Thesis 1 Final Paper

ZHUOYING LI THESIS 1: RE-‐REALIZATION

1

Zhuoying (Joy) Li Design and Technology Thesis 1 Thesis Title: Re-Realization Thesis Professor: Anezka Sebek Fall 2011 http://webspace.newschool.edu/~liz870/thesis.html

Abstract: East Asian young women are having a negative self-evaluation when exposed to mainstream beauty standards shown by the media. A large number of them are overdoing make-up and plastic surgeries, however, they are not becoming more attractive but look like clones of each other. Therefore, I want to create a series of projects for my thesis to raise the awareness of this issue, to make young women re-realize their individuality and their self-esteem as who they are. My target audience will be Chinese girls from 16 to 25 years old, who are not very well educated and grew up in middle or higher-class families. I plan to create an exaggerated makeup tutorial based on current beauty standards, to conduct interviews with women who love or hate plastic surgery, and to make ad campaigns that challenge existing media.

Zhuoying (Joy) Li Re-‐Realization

2

Introduction:

East Asian women have adored western beauty for a century; almost everyone is finding

ways to look more like their ideal beauty. Big eyes, double eyelids, oval face, narrow jaw, small

cheek and chin, and high nose are all dispensable qualities that an ideal Asian beauty should

have. Excitingly, the advancement of plastic surgery and makeup tools and techniques have

brought hope for women in East Asian. However, they are going so far to the extreme that they

have diminished their individuality and degraded their natural beauty. By overdoing makeup and

plastic surgery, girls in East Asia are not becoming more attractive but look like clones of each

other. Therefore, I want to create a series of projects that raise the awareness of these issues and

question people about what women gain after changing themselves and working so hard to

become the same as others. My first plan is to do an exaggerated makeup tutorial that visually

criticizes how far girls have gone to catch current beauty standards. I also plan to conduct

interviews with women who are obsessed with plastic surgery as well as who don’t do plastic

surgery. In this way, my audience can get to know how experienced people think and feel and to

choose who they want to be. My third plan is to make ad campaigns that challenge the ideal

beauty standard in existing media because I want people to know that they blindly believed

whatever the media tells them.

Audience:

My audience will be Chinese youth from 16 to 25 years old, who were raised in middle or

higher-class families. They are most likely my peers as so called the “post 90s” who were born in

and after 1990 because hey are the ones that are obsessed with overdoing prettiness and are also

influenced the most by the mass media. After talking with social study scholar – Danxi Cheng, I

also found that girls who are not well educated are more likely to strive for the ideal beauty


3

presented by mass media; however, professional women with higher and better education rarely

do the same thing. Since Chinese youth nowadays receive the most information online, I’d like

to present my projects on blogs and social media sites in order to reach as much of an audience

as I can; effectively and constantly.

Mind Map:

Below is a visual map of the research and knowledge fields covered by my projects.

Based on my study of the characteristics of my audience, I mainly focused on presenting the

serious issues, showing the consequences of overdoing plastic surgery, criticizing the misleading

media, and evidencing the importance of individuality and natural beauty.


4

Issue Context:

Asian youth, especially Chinese are obsessed with Caucasian-European’s facial

appearance. Although there are differences between oriental Asian aesthetic values, the common

dissatisfactions are small eyes, wide and flat face and nose, big chin and cheek, and beige skin.1

Below is a photograph displayed at a plastic surgery center that shows the mainstream beauty

standard among different ethnic groups.

Image 02 (From left to right: African, European, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese)

Since the 20th century, having double eyelids have been regarded as a symbol of beauty

in East Asia. However, approximately 75 percent of all Koreans and 50 percent of all other

Asians are born without the double eyelid crease.3 Therefore, women’s strive for beauty all

starts from magical makeup tools and plastic surgeries for bigger and more Caucasian like

eyes. The double eyelid surgery has been the most popular and common plastic surgery in

East Asian, yet, it no longer satisfies the aggressive youth that wants to achieve “giant” eyes

rather than big eyes. They are now risking more to have their eye-‐head opened with the

double eyelid surgery (image 1).

1 Marek Dobke, Christopher Chung and Kazuaki Takabe, “Facial Aesthetic Preferences Among Asian Women: Are All Oriental Asians the Same?”, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 30, no. 3, 342-347. 2 “Attractive Composite Faces”, photo, Blogpost.com, http://javajossi.blogspot.com/2010/11/attractive-composite-faces-of-asian.html. 3 Sandy Kobrin, “Asian-Americans Criticize Eyelid Surgery Craze”, Womensenews, August 15, 2004, http://www.womensenews.org/story/health/040815/asian-americans-criticize-eyelid-surgery-craze.


5

Image 14 Image 25 Image 36

Even though many people avoid plastic surgery, they all have done their own secret

procedure to become similar to the ideal beauty. As I discovered, nowadays, girls wear circle

contacts not for a play of different eye color but for bigger eye pupils (image 2); girls use glues

to create natural looking double eye lids that won’t show any flaw (image 3); girls tape on their

face overnight to slim their face and widen their eyes (image 4, 5); girls even use clips to higher

their nose (image5) and etc. All of these magical methods have gone from mild to extreme that

layers of makeup and props have covered their distinctive Asian identity and natural beauty.


4 “Asian Eyelid”, photo, Plastic Surgery Institute & SPA, http://www.ceydeli.com/procedures/asian_eyelid.php. 5 “Circle Contacts”, photo, 4inlook.com, http://www.4inlook.com.cn/detail_138003003. 6 “Double Eyelid Glue”, photo, Have8.com, http://zt.have8.com/article/1854864.html. 7 “Face Sliming Tape”, photo, Taobao.com, http://store.taobao.com/shop/view_shop-ffd114287374fbba48e66f4a9a02c175.htm. 8 “Eyes Tape”, photo, 100sp.com, http://www.100sp.com/show_pro.asp?id=14916. 9 “Nose Up Clip”, photo, Blogspot.com, http://all-lovely-pink.blogspot.com/2009/03/nose-up-clip.html.


6

Moreover, the pursuing of ideal beauty has caused scary experiences. Examples are boy

friends shocked and disappointed after seeing their girl friends’ natural face because of the huge

difference; circle contacts covered people’s eye balls even the white area; layers of faux lashes

with smoky eye shadows that created a monster look more than a western beauty. There will also

be further consequences such as side effects and health issues caused by cosmetic surgeries and

makeup props. More sadly, people can’t hide their true face for a lifetime because DNA doesn’t

lie and their children won’t look the same as their fake mask.

There is also a trend of posting before and after images of makeup processes online that

presents an unbelievable difference and announce their ability to be pretty even though they are

naturally ugly. However, the “ugliness” is usually exaggerated in order to emphasize the ideal

side. Perhaps the images below can exemplify the best that the three are all the same person as

in image 7; yet with makeup, she shows her obsession with European facial appearance (image

8), and her ability to become the standard beauty among Chinese youth (Image 9). Nevertheless,

people made themselves look worse in the before picture; they usually wore careless nightgown

and have their hair up with bare face staring at the camera without any smile. They could look

much better if they had done everything except the makeup they did in the “after” photos.

Image 7, 810 Image 911

10 “Before and After”, photo, LadyBand.com, http://www.ladyband.com/article/00163836.shtml. 11 Ibid.


7

Therefore, I want to question why Asian women are minimizing their personal identity

and torturing themselves to become the ideal beauties that actually look fake and soulless. Is

their natural appearance not beautiful? I don’t think so, and I’d like to find a way to make people

to rethink their beauty identity and realize how far they have gone from themselves.

Research and Design Questions:

I want to prove to my audience that there isn’t a single standard that can measure

people’s preference on women’s facial appearance. I also want them to realize that the ideal

beauty shown by our media is changing rapidly and continuously just like fashion trends that you

can never satisfy. Asians’ sensitive nature and cultural influence also made them lose themselves

easily. However, I want them to be aware that media has made them feel worse about them-

selves. In order to find an appropriate way to approach my audience and convince them, I came

up with some major design questions and I have compiled my research of the answers below.

Question1: Why do people strive to be beautiful? What are the benefits?

Although we are all legally equal, people are often treated differently according to their

physical appearance. Since childhood, the cuter kids get more attention and more

encouragement, thus build up their confidence and ability. 12 Some people even think their face

is their fate because first impression is important for relationships and job opportunities.

Question 2: What really is beauty? What defines it?

There are various academic approaches and analysis of the standards and measurements

of beauty. However, from studies of attractive features and scientific measurements I found, they

all reveal people’s misunderstanding that they have been blindly pursuing the ideal standard.

1. Beauty: The attractiveness 12 Karl Grammer and Elisabeth Oberzaucher. “Our Preferences: Why We Like What We Like”, Essential Building Blocks of Human Nature, The Frontiers Collection, 2011, 95-108.


8

• Neonate features: eyes, nose, and chin.

• Maturity features: cheekbones, and cheek.

• Expressive features: eyebrows, pupils, and smile.

Based on Michael Cunningham’s experiments, girls care most about their neonate features,

but viewers are actually attracted by their expressive features.13 To concern too much on the

individual parts does not bring you the most attention; yet, a smile with your soul in your eyes

works more effectively.

2. Determinants of facial attractiveness: Physical Characteristics

• Averageness (prototypicality)

• Sexual dimorphism

• Youthfulness

• Symmetry

According to Dr. Mounir Bashour’s study, extreme outstanding facial appearance such as

very large eyes and high nose bridge does not achieve the best facial harmony; yet, most viewers

adorn faces that maintain some averageness.14

3. The Golden Radio Face (image 10)

Dr. Stephen R. Marquardt quantifies beauty scientifically by developing the Golden

Decagon Mask.15 This two-dimensional visual of the human face is based upon the Golden Ratio

(also known as the Divine or phi ratio): 1:1.618. This special number is believed to symbolize

perfect natural harmony and appears in Renaissance art, ancient Greek architecture, music, and

nature. The closer a face is to this template, the more aesthetically pleasing the face is.

13 Michael R. Cunningham “Measuring the physical in physical attractiveness: Quasi-experiments on the sociobiology of female facial beauty.”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50, no.5, May 1986, 925-935. 14 Mounir Bashour, “History and Current Concepts in the Analysis of Facial Attractiveness” Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery 118, no.3, Sept 1, 2006, 741-756. 15 Stephen R. Marquardt. “Marquardt’s Beauty Analysis”, http://www.beautyanalysis.com/index2_mba.htm.


9

Image 1016: From left to right: European, Asian and African

Nevertheless, when it comes to facial appearance, people’s preference does not fall exactly

into the scientific measurement. As seen in the match-up photos done to top model Agyness Deyn

(image 11) and Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe (image 12), Agyness’ face is almost perfectly

aligned with the mask whereas Marilyn’s face seems too wide and her eyebrows are too high

compared to the golden radio. Contradictorily, most people consider Marilyn the prettier and more

feminine rather than Agyness who is recognized as the cool and fashionable idol. Thus, where

people’s preference truly lies is undefined in that it can be affected by various factors.

Image 1117 Image 1218

16 “Golden Ratio Mask”, photo, Blogpost.com, http://beautyanalysisblog.blogspot.com/. 17 Maggie Bullock, “Agyness Deyn”, photo, Elle.com, http://www.elle.com/Beauty/Beauty-Spotlight/Golden-Ratio-Perfect-Face. 18 “Marilyn Monroe”, photo, Renee’s AntiAge Blog, http://reneeantiage.wordpress.com/.


10

Question 3: What has influenced Asian youth the most on their beauty standards? And who

defined the ideal beauty?

Media has been playing a leading role and girls are striving to catch its standard. The

majority of East Asian youth have always kept an eye on celebrities, advertisings, and

fashion trends. Whatever the TV, the press and the ads present have been deeply believed

as the true ideal. How could we not? It’s all around us. As a result, the higher the standard

goes, the harder people try to pursue it with any costs. Even celebrities have to manipulate

themselves to match the standards. Below are before and after photos of Asian celebrities

who have worked hard to achieved the ideal facial appearance.

Image 1319: Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki

Image 1420: Korean actress Lee Da Hae Image 1521: Chinese actress Li Bing Bing

19 “Before and After”, photo, Gaibianziji.org, http://gaibianziji.org/anli/stars/mxzs/200805/11718.html. 20 “Before and After”, photo, 31591111.com, http://www.31591111.com/view-7582.html. 21 “Before and After”, photo, Allmei.com, http://www.allmei.com/news/42005.htm.


11

Question 4: How have the standards changed over time? How far have people gone to, to fit

these unattainable standards?

Similar with fashion trends, beauty standards have been varied continuously. Use

China as an example, within the last 50 years, its celebrities have portrayed contradictory

beauty standards. Deng Lijun, a Taiwanese singer in the 70s, has rounded a face, medium

eyes and small nose that retain an authentic Chinese appearance. In contrast, in the 90s, the

preference of a more Caucasian-‐European look has shown from Chinese actress Ling

Qingxia’s face, which acquires a higher nose, larger eyes and more obvious cheekbones and

jawbones. Nevertheless, the present dream girl has gone further than a mimic of western

beauty. As seen in Chinese actress Fan Bingbing’s portrait, the mainstream ideal beauty

now requires giant eyes, very high nose bridge and extraordinarily thin cheek and chin.

Therefore, even if people change themselves to the “perfect” now, they might regret when

the next trend arrives.


According to Chin Evans P. and McConnell A.R.’s research, Asian women are more

likely to experience negative self-‐evaluations after exposure to a mainstream beauty

22 Hongjuan Sun, “Deng Lijun”, photo, Cri.cn, http://gb.cri.cn/27504/2009/03/03/3905s2445427.htm. 23 Ke Chen, “Lin Qingxia”, photo, Sohu.com, http://feizhutian.blog.sohu.com/72602257.html. 24 Ying Li, “Fan Bingbing”, photo, Sdnews.com, http://ent.sdnews.com.cn/2008/9/11/660424.html.


12

standard than members of other stigmatized groups, such as Black women. 25 They found

that Asian women would see imageries of mainstream beauty as relevant for their

comparisons and have greater dissatisfactions with themselves. It is not hard to imagine

why Asian women are striving to catch the standard; however, some TV shows have made

people feel even worse about themselves.

Image 19 Image20

For instance, a TV show in Taiwan invited girls to compete with each other for a

bigger difference before and after makeup (image 19,20)26. People in the show were

laughing at the girls’ natural appearance and surprised by the considerable contrast they

made. What has been emphasized is that these girls are naturally “ugly” but look

astonishing after makeup. It also communicates to their audience that this is the way to

become pretty.

As a result, people are learning hard to mimic the so-‐called beauty transformation.

Unfortunately, girls didn’t recognize that they have become clones of each other. When

looking at photos of different Chinese youth, they aren’t making themselves more

outstanding but undistinguishable among their peers (image 20,21,22). As Jason Biller and

25 Chin Evans P. and McConnell A.R, “Self and Identity”, Psychology Press 2, no. 2, April-‐June 2003, 153-‐167. 26 “Taiwanese Television”, photo, Pclady,com.cn, http://bbs.pclady.com.cn/topic-746382.html.


13

David Kim also pointed out from their research, the ideal facial aesthetics do not fit for everyone

because facial harmony must be pursued on an individual basis.27

Image 2028,21,2229

Precedents:

Image 2330 Image 2431

The “Doll Face” animation is one of my precedents (image 23). The Doll Face at first

comes out of her box and sees the TV, which shows an image of what she is supposed to

look like. Thus, she pulls out her makeup and changes herself to match the image.

Whenever the image changes to a new, higher standard along with the TV screen raises

27 Jason Biller and David Kim, “Contemporary Assessment of Facial Aesthetic Preferences”. Arch Facial Plast Surg 11, no.2, 2009, 91-97. 28 “Post 90s”, photo, QQZyz.net, http://www.qqzyz.net/viewNews/43763.html. 29 “Post 90s”, photo, Im808.com, http://www.lm808.com/html/feizhuliumeinv/20091113/11274.html. 30 Andrew Huang, “Doll Face”, 2007, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6hNj1uOkY. 31 Angalo Papeteri, “Beauty Kit for Girls”. Youtube, 2005, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXPzZUtAnW4.


14

higher, the Doll Face stretches herself to reach that point, and changes her face again and

again. At last, she falls, shatters, and breaks. The doll face lost her life just because the

obsession and adoration of the ideal beauty that the media told her. It reflects the reality that

humans are like dolls controlled by mass media that we have lost ourselves sometimes. I also

want to communicate the same issue in such an artistic way. However, for my project, I want to

use real people and existing images from advertisings, magazines, TV shows and websites to

give my audience a bigger impact that they can actually see and feel what girls have done to

themselves.

Another precedent is “The Beauty Kit” animation by Angalo Papeteri (image 24) . It has

four different beauty kits for little girls to reconstruct their face or body in order to look like a

sexy mature woman. It looks like a fun and dramatic representation of a plastic surgery that you

can do to yourself. The way the animation presents is simple but impressive and effective. It

reflects that the present young generation has viewed plastic surgery as commonly accepted way

to improve themselves, and their desire to become the ideal has surpassed the consideration of

risk. The idea of a beauty kit inspired me to create an ironic makeup tutorial to show that what

girls are doing and using to make a pretty face actually creates scary and unattractive appearance.

Prototype:

1. Golden Radio Mirror

My first iteration is a mirror covered with clear acetate, which is drown with Dr. Stephen

R. Marquardt’s golden ratio mask. (Image 25) Users need to look into the mirror with one eye

closed and try to see how close they can match their face with the mask. I started prototyping

with this form because I wanted to know how people react to a beauty standard first. The result

from user tests was surprising that almost everyone was happy with their face because they were


15

90% match with the golden ratio mask on average. Although it did increased users’ confidence

with their natural facial appearance, I felt it conflicted with my central idea that there isn’t a

single standard to measure people’s beauty. Therefore, I decided to change my approach to

acknowledge my audience that to strive for the beauty standard told by the media blindly isn’t

making them more attractive.

Image 25: Golden Ration Mirror Image 26: The Ideal Beauty Kit (Face on cover: Fan Bing Bing)

2. Beauty Kit and Makeup Tutorial:

Inspired by the “Beauty Kit” animation, I made my second iteration - an ideal beauty kit

and a makeup tutorial that presents a further exaggerated facial appearance based on current

trend of makeup techniques in China and Taiwan. The beauty kit includes one pale foundation,

one dark foundation, three pairs of faux lashes, one pair of circle contacts, one pink blush, one

smoky eye shadow, one lipstick and some magic tape. By using each item excessively, the

beauty kit actually makes users look horrible, however, the ugliness is created based on today’s

beauty standards and makeup tutorials. Hence, it is intentionally used to raise awareness and

criticize what girls have achieved by trying so hard to catch the current beauty standard, which is

worthless. When I showed people the product and a video documentary of the makeup process,

their reaction approved the effectiveness of my prototype. Everyone was able to recognize the


16

seriousness of the issue, and everyone was shocked by the final results, especially my young

Asian audience who recognized these familiar products and makeup techniques. My second

prototype was quite successful, yet, I haven’t made my audience realize that their individuality

has been diminished and their dissatisfaction with their natural appearance has been increased

while relying on massive plastic surgeries. Hence, I collected a considerable amount of feedback

and tried to find a new method that most people suggested or agreed on.

Image 27: Me before and after using the beaut

3. Interview:

According to the audience’s feedback, I documented an interview with a 25 year-old

Chinese girl who had several plastic surgeries as my third iteration. From the interview, I found

that people’s obsession of plastic surgery is more serious than I thought because she told me that

50% of girls she knew had plastic or cosmetic surgeries and it’s an era of “One thousand people,

one face”. The girl I interviewed also approved of the answers I researched for my design

questions, and she agreed that guys actually prefer girls in natural appearance and light makeup

so girls that are wearing heavy makeup or having plastic surgeries are doing it for themselves

and not for guys. She explains that the reason why girls are obsessed with makeup and surgeries

is because it’s easier and easier to become the ideal beauty with today’s technology. She also


17

confessed that the more makeup or plastic surgery you do, the bigger dissatisfaction you feel

with your natural appearance. More sadly, people have only a 50% possibility to look “better”

after a plastic surgery as she found. Most importantly, towards the end of the interview, she

realized that an outstanding beauty must have a unique face and it’s a failure to change your face

all over to become the same as someone else.

I think my audience can get the messages I want to tell if they hear the interview;

however, I’m still trying to find a sharper tool to point to my audience that their natural beauty is

unique and priceless; that it’s not worth to destroy them because of a deceptive illusion made by

media. Therefore, I have started putting my research and prototypes together on websites such as

Chinese Facebook: “renren.com”, Chinese Youtube: “tudou.com”, and Chinese Twitter: “Sina

Mini Blog” to reach more of an audience and find clues in their comments.

Conclusion:

Based on the feedbacks and comments from my audience and critics, I plan to create ad

campaigns to promote and brand my central idea of individuality and natural beauty. So far, I

have started making posters and advertisements by changing the facial appearance of celebrities

on existing magazines, and advertisings into natural and authentic Asian appearance as the next

prototype to affect them from their incentive. I plan to create a comprehensive campaign and

branding next semester including logo, slogans and etc. I think the Internet will be the best

platform for me to present my ideas and projects, and I’ll keep collecting feedbacks from China

and finding the best solution for my thesis problem.


18

Glossary:

A difference ⎯ If my project can change people’s beauty decisions and values, I can make a

difference on such serious beauty issue, and Chinese girls will get a lifetime-long benefit.

Re-realization ⎯ This is the central purpose of my thesis that I want my audience to realize

their unique natural beauty and the misleading trend of overdoing makeup and plastic surgery.

Beauty Standard ⎯ This is the driving force of women’s extreme decisions, and my research

will prove my audience that there isn’t a single standard can measure women’s facial prettiness.

Chinese Youth ⎯ This refers to my target audience. Chinese youth are my peers and I have

experienced the boom of plastic surgery with them in real life.

Feedback/Reaction ⎯ The direction and success of my thesis project majorly depends on my

audience’s feedback and reaction. This refers to how I will form the final outcome of my thesis.

Individuality ⎯ This is the key point of what I want my audience to realize. My thesis project

will make them recognize its importance as their true beauty.

Media ⎯ This refers to women’s incentive of changing themselves. Media decides how women

should look like; however, it’s unreachable standard made women feel worse about their natural

facial appearance so that my project has to challenge its misleading beauty standard.

Self-evaluation ⎯ This refers to one of my major concerns of my thesis issue. Asian women are

degrading their natural appearance and Asian identity while doing massive plastic surgeries.


19

Bibliography

Bashour, Mounir. “History and Current Concepts in the Analysis of Facial Attractiveness” Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery 118, no.3, Sept 1, 2006, 741-756.

Biller, Jason and Kim, David. “Contemporary Assessment of Facial Aesthetic Preferences”. Arch

Facial Plast Surg 11, no.2, 2009, 91-97. Chin, Evans P, and McConnell, A.R, “Self and Identity”, Psychology Press 2, no. 2, April-June

2003, 153-167. Cunningham, Michael R. “Measuring the physical in physical attractiveness: Quasi-experiments

on the sociobiology of female facial beauty”, Personality and Social Psychology 50, no.5, May 1986, 925-935.

Dobke, Marek, Chung, Christopher and Takabe, Kazuaki. “Facial Aesthetic Preferences Among

Asian Women: Are All Oriental Asians the Same?”, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 30, no. 3, 342-347.

Grammer, Karl, and Oberzaucher, Elisabeth. “Our Preferences: Why We Like What We Like”,

Essential Building Blocks of Human Nature, The Frontiers Collection, 2011, 95-108. Huang, Andrew. “Doll Face”, 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6hNj1uOkY. Kobrin, Sandy. “Asian-Americans Criticize Eyelid Surgery Craze”, Womensenews, August 15,

2004. http://www.womensenews.org/story/health/040815/asian-americans-criticize-eyelid-surgery-craze.

Marquardt, Stephen R. “Marquardt’s Beauty Analysis”.

http://www.beautyanalysis.com/index2_mba.htm. Papeteri, Angalo. “Beauty Kit”. Youtube, 2005.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXPzZUtAnW4.

Thesis 1 Final Paper

Documents

ideal asian beauty

east asian women

young women re

western beauty

natural beauty

ideal beauty standard

current beauty standards

professional women