Chen was told her ‘Asian eyes’ were holding back her career. One again, women need to slice, dice, and diet to succeed
CBS television personality Julie Chen has generated quite the buzz since confessing that she’s had plastic surgery on The Talk on Wednesday. As a young news reporter in Dayton, Ohio, Chen was informed by her boss that her “Asian eyes” made her look “disinterested” and “bored”. She then met with a high-powered agent, who handed her a list of plastic surgeons specializing in blepharoplasty (pdf) – the procedure for creating double-creased eyelids, which at least 50% of Asians are not born with naturally —and told Chen if she got the surgery, she’d go “straight to the top.” And so she did.
After the American Big Brother host “outed” herself on-air, the women round The Talk table immediately voiced their support. Sharon Osborne let out an exuberant, “Fabulous!” followed by a slightly more tempered, “It was the right thing to do.” Sheryl Underwood said, “You represented your race, you represented women, and your colleagues.” Sara Gilbert told Chen:
I think you were beautiful before, you’re beautiful now, and it’s really whatever makes you happy.
These rallies of “You go, girl!” have not only been limited to Chen’s fellow co-hosts. The Asian American Journalists Association “applaud[s] Chen for sharing this personal moment with her audience“. The popular women’s lifestyle site BlogHer discusses how Chen’s decision was motivated by racism. Even the ever-cantankerous Angry Asian Man blog offers up some sympathetic words for Chen. And in what must feel like the ultimate “booyah” moment for Chen, she received a public apology from WDTN-TV, the Dayton station where she first got her start.
Overall, Chen’s big reveal has been met with a positive response. I’m sympathetic to the challenges Chen faced in her decision to go under the knife. I’m also heartened that issues of racism and workplace discrimination are being brought to light. But we need to take this issue one step further. While everyone acknowledges the motivations that led Chen to undergo the surgery, what no one seems to be addressing is the enormous pressure young women face in meeting a certain standard of beauty.
Chen’s decision, along with the overwhelming public support, sends an ambivalent message to women grappling with their own physical identities and offers a troubling solution as to how to “fix” the problem in order to achieve success.
After hearing the remarks about her eyes, Chen admits she “started developing a complex. I got very insecure about this”. Over and over she watched video reels of herself, fixating on what she began to perceive as her glaring flaws.
All I could see is my eyes, and does [my boss] have a point. And all I’m doing is watching my eyes. Do I look bored or disinterested?
Chen’s words are unsettling at best; her increasing dissatisfaction with her appearance, coupled with her repetitive, obsessive language, sound like the makings of a body image disorder. Chen’s solution: electing to have the double eyelid surgery. Chen herself notes that after she had the procedure done, “the ball did roll for me”. (For what it’s worth, speculations abound that her eyes are not the only thing Chen’s had “fixed”.)
Carol D Gray, a clinical psychologist from Newton, MA who specializes in girls’ development, says we live in a society that “promotes a completely unrealistic standard of beauty which makes all women feel flawed, particularly girls and young women who are especially vulnerable to media images. This ultimately leads to 51% of Americans walking around feeling like there’s something wrong with them. The only sadder reality is that we’re also led to believe that if we just try hard enough we can fix what’s wrong.”
In a time where women already face enormous pressure to have – and achieve – it all (we are, after all, living in the age of Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer), Chen’s revelation adds to that yet one more expectation: that we are expected to “fix what’s wrong” and that fix might be one scalpel incision away.
Harriet Brown, associate professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communications and author of, most recently, Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia, has also spoken extensively on the subject of female body image.
I’m glad Julie Chen gave voice to the kind of pressure she faced to conform to the very narrow, and narrow-minded, cultural norms around her appearance. I do worry that her story will inadvertently reinforce the notion that women need to slice, dice, and diet themselves as close as possible to those norms if they want to succeed.
It is a worry that echoes my own. We take our cues from popular figures in media, especially those being celebrated for their actions and achievements. And yes: there is something laudable about Chen “coming clean.” But the conversation should not stop there. Before we echo Osborne’s cries of “Fabulous!”, we should look to deeper solutions beyond a trip to the plastic surgeon’s clinic. Chen’s next steps – as well as our own – should be to address this implicit message sent to young women: that their the physical shortcomings – perceived or otherwise – need only be “fixed” in order to achieve success.
Comment is free | theguardian.com TV host Julie Chen reveals she"s had plastic surgery and we"re supposed to cheer? | Patricia Park
