The teenager takes a seat. Sufficient motivation has driven this young Chinese thing—hardly eighteen—to sit facing Dr. Leow Aik Ming at his clinic in Ipoh. “I want to look more like those Korean superstars,” says Leow’s potential client. Depending on the patient, a blepharoplasty(surgical repair or reconstruction of the eyelid) and augmentation rhinoplasty (plastic surgery of the nose) are in order to achieve this effect. The former procedure removes fat and tissue in the eyelid to create double eyelids, and the latter augments the nose bridge. After explaining this, Leow needs to make sure that his potential client is a good candidate for surgery. Sitting across from him, Leow already knows that this patient can’t wait to get the technique done.
Sometimes, the yearning isn’t as benign as one hopes. In some cases, affluent parents push their children to undergo plastic surgeries to improve their looks. Leow makes sure this isn’t the case. Motivation:checked. Then he assesses the mental and physical health of his patient, and makes sure that realistic expectations are set prior to the operation. Health and expectations: checked. This request to look like another ethnic group hardly registers as a shock to Leow. Neither does it conflict with the psyche of this adolescent who’s more than willing to go under the knife—this adolescent who, by the way, is a boy. Far be it that only girls and women are concerned with appearances, as men these days have also opted to adopt regional trends to the extent of surgically changing their appearance. In this case, the motivation can be traced almost three thousand miles away to the region’s burgeoning media powerhouse, South Korea.
The South Korean wave, hallyu, is the term used to refer to the spread of its culture and easy adoption by adoring fans the world over. It is spurred
on by its seemingly never-ending soaps, and many male and female super-groups which, in turn, have significantly benefitted the South Korean tourism industry and the country’s ‘soft power’. Its male superstars are well-known and liked by many, and are also unabashedly androgynous. But this isn’t unique to South Korea. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan also have their fair share of androgynous male stars, and it’s difficult to pinpoint which culture was the original source.
Writing for the International Institute of Asian Studies on Korean male stars, Roald Maliangkay of the Australian National University observes that “despite their often chiselled physiques, the men use foundation and lip gloss, pluck their eyebrows, wear longish, wavy hairstyles, combine white garments with brightly coloured accessories, and generally present themselves both verbally and nonverbally in a soft and gracious, arguably vain fashion that, until recently, would have been neither common nor socially accepted.” The emergence of such trends has garnered a new term for these stars, kkonminam, a portmanteau of the words ‘kkot’, meaning flower, and ‘minam’, meaning handsome man. Interestingly, the author observes that such kkonminam are themselves a result of cosmetic surgeries where their “often surgically ‘improved’ faces” were used in ads for fashion and cosmetic products across the region—and in some of these ads, the use of hair bands and eyeliner by men are considered normal.
Kkonminam aside, former President Roh Moohyun also opted to undergo eyelid surgery in 2005. Maliangkay explains that good looks are considered a marker of success in Korea, obviously extending to superstars and politicians alike. The kkonminam phenomenon finds its underpinnings in societal pressures and female-male dynamics in which the role of men has changed considerably in the Korean culture, resulting in the creation of a new archetype of the modern South Korean male. Nonetheless, such nonchalance to scalpels and surgeries amongst these young males is the exception rather than the rule. In other age groups, the motivations are different. However, what remains obvious to those in the cosmetic surgery industry is that the number of men seeking surgeries to improve their appearances is on the rise.
Back in his clinic in Ipoh, Leow also sees men of different ages who want different things. His male clientele can be dissected into three groups: the younger clients, aged seventeen to twenty-five who respond to trends like the aforementioned Koreanophile; the professionals aged twenty-five to fortyfive who are looking to improve their appearances, usually for job prospects; the senior citizens, aged fifty and above, who want to improve their quality of life through corrective surgeries to treat drooping eyelids and a host of skin ailments. Easy access to medical information on the Internet has given men the opportunity to conduct a lot of pre-operation investigation of their own, aiding them in their motivation and confidence to undergo such surgeries. Advances in medical know-how and tools have, it seems, created a world where a fix is available for every aesthetic desire. Case in point, Leow is able to cut facial bones and contour his client’s face or even mould customised silicone implants that’s a perfect match for his client’s rhinoplasty. It wouldn’t hurt a prospective patient to have lot of spare change as rhinoplasty sometimes comes with a four thousand ringgit price tag. The bill for liposuction treatments on the abdomen and flanks (the area between the armpit and the hipbone) can run up to twelve thousand ringgit. Yet, there’s more
that money can buy: cheek bone augmentation/reduction; jaw augmentation/reduction; periorbital and forehead surgery; ear surgery; fat grafting; Botox injections; surgery or treatment for body odour or hyperosmosis (excessive sweating); hair transplantation;bariatric surgery (weight reduction surgery); silicone implants in the chest, biceps, triceps,and calves.
Dr. Andrew Khoo, a consultant plastic surgeon at Singapore’s Mt. Elizabeth Medical Centre, believes that more men are taking to cosmetic surgeries because there’s a greater awareness that looks and presentation matters. As the standard of living improves, so does the average person prosper and is able to afford cosmetic surgery. The availability of better procedures with less down time is also encouraging factors. To date, about twenty-five percent of his patients are men. Khoo has had patients who are from middle-income groups such as fruit sellers, teachers, and sales staff, a testimony to the increase in the middle class’s disposable income as well as a heightened sense of self-image in the everyman.
On the flip side, Dr. Tan Ying Chien, a consultant plastic surgeon at the Sloane Clinic Plastic Surgery Centre, has seen his fair share of high-flyers like lawyers who come to remove their eye bags and reverse the tired look their clients often complain about, as well as businessmen who undergo liposuction to have a more attractive physique. “In today’s hectic, fast-paced lifestyle, most people simply do not have the time to really work on whatever part of their body it is that they are not entirely satisfied with. Instead, they turn to cosmetic surgeries for help. On the whole, men tend to prefer treatments that are quick and effective, and can see results without too much downtime,” explains Tan. It’s in this growing acceptance of cosmetic surgery amongst men that Singapore and Malaysia find common ground. Tan reaffirms the notion that traditional media and the Internet are powerful influences over trends and behaviour towards cosmetic surgery. According to him, the scenario in Singapore (as it is in Malaysia) is that the increasing popularity of media’s audio-visual representation of men and the use of metrosexual models in an increasing number of men’s magazines have helped to define concepts of beauty not only for women but also for men in Asia.
All three doctors report that straight men have broken the taboo of cosmetic surgery and frequently seek treatment. For Tan, a significant portion of his patients are in fact married professionals. There’s also a group of single and divorced men who want to project an image of vitality in order to attract potential mates. These doctors tell that the older male clients come to remove love handles and sagging abdomens, and regain their figures which they have lost over years of neglect. Singapore’s working professionals who want to look younger in order to remain competitive in the workforce opt to undergo cosmetic surgeries. They, too, believe that looking younger and healthier gives them a competitive advantage in making a sales deal, obtaining a promotion or securing a new job—just as their Malaysian counterparts. Maliangkay also reports that more than forty percent of youngsters of both genders in Korea desired plastic surgery, and that young men wanted to undergo surgery to improve their job prospects. The stories are the same across the region, crossing cultural and national boundaries. “Some question when does taking care of one’s appearance becomes vanity. Many of my patients equate undergoing these procedures to dressing well and having good grooming standards. As for confidence, I’ve seen many patients both male and female become more confident after they have undergone a procedure. This is like a man wearing a good suit and going to a job interview—it can be a boost to one’s confidence,” says Khoo. The modern American man, too, is warming up to the idea. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, there’s been an eightyeight percent increase in the number of men undergoing cosmetic surgeries from 1997 to 2010, and American men had more than three-quarters of a million procedures in 2010 alone. These times are a boon for aesthetic physicians and cosmetic surgeons. The image-conscious men of today have come to understand that there’s only so much that continuous exercise can achieve as the body’s fat distribution is determined by genetics. This is why they turn to surgery. It’s as if nature threw the gauntlet down and—not to be outdone by nature the industry comes up with something like VASER, a procedure that uses ultrasonic waves to emulsify stubborn fats such as those found in the thigh, abdomen or chest before extraction, minimal damage in tow. And then there’s the other darker side of cosmetic surgeries. There are some who have become psychologically conditioned to see themselves as imperfect regardless of their appearances, and desire to undergo surgery after surgery to fix what wasn’t broken in the first place. Such a condition is known as body dysmorphic disorder, the bane of every cosmetic surgeon.
“We have to spot and identify these patients and counsel them to avoid further destruction to their mental health,” says Tan. Nonetheless, Tan posits that the majority of those seeking plastic surgery are not vain and nor should they be concerned about being so. Rather, he says that they simply want to look their best and be as good as they can be even because of the way they look—a desire to fit in, and be viewed as healthy and attractive. While Malaysia is still growing as a destination for cosmetic surgeries, Singapore counts foreigners as forty percent of those who undergo cosmetic surgeries in the city state. Others who are on a tighter budget and don’t mind the language barrier usually head to Thailand, whereas those who come to Malaysia do so because of its competitive prices and local medical staff’s better fluency in English. Also, a good number of Malaysian surgeons such as Leow have been trained in universities in the U.K., U.S., and Australia, lending credibility to their work. Advancements in the quality of Malaysian cosmetic surgery industry have attracted eager Westerners, Australians, and a host of other medical tourists to
Malaysia to perform cosmetic surgeries, often saving several thousand dollars doing the procedure in Malaysia rather than at home. In response to such demands, enterprising locals have taken it upon themselves to furnish foreigners with attractive surgery packages that provide a complete arrival to- departure tour. These clients will be shuttled to a four-star hotel room that will host them during their stay and accommodate their downtime from the surgery or procedure. Stepping back from all this, one wonders where the average Malaysian man stands. There certainly isn’t a collective hysteria amongst Malaysian—or Asian—men to carve up their faces to look like Koreans, Caucasians or every ethnic group between Seoul and Alaska. Whether this is a passing trend, only time will tell. But this does show that this subculture has grown, stood up on its own two feet and is starting to make strides in society.
*-Featured in Esquire Magazine