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August 23, 2005

Sculpting Beauty Versus Hacking Ugliness

Disclaimer: this article isn't meant to suggest that I know conclusively that the below mentioned people have had plastic surgery. I'm just going by the rumour mill here. Also, I think there's a certain degree of deliberate ambiguity I'm leaving here between media coverage and actual popular interest, but since this is all meant to be frivilous chit-chat, I'm not going to bother clarifying it.

Rumours continue to swirl about the newly coronated Miss Hong Kong, Tracy Ip. Did she have plastic surgery? While I don't have any “before” pics, the “after” shots certainly suggest that if there was any nipping and/or tucking, it was certainly subtle. As Alfred puts it, “afterall shes not pretty” (although I do quite like the pic on the right):

Whatever the truth may be (my guess is that no, she hasn't been under the knife for cosmetic purposes), I've become quite tolerant of Asian actresses getting cosmetic surgery. Mainly because it's so hard to tell. Take, for example, Niki Chow, who also faces similar rumours. Personally, I distinctively remember thinking that she's not all that hot when she first appeared on the scene. Now I think she looks great. It appears that perhaps it's not my taste that's been changing:

I think one can change a lot through diet and exercise. I'm just a bit skeptical whether altering one's jawline is one of them.

This is about average of the type of physical change that one tends to witness in Asian actresses. If it's plastic surgery, it's certainly not dramatic, and with a little modification here and there one can presumably become a lot more visually appealing without looking unnatural. Maybe this is just grossly broad stereotyping, but this seems to exemplify the difference between Asian and Western (or at least North American, or at least Hollywood) culture. What I mean is best summed up by this exchange from The Simpsons:

Marge: Homer, what are you doing?
Homer: Listen, do you want the job done right, or do you want it done fast?
Marge: Well, like all Americans, fast, but--
Bart: [lights the fuse] Clear!

[The exploding firework knocks the drawer out and leaves ugly blast marks on the drawer and stand]

Marge: [marvels at how easily the drawer slides now] You can't argue with results!

To put it bluntly, “subtle” doesn't seem to register with Hollywood actresses, or billionaire heiress bimbos. It's not so much about “I want to look better” as “I think my [blank] is too [blank] so I'll [blank] it.” The results are unsurprisingly disastrous. Even Jessica Simpson looks kinda weird now (which IMHO is really too bad):

At this point, I wonder if the people of Hong Kong should perhaps either loosen up and give less attention to these sorts of low-level cosmetic enhancements, or stay the way they are. The former, because I fear they're oblivious to the excellent work that's being done by these modern-day sculptors, and the latter, because I fear that the outrageously disproportionate nitpicking is the only thing keeping the city's females from becoming a bunch of plastic manikins.

Posted by Kelvin at August 23, 2005 9:58 PM

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With the connectivity problem resolved, we return to daily linking. Kelvin at Plum Blossoms takes a look at the controversy surrounding Miss Hong Kong and plastic surgery. Whatever the truth may be (my guess is that no, she hasn't been [Read More]

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