The Duty to Transform: Properly Refining the Body and (Re)defining Oneself in Thailand

ABSTRACT

Current analyses of Asian cosmetic surgery and other beautification practices assess their use for economic gain (e.g., increasing chances of gaining employment when photos are required with applications) or improving one’s luck (e.g., removing features that are likely to make one’s life more difficult). However, my research in Thailand details broader concerns about being riap-roi (neat, orderly, completed and properly groomed). That is, rather than being merely “cosmetic”, these transformations address broad moral concerns about face, expressing appropriate social status, and the management of social interactions. Additionally, these body practices are also increasingly keyed to Korean and Japanese beauty ideals. The desire to look “white Asian” seeks to mould the self and the Thai nation in the context of a newly regionalised and racialised developed East Asia.

KEYWORDS:

• Beauty
• cosmetic surgery
• social status
• face
• gay men
• Thailand
• inter-Asia

Notes

1. Attractiveness has also been shown to be related to employment outcomes in the US (Hosoda et al., 2003), as have other factors such as race and gender.

2. The author is a Korean queer male educated in the US.

3. Heterosexual men were less direct about ethnicity, but often stated that they thought Korean women were the most beautiful. Trans women and lesbians (tom-dee) were less likely to refer to ethnic differences, although the former preferred foreigners while the latter assumed their partners would be local Thais.

4. A related slang word is fin, from the English “finished”. The term can be used in many contexts – for example, when trans women have vaginoplasty and consider themselves “complete” women.

5. Sinnott (2004) describes toms, masculine women attracted to gender-normative women, as having to take care of their partners financially, emotionally and sexually. Sinnott likens this to “service”, or the care work generally expected of women.

6. There are many parallels here to Korean practices. I was familiar with the mole cauterisation equipment as my parents had bought a device in Seoul. I once watched my father remove spots from his cheek. The smell of burning flesh did not entice me to participate. My father also applies extra-strength Hydrocortisone, which is yak (“medicine”) not hwajangpum (“cosmetic”), to lighten the skin on his face. My mother only uses the “fair” (lightest) colour of foundation and wears wide-brimmed hats. My sister invests in high-end lightening cosmetics. Korean friends often have laser treatments with annual touch-ups to remove skin discoloration. However, Thais seemed more obsessive about whiteness.

7. This mall is likely named after Paragon on Orchard Road, Singapore’s most famous shopping street.

8. Gay bars are a distinctly middle-class phenomenon. Poor LGBT+ people go to Thai bars. High-end bars tend to be mixed.

9. Buddhists will often say that every individual has already been every gender in a past life.

10. Skin lightening procedures are often difficult to represent online, as the lightening of photos is common and apps that “enhance” or “beautify” face pics tend to automatically lighten the skin.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [0823639] and Wenner-Gren Foundation [6-39464].