The Invisible Eye: Portraying the Hidden Ubiquitous Face

Western beauty standards have taught Asians that they are ugly. Their lack of representation in the media has taught Asians that they cannot be heroes, they are rarely main characters in movies. When Hollywood takes stories from Asia, or real-life stories with Asian main characters, they thrust these Asian characters on the side as minor characters and replace them with white ones. We make up the largest population of people on the planet. 

But looking at the TV, books, movies, newspapers, magazines, and comic books, you would never guess it. We are nowhere within those pages. You will have to scour the internet to find us. They have hidden us well. They have even caused us to hide ourselves.

Who am I? I am less beautiful than Caucasians because my eyes are small and narrow. My hair is only born one color: dark brown, so dark it appears black. It is the opposite of the ideal feminine blonde. (Blondes have the most fun you know.) My nose is big. My body is short. My breasts are small. My eyes are only made one color: brown.

But these are all mistakes. With hard, diligent work, time, effort, and money, they can be fixed. Dyed hair, highlights, thick eyeliner, layers upon layers of mascara, fake eyelashes, colored eye contacts, contacts that make your eyes look bigger, eyelid tape. With the right amount of self-hatred and betrayal of everything that defines who I naturally am, I can be loved. I can be adored. I can even be told that I am “beautiful”.

But no matter how much money I spend on cosmetics, on hair dyes and perms, even on plastic surgery, I can never love who I truly am. I will never be told that I am beautiful. 

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(And they all tell us every day: it’s okay.
Being Asian can be fixed.)