Julie Chen reveals workplace racism led her to get plastic surgery for ‘Asian eyes’

[Anonymous]

How does one play or pull the race card exactly? The phrase with its board game terminology seems silly. At best it's a catch-all, convenient way of evading any discussion of racism. At worse, it seems a willfully ignorant way to deliberately minimize racism's impact.
Either way, overused phrase.

[Anonymous]

Who was the plastic surgeon? I wonder how many times she had work? PS lasts about 10 years... I think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am as liberal as they come but it amazes me how political correctness requires that we see racism even where none exists.

The reality is that even if Chen had non-Asian eyes without the other work that was done to enhance her appearance she would still have looked quite unattractive. She had to have work done like many others in the entertainment world though they are not Asian. Being Asian has nothing to do with it.

But part of what makes her prettier now by society's standards is that she reduced the Asianness of her features. Because society prefers Western/white features. Engrained racism. How do you not get that?

Word.

AND she is saying her boss and agent flat out told her it was that she was too Asian looking. I guess you can believe she made that up, but it's not perceived racism if the story is ue; it IS racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does one play or pull the race card exactly? The phrase with its board game terminology seems silly. At best it's a catch-all, convenient way of evading any discussion of racism. At worse, it seems a willfully ignorant way to deliberately minimize racism's impact.
Either way, overused phrase.

Could not agree more. It's a thoughtless bromide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When your boss says "your heritage is hindering your career success." It is racism.

Somehow, I doubt he really used the word heritage. He probably did refer to her eyes though. Her eyes were very hooded and that could have hinder her success on TV, and yes, it is racist to a point, it's the same surgery that people do to make them look less old. Unfortunately for Bruce Jenner and Kenny Rogers they didn't have as good a surgeon. So it's a surgery that people get related to ageism too.

Chen doesn't even acknowledge the nose job which did more to make her look attractive than her eyes. The weight loss too. Connie Chung (whom she makes a veiled reference to) was hot stuff back in the day, and her eyes aren't particularly big, yet she still made a success of herself:

[Anonymous]

I think the whole thing is lame..people get plastic surgery to look better. You work on tv therefore you have to look a certain way. I also agree that her nose job did more for her looks than the eyes although they were too hooded. How many Italians and folks of jewish background get nose jobs also..they don't scream racism, usually they say they didn't like their nose so they took care of it. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Her eyes don't look very different, her nose-job is what's obvious.

That was my thought, too.

[Anonymous]

Look I am a catholic italian who grew up in a very ethnic community and ALL of us particularly "ethnic" looking women wanted nose jobs between the ages of 16 and 25. I would say I know about 5 or 6 women I grew up with who went ahead and did it and let me tell you the goal was def to look less ethnic and more mainstream. We wanted a "Christie Brinkley" nose. Its kind of comical but every single friend I had who got a new nose started dyeing their hair blonde at some point afterwards too! My husband is Jewish and his sitser got a nose job for the same reason...to look less Jewish. Yes its sad, but it aint new or shocking in any manor nor is it something reserved for people only on TV.

[Anonymous]

Dont get into the most superficial job in the world and complain that they want to change your looks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, TONS of women in China get surgeries like this, as well as nose jobs etc, to look more Euro. It does help them get jobs. Not racist at all.

I agree. Women everywhere get surgery to look more caucasian, especially nosejobs. What makes her any different than, for example, J. Lo. Michael Jackson. etc.

[Anonymous]

Wasn't there an episode of The Talk when the women hosts revealed how they look without makeup? I didn't see it, but wonder if that episode helped to notice her eyes; just to to take a look at her whole face, too, and see her features as they are now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, TONS of women in China get surgeries like this, as well as nose jobs etc, to look more Euro. It does help them get jobs. Not racist at all.

Why should they have to do it at all to get ahead?

Why have our standards of beauty become so Eurocentric? What do you suppose is behind that?

Why can't people just accept themselves as God made them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, TONS of women in China get surgeries like this, as well as nose jobs etc, to look more Euro. It does help them get jobs. Not racist at all.

I agree. Women everywhere get surgery to look more caucasian, especially nosejobs. What makes her any different than, for example, J. Lo. Michael Jackson. etc.

She's not. In fact, MJ was a poster child for the impact of that type of internalized self hatred fueled by a culture that values European looks. By the time he was done frying, dyeing, cutting, and carving himself he'd morphed from looking like an attractive Black man to an unattractive White woman. Lot of psychological damage there on a number of fronts, clearly. But to ignore the fact that his improvements (and those of several of his siblings) altered their ethnic looking features to look more Euro is far from coincidental.

As for the point that tons of women get surgeries to look more European and this helps them get jobs and therefore this isn't racist...
Sigh.
Yes. It is. The issue is that they would feel pressured to get surgeries to look more European to get those jobs. Ask yourself, why those particular features? Why are those features valued so highly by both the women and those who employ them? What culturally and historically could have happened in order to set up such a dynamic? Why aren't their own god given features enough to help them get the job?

[Anonymous]

I am the race card PP.
I just think it sounds so stupid. She is a successful woman and all of a sudden she mentions her race and how this presumably hindered her success. Why does she do it? To let us know she would have been even more successful if she were white? Well, if she were a man, maybe she would have succeeded even more, you know?

[Anonymous]

Do people really think the 'before' was ugly? That's so sad! I don't think she was ugly at all.

If she was so inclined, I do think she could have achieved her 'after' with makeup contouring to her nose and eye tape; she didn't have to have surgery, with the risks that entails.

I DO think it's racist. How is not clinging to a western beauty ideal when you are a different race NOT racist? I'm caucasian but when I worked in SE asia, we did a lot of programs that helped women to understand that beauty has a racial/cultural context and there isn't one face to beauty. We were trying to work against women lightening their skin, getting implant surgeries, nose and eye jobs, etc.

My kids are multiethnic and it would make me sad if they westernized their appearances because people thought they were 'ugly'.