One of the first things I noticed when I first arrived in Vietnam is how all the women are covered from head to toe…when it is scalding outside! This initial observation led to my interest in the perceptions of beauty in Vietnam and how they are different from those of the U.S. I am now doing some research of my own in the hopes of understanding the views of beauty and how globalization has influenced these beauty standards.
First, I have been conducting interviews regarding what the general and common ideals of beauty are. From what people are telling me from these interviews, I have been looking at general advertisements around malls and in magazines to see if and how portrayals in media reinforce Vietnamese standards of beauty. Along with this, I am exploring the world of cosmetic surgery in Vietnam. I have been examining the websites of cosmetic surgery clinics around Ho Chi Minh City and learning about what the most common procedures are. I plan on going undercover and visiting a couple of these clinics as a potential client and casually asking the doctors what procedures they think I should do. From what I’ve gathered, cosmetic surgery clinics are most common in districts 1, 3, 5, and 10. I will take a simple random sample of two or three clinics from each district and go see what pictures or advertisements are used to lure potential clients.
I am having a lot of fun doing research and am actually discovering things that I did not expect to find. Originally, I thought that Vietnamese people were only trying to become more “western” or “white” by achieving fair skin and certain features, like a pointy nose, that are common in Caucasians. With the presence of American media in Vietnam, such a conclusion made sense. However, the more time that I’ve spent here and the more I actually pay attention to advertisements and how beauty is portrayed everywhere, I am learning that beauty ideals are moving towards Korean features. In fact, most cosmetic surgery places use Korean models and emphasize Korean features. What I want to know is why Koreans and what significance does it have that the Vietnamese are looking up to Koreans now instead of Westerners.