[Lady Dragonfly]

Most of us want to look nice. But I could never understand public's fascination with artificial plastic "beauty". All this dyed dead "blonde" hair full of sticky mousse and styling gel, current "Is she on meds?"-style haircuts, look-alike makeup-plastered faces and even bodies, and augmented breasts. But the enthralling Vanity Fair has yet another ugly aspect.
Marie Claire magazine published some peculiar facts regarding cosmetic surgery -- what some women do to look Western (preventive strike: no, I don't read any "beauty" or "celebrity" magazines; I've read this article on MSN ).
Here are a few snippets:

Around the world, the desire for pert features, pin-straight hair, and a willowy physique — those dubious emblems of American beauty and success — is driving a multibillion-dollar industry.

From eyelid surgery to leg-lengthening and calf-narrowing, it seems there is little some women won't do to achieve that iconic look.

Double-eyelid surgery (aka Asian blepharoplasty). Cost: $2500 to $5000.
About 50 percent of Pacific Asians do not have an upper-eyelid crease. For those who do, the crease falls about 7 mm above the lashline, whereas for Caucasians, the crease falls about 11 mm above it.
Almost 300,000 Asians in the U.S. had the surgery in 2006.

Calf reduction. Cost: About $2800
Most popular in South Korea, but gaining popularity all over Asia; it has yet to make its way to the U.S. In general, Asian women have shorter legs and thicker calves than Caucasian women. These features are thought to be unsightly in their culture (some refer to them as "radish legs").
Risks: Excessive bleeding, shapeless legs.

Leg lengthening. Cost: $15,000 to $25,000
The Chinese are so height-conscious, jobs and even schools often post height requirements. To apply for the foreign ministry, women must be 5'3" (the national average), whereas flight attendants must be at least 5'5". As a result, being tall — or short — can have a direct impact on one's livelihood.
Risk: Horror stories include misshapen legs, feet that splay outward, and bones that never heal properly and break easily.

In the past five years, the number of plastic surgeries performed on minorities jumped 65 percent — compared with an increase of 38 percent for the overall population. Why the spike in minority candidates? Higher incomes and access to a wider range of ethnic-specific techniques.

In an attempt to preserve traditional Eastern looks, plastic surgery was banned in China until 2001. Now, it's a $2.4-billion-a-year business. Add Japan, which spends $18.4 million on plastic surgery annually, and India, where cosmetic surgery has experienced a 15 percent growth in the past three years, and Asia is now the world's second-largest plastic-surgery hub. The U.S. is still in the lead, with its whopping $8.4 billion industry.

Unlike the rhinoplasties performed on Caucasians (often to straighten a bridge or remove a bump), nose reshaping for minorities generally leads to narrower nostrils, a higher bridge, and a pointier tip — shapes typical of white noses.

While only about 2 percent of the world population is born blonde, the rest are still going for gold:
34% of the hair dye sold in the U.S. last year was blonde.
80% of Koreans in their 20s lighten their hair.

Bizarre, isn't it?