The Phenomenon Beyond Cosmetic Surgery—Sexism in China

In recent year, there are numerous Chinese young women join the trend of having cosmetic surgery on their face and body. I have been witnessing many of my female friends from elementary school to undergraduate school either starting to think of making “adjustment” or already addicted to Botox, even my aunt who I think having a perfectly normal not over-weighting figure discussing liposuction constantly. You can always tell women who are recovering from plastic surgery and injected too much Botox on their face when walking on the street. Looking at those “failures” with unsubtle procedures, other women would point at them and call them “plastic face” or “fake face” while blaming their male friends cannot figure out those women are "unnatural."  However, discussing which cosmetic surgeries should they do, and which celebrities or friends of them had good or bad surgeries becomes a common topic, or you could say a game for ladies’ leisure time. It seems twisted while laughing at those who did it wrong, but also being jealous of and wishing to join in who did it right. When I am looking in the mirror and starting to consider using filler on my jawline, I suddenly felt scared. I always portrait myself as an independent human being who is proud and not willing to discard my pride in this secular world. I feel contaminated. Reflecting on myself, I believe the root of my behavior and millions of other women who like me their behavior is lack of self-confidence for our appearance, which is under the overarching oppression——sexism.

According to the Reading for Diversity and Social Justice, our society is being formed by social categories, which “are at the foundation of the structural inequalities present in our society. In each category, there is one group of people, deemed superior, legitimate, dominant, and privileged while others are relegated… to the position of inferior, illegitimate, subordinate, and disadvantaged” (Adams, Castańeda, Hackman, Peters, & Zúńiga, 2013, 2013, p. 12). Sadly, men and women are not living in a harmonious society in which the patriarchic ideology dominants. Since Confucianism prominent in ancient culture, it has been used to shackle women, their mind, and souls. For example, the three laws about obedience for women include obeying your father before your marriage, obeying your husband during marriage, and obeying your son after your husband dies. It vividly portraited that women in all class and all social background being subdominant group comparing to all men. Although the time has passed from the age of slavery, China is still prominent with male supremacists.

In this modern society, viewing the social media contents and feedbacks from the viewers, you could gain a comprehensive snapshot of the societal ideology. People are often judging the appearance of women celebrities about their weight, new nose job, and forehead injection, comparing to their wisdom and abilities. By reading the contents, all the people seem are experts to tell who did it. There are always new standards made to judge the appearance of women spreading like ice bucket challenge on social media, and many women would willingly join and being proud of their body, such as the waist of a goddess should be able to be covered by the shorter side of an A4 paper, and the little triangle pocket formed between the levator scapulae and collarbone should be able to put at least five coins or keep a goldfish with little water. The comments of men using sexually teasing words are like power glaze making women who participate feel empowered and recognized. Editors and writers profit from the views thus would generate more similar contents. It’s like an unhealthy cycle poisoning the mind of the public. Picturing a teenager girl who is perfectly healthy exposing to those competitions online every day, if she couldn’t fulfill those “standards” and being teased in front of all class, would she become lack of confidence or even develop hatred to her appearance?

If you think those "man-made" rules existed to serve the pleasure of male is just for people’s amusement, a whole economy based on sexism might able to demonstrate the significance of women oppression——the online celebrity economies. It is a newly prominent economy that seems inspirational, which shows that all women despite her upcoming, if you are talented, such as you could sing and dance, could earn three or four times of celeries of a middle class for a month in a few days. They do live show with their web cameras to chat or perform to audiences visit them online. Most hosts are women, and viewers are men. Hosts could earn lucrative profits on the platform by receiving gifts bought with money sent by their fans. To stimulate the viewers to send more presents, some hosts would wear exposed clothes or dance erotically. A significant number of them are addicted to cosmetic surgeries to become more competitive in the market because there are always prettier and younger women waiting in line to become the next big star in this world. It is not to say that the platform of live shows is an entirely decadent, it is a disruptive technology that could be far more than becoming a victim of propagating sexism ideology and spreading wrong messages to the public.

The power of media is scary, yet the world is earning money from the insecurity of women. Same as the fashion industry, dreamy diamonds on Victoria's Secret fantasy bras makes women feel shameful of their appearances when looking at those skinny angels on stage with perfect proportion and sweet looks. And when doing make-up and diets are no longer satisfying. Cosmetic surgery becomes the next option. Start with a Botox, but it might develop to an unhealthy addiction to seeking beauty outside of a hollowed soul. Profit-driven companies, add more firewood to this woman unprivileged society.

Lacking a positive exemplar of the government, the winter for women might last longer. It is a commonly accepted that China is a highly centralized country that strictly controlled public opinion. It seems it couldn't be less sensitive to female oppression. The Spring Festival Eve’s CCTV gala is the most significant show in China played during the most crucial time of the year when family united together to celebrate the New Year. It is being played on the most official channel, curated under lairs of scrutiny of contents, and supposed to spread the core ideology of China mainstream value. Nevertheless, during 2016, it showed a horrible sexism sketch that supposed to be a comedy. 690 millions of Chinese were viewing it, from the young to the old, from men to women. The disturbing sketch is called "Goodness" and "Masculine Woman," which are two labels born on the internet to describe two types of women. They are trending words starting that year. It is understandable that the show wanted to add something trendy to make it interesting and relatable, yet the content used was disturbing. Two actresses performed in the show: one is the representation of a goddess, and another is the "woman." The former is skinny, beautiful, young, elegant, and loved by men; the latter is ample-bodied, gluttonous, acting as an ordinary people, yet being treated like a fool by men for her unfeminine appearance and behaviors. When I was watching the show with my family and relatives, I couldn’t bear to hear them laughing at the poor girl. I felt angry and sad for their ignorance and unaware and disappointed to the government. I genuinely felt that even awareness is an issue for the public to know the existence of oppression. I searched to find allies online, and gratefully I did see others who feels the same. Unfortunately, those sounds of justice quickly being blocked by the government, because it could not stand for people to doubt their governance.

Under the social influence, many men sincerely accept the role and enjoy the privileges the society given unconsciously yet the righteous is hard to spread. They started to believe that “girls and women’s bodies are objects for others visually consume” (Heldman, n.d., p. 346). Oppressive beliefs are internalized by perpetrators as well as women who are victims of sexist (Adams, Castańeda, Hackman, Peters, & Zúńiga, 2013, p. 23). “Internalized subordination refers to ways in which the oppressed collude with their oppression" (Adams, Castańeda, Hackman, Peters, & Zúńiga, 2013, p. 32). Many women, for example, the hosts of live web shows, self-objectify as the subordinate of men. Conscious collusion occurs to women see fitting in beauty standards as a realistic unchangeable rule they must obey to survive, thus keep quiet. Unconscious collusion occurs to women blame herself for being overweight when being cheated by her lover. Either way, oppression towards women actively interfered the self-development and self-determination.

This psychological colonization formed a Cycle of Socialization and being normalized (Adams, Castańeda, Hackman, Peters, & Zúńiga, 2013, p. 46). Recall the childhood of a girl, in the beginning, she wore snickers and running around to explore the world like any other boys and dreamed of becoming a zoologist.  Then she became teenagers who would be teased by other classmates for their chests shaking when running like she used to. Her authoritative teacher fat-shamed her in public. Her self-confidence started to shatter when not only her school but also her relatives told her to obey the rules that her value is based on their light-weight and sweet young look. Seeing the commercials and films on the screen, and viewing the magazine and blogger talking about womanhood, she started to do makeup every day and trying to be sexy. With her high-heels and tiny jeans, she could never run whenever she wants to like her used to be. And then, she finally being applauded for becoming a real lady.

Some might say feminism, “a movement to end sexist oppression” (Hooks, n.d., p. 340), is the horn wakening the unconscious leading by the change agents and supported by the allies. I worry the sound is not strong enough to break the cycle of sexism. Hinders are pulling our ankles, and the world seems determined to smoothen our edges. Hope shined through the cloudy sky. In the summer of 2017, the internet did something right. The word Zhinan Ai created by netizens and resonating with many was being documented on the Chinese most giant online encyclopedia. It could be translated to Straight Man Cancer, describing patriarchic male chauvinists who objectify women and using fixed sexism standards to require women to depress their needs, yet to fulfill their desires. Women using the notion, as a rule, to measure male around them started to see the pattern and similarity between their experience. In China, words such as feminism, female oppression, and sexism haven’t been popularized, but the dots will be connected soon. Then we will be one step closer to the equal platonic society we all dreamed of.