Phillipines are not China. Being Philipino hardly makes your opinion on Chinese beauty-sense any more valid.
If this is not a blatant sign of internalized racism, then I don't know what is?
That's not actually a question, but I'll answer it anyway. Getting "I am inferior to whites" tatooed on your forhead is. Welcome to reality, where how you look affects how attractive you are. And I don't think I'm stepping over any lines when I say that your race has a very significant impact on the way you look.
While it is any person's right and freedom to express her own beliefs and opinions, I question the root causes of this shift in cultural standards of beauty, and its long-term consequences on Asian society and particularly on young women.
Does it really matter? So the perception of beauty has shifted. Big deal. Adapt and get laid. That's the way it's always been, and there's never been anything wrong with it. And if you think there is, remember that when it comes to self-mutilation for beauty, the Chinese have had us beat for centuries.
The Chinese government has stepped in to regulate the cosmetic surgery industry, but perhaps instead it needs to regulate American business and corporate-controlled media that surreptitiously sell the Western standard of manifest beauty in the name of our modern god, profit.
Well, so much for it being "any person's right and freedom to express her own beliefs and opinions." And what's with looking down upon profit as a god? Unlike many gods, profit actually answers prayers.
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