People would sometimes ask me if I’m part Asian. I’ll usually respond by saying, “Somewhere down the line.” My slanted eyes are a dead giveaway.
I used to feel self conscious about them. Whenever I laughed they’d become more pronounced. There was the occasional annoying class clown who would slant his eyes by using his fingers, as a way of poking fun. But, I never let him bother me. There were others who would compliment their unique shape. I remember being told by pageant coaches to apply eye shadow and make them pop.
I’ve grown to love my eyes for its uniqueness. I appreciate the encouragement I received from mentors to make them stand out. However, some people aren’t as fortunate. When TV host and anchorwoman, Julie Chen revealed that she went under the knife after being told that her hooded Asian eyes would stunt her career, it brought me back to being teased by that class clown. Even though I never felt pressured into getting plastic surgery to alter my appearance, I do understand the desire to want to succeed. I can relate to Chen’s struggle with wanting to blend in. As an on-air personality, I’ve been told that I wouldn’t be considered for a job because of my dark features. I’ve also been called into the office for my ‘hair issues.’
In the news biz straight hair is often preferred over curly hair. For me, getting a relaxer every six to eight weeks was a must. I no longer straighten my hair, but I do rock a wig. Is that selling out? No, I call it making a smart choice. Rather than fry my own, I’ve decided get a fake one. I’ve got bills to pay and a family to take care of. So, I’ll do what I have to do.
As a parent, I feel that it’s important to set an example for my children. I wouldn’t want them to feel that they must change their appearance to fit in. But at the same time, they may have to find some sort of middle ground. I’m prepared to have that discussion with them when the time is right.
The bottom line is that sometimes you have to make difficult choices in order to reach a goal. For Julie Chen, it happened to be getting plastic surgery so that her eyes would appear bigger. She’s received backlash from people within the Asian community. But for what it’s worth, I applaud her for making that tough decision. It couldn’t have been an easy thing to do. Critiques say that she’s giving in to the Western standards of beauty, but I think she’s courageous. Besides, she doesn’t look less Asian to me!
Well here’s the thing, nobody is one race at the end of the day. Being black with chinky eyes is just that. My daughter is AA and has a ‘good grade’ of hair and light skin, I have been asked crazy things like how is she yours? Or is she half Asian? I take it as a compliment and keep it moving.
I just did a google search for slanted eyes because they are hot. I was disappointed because most of the results did not return very slanted eyes. Then I saw your beautiful face and was ecstatic. Not only did you have amazing eyes, but you were black too. Extra hot. Then I read your article and my jaw just dropped. I’d like to make two points and a suggestion. 1) Everybody gets made fun of in school. 2) The same asshole managers that tell Chen to get plastic surgery are the ones who think sick entertainment is more important than actual news; they make the ratings go up with shock value instead if fulfilling the purpose of informing people and now we have the tea party as a result. Here’s my suggestion. Please start your own news show on the Internet and rock out a nice big beautiful fro. People would come for the fro but then you could actually teach them the difference between Iraq and Iran and that 9 million new people having access to insurance means 9 million peoples worth of premium which will drive costs down, not up, especially considering the savings in emergency care.
PS. Don’t worry. I’m not doing anything inappropriate while looking at your picture. I just made a beautiful video game character with an Indian face and slanted eyes and I wanted to see if real people had eyes that slanted.
Thanks so much! Would love to see your work!
I have to same shaped eyes… I didn’t realise nor my family, untill soooo many people started to complement me about my eyes . from when I was a teenager.