Funny that song-ah-puhl was mentioned recently, because I have been thinking about this very thing lately. Our eye shape is undeniably a defining trait, and as we know all too well, favorite fodder for playground taunts from the young and old. Sigh. And the rampant eyelid surgeries and commentary all over the Internets seem to lean towards describing the epicanthal fold (from Wikipedia: a skin fold of the upper eyelid, from the nose to the inner side of the eyebrow, covering the inner corner of the eye) as a kind of "unfortunate feature", if not an all-out defect - like a medical condition to be corrected. And I say, RAAAAAAR!! to that. These are the eyes I was born with, the eyes of my mother and father and everyone that came before, and I've made up my mind, I'm keeping my baby, er, I mean eyelids.
Not too long ago, Mama Nabi did the whole gallery of women with whom she has been compared, and in a similar vein here's a gallery of gowajous single-lidded women. Like me, all these women have epicanthal folds to some degree. Some do have a double lid in that the skin that retracts when the eye is open folds over the eyeball instead of under (mine fold under), but the inner corner is covered by the fold. Besides this, and the general Asianness, that's probably the only thing I can claim having in common with any of them. But, I am proud to bear my Korean face. And these women posess the features I recognize in myself and all the generations of women (and men) in my family. So without further ado ...
I'm pleased that the idea of beauty is expanding to include faces (and eyes) like these. About damn time.
Smith Cho, actress from "Ping Pong Playa"
Anyway I think she's Korean. Who needs eyelid folds? Pshaw. I wish I looked this good ever.
Amerie, singer
Her mother is Korean. I admit I don't know her music. But not much else to say here, she's just beautiful.
Marié Digby, singer/songwriter
Not Korean, her mom is Japanese. But who the hell is fresher faced than her?
Okay, so those women are a little younger, of course they are going to be stunning. Here are some contemporaries ...
Lisa Ling, journalist
I think she's so lovely. Not Korean, but she married one!
And yeah, she's kray-jee, but I can't deny that Kimora Lee Simmons (part-Korean) has outrageous presence. She's wacky, so out of control and in control at the same time ... like a controlled uncontrolledness. And I love that of all her roles, she always emphasizes being a mom in her public persona. This may shock you (or not) but I actually think she's pretty awesome.
And my favorite of all these ladies, Suchin Pak from MTV News.
I just love her success story, and she has a poli sci degree from UC-Berkeley. She's beautiful, always on trend in a very smart way, and commands authority in her investigative reporting - a pretty girl you take seriously. I hope she never goes to E! Network or one of those god-awful shows like Extra or Star Access. She's only one year younger than me, but for some reason I have an image of her just starting out at MTV burned in my brain, like she'll never get older. Her parents must be so proud, I know I would be if I had a daughter like her someday. Hell, I'd just like to be her! Yes, there once was a time when I planned on and wanted to be in television. But life took me another way. So, I'll continue to live vicariously through Suchin Pak.
Photo credits: I'm really sorry but after some mad-style Google image searches I lost track of where these photos came from. If you happened to be the owner of one of these images, let me know in the comments and I will credit appropriately.
-- Carol
