Photography courtesy of Ri Ya via Pixabay.
Since the initial boom of cosmetic surgery in the 1970s, the idea of ethnic cosmetic surgery has been circulating within the medical literature. Ethnic cosmetic surgery is a term that surgeons created to describe the practice of performing surgical procedures that align with the ethnic beauty standards of specific groups. In her book Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards, Yale sociologist Alka Menon argues that cosmetic surgeons literally reshape race—both on patients’ bodies and at the broader level of culture.
“Surgeons are the gatekeepers for what is beautiful,” Menon explained. In a way, surgeons are what she calls amateur sociologists. They deduce how a patient perceives themselves and how they think society perceives them in order to negotiate and sometimes dissuade patients from beauty norms. However, the way surgeons navigate these ethical implications can differ between countries. Menon compares the US and Malaysia, two ethnically diverse nations with clear distinctions in beauty standards. Menon explains that an American surgeon might be reluctant to perform the “Asian double eyelid surgery” as they believe it is ethically wrong to enforce a prescribed Western beauty standard. Malaysian surgeons, in contrast, might perceive this procedure more lightly—there are a multitude of Asian eye shapes that do not convey an idealized white beauty standard.
Through her research, Menon demonstrates that cosmetic surgery is not just a medical practice but a powerful sociological force that reshapes societal beauty standards, challenging us to consider how race, identity, and aesthetics are crafted in the modern world.