Race, Ethnicity, and Plastic Surgery

Race, Ethnicity, Surgery
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The number of plastic surgeries carried out every year have been on the rise. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons estimates that from 2005 to 2013, the number of cosmetic procedures conducted on Asian-Americans increased by 125%, African-Americans by 56% and among the Hispanics it raised by 85%. The doctors are also openly advertising their competence and skills in ethnic plastic surgery practices such as pushing sloped foreheads forward, lining Asian eyelids and pulling mouth backward. These medical procedures are seen as deracinating processes where the flat nose of the Asians is sharpened and the sharp Arab noses flattened.
The trend of such plastic surgeries has led to an outcry from people of different races and ethnic groups. Julie Chen, a broadcast-news veteran, conducted a double-eyelid surgery after experiencing workplace racism. Additionally, there are also reports of Asians who carry out surgeries to resemble western celebrities. The White standards are dominating the beauty culture because of the privileges classes associated with white people. The practitioners have always defended these medical procedures citing them as personal beauty choices and not the removal or ethnic or racial characteristics. Besides, the recipients have emphasized that ethnic plastic surgery is not an indication of ethnic hate or abominate but it is an evidence that egotistic American admit new members.
The history of the double-eyelid surgery can be summarized by the careers of Edmund Kwan and Dr. Robert Flowers who started performing surgeries in the 1960s. Kwan was a medical student who then specialized in plastic surgery and later joined Flowers to train and learn under him. Flowers was a military surgeon and his techniques which applied seda...