Boston University’s Asian Student Union addressed the growing trend of cosmetic surgeries in the Asian American community by screening Regina Park’s documentary “Never Perfect” in the Photonics Center on Thursday.
The documentary primarily follows the story of Mai-Anh, a Vietnamese woman from California, who dealt with this skewed perception of beauty as she tried to assimilate into American culture.
Mai-Anh and other women of other cultural background struggled to connect their native culture and American culture.
ASU vice president and School of Management junior Fang Yuan first saw “Never Perfect” at a workshop at this year’s Boston Asian American Student Intercollegiate Conference.
“I would have loved to see more people attend this because I believe almost every Asian American, or just anyone who is dissatisfied with their looks can relate to the issues presented in the film,” Yuan said.
“I chose to screen it because more and more this is becoming a popular procedure for Asian American females.”
Mai Anh, 27, battled with the decision of getting double eyelid surgery, a procedure that essentially enlarges one’s eyes by creating another eyelid, changing one’s perceived ethnicity.
The documentary noted that people associate bigger eyes with beauty and certain personality traits of expressiveness.
“When I speak to my friends, nearly all know of someone who has gotten this surgery done,” Yuan said. “This is amazing to me because I am a firm believer of being who you are and being proud of that heritage.”
Mai-Anh altered several of her features including dying her hair, but she was still unsatisfied with her appearance.
Her main motivation for her surgeries came from her mother, who pressured her to get the surgery and always be conscious of maintaining her beauty.
ASU treasurer and College of Arts and Science and College of Engineering sophomore Jessica Alexandria said she thinks “Never Perfect” captures the history and family pressures that cause many Asian females to feel the need to alter their appearance.
“‘Never Perfect’ is not only a documentary about Asian American female. It is a ‘model’ of the world,” Alexandria said. “People are constantly unsatisfied with what they have regardless of their ethnicity that may be caused by social pressure, family or environment.”
The film goes on to discuss American perspectives of Asian culture. The documentary noted that Asian women in the media are typically depicted with an exotic sexuality or a sense of empowerment.
Plastic surgeons and make-up artists who were interviewed in the film said that they are not in the business of taking away a person’s ethnicity, just enhancing it.
College of Communication junior and ASU secretary Connie Tang said that ASU had another movie screening last year of “Children of Invention” that focused on Asian American families.
“It was really exciting because this film was at the Sundance Film Festival and the director actually showed up,” Tang said. “It was nice that he came and stayed afterwards to have a discussion with the group.”
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