There are a lot of sites out there discussing the whole eyelid surgery/tape/glue thing, and a lot of material on YouTube. The comments people make on these YouTube videos are especially interesting to read, as they range really widely from extreme approval to heated disapproval.

First, here are some vids on how to use glue and a forked stick to create a fold in a monolid. This is a demonstration of a product available in Asia (I don’t know what’s going on with the sound in this one but it doesn’t seem synced with the pictures) and here is a young woman giving a makeup tutorial on how to use these products in English (one of the huge and growing number of makeup tutorials on YouTube, as you may remember from class.) Warning: if you watch these right before going to bed you may have weird dreams about poking yourself  in the eye, like I did.

Next, here is a segment from the Tyra Banks show where she interviews a young Asian American woman who had eyelid surgery.It’s interesting that Tyra Banks won’t believe her guest’s reasons for choosing eyelid surgery, but I’ve never seen her question people’s reasons for wearing makeup or dieting, for example. Certain practices get to be labeled your real desires while others basically get you called untruthful or self-deceptive —- Adorno’s theory of the dupes of mass culture, reinvented.

And just for fun, in case you wanted to see the makeup artist imsnowkei’s designs again, they are here.

Somewhat related to the topic of eyelid alterations would be a fashion style that has not really migrated over to America from Asia (at least not yet): Ulzzang. Translated roughly as “famous face,” Ulzzangs are currently the subject of a lot of cultural anxiety and disapproval in many parts of Asia, although I’m not sure these people are enough of a community to count as a subculture.

The Ulzzang look is supposed to replicate the look of an anime character or the “dolly eye,” which is achieved by wearing contacts that make your pupils look huge and round along with lots of makeup, careful lighting, and Photoshop. The result reminds me a lot more of an alien or E.T. than a doll, but it is certainly striking. (And I think I’ve seen Lady Gaga wearing the circle contacts in some of her videos — maybe it’s just a matter of time before it reaches the U.S.)

Here is a website for all your Ulzzang makeup and contact needs, along with lots of pictures, while this tutorial tells you how to get that look and this web site has some really interesting before and after photos. What interests me is that the girls posing actually change how they hold their  faces — by dropping their jaws open, lowering their heads, or pressing a finger into their lip or chin — to further diminish the lower half of their faces, making their eyes and foreheads seem even bigger. In one tutorial I watched that demonstrated the “puppy eye,” the young woman kept puffing her cheeks out with a little huffing noise each time she checked herself in the mirror to see how the look was coming along.  Fascinating! I always think of my face as just sitting there when I am not doing anything in particular (when I think about my face at all). I wonder if I would hold my face differently “at rest” if I were born in a different place or time?