Julie Chen’s Surgery To Look Less Chinese, Self Hate or Necessary For Her Career?

Last week we talked about why black women wore weave and the misconception that every black woman who wore weave hated herself and wanted to be European. Then I come across the story of Julie Chen, news anchor and co-host of The Talk. Over the course of the week the cast had been spilling some of their deepest and darkest secrets. When it came to Julie’s turn, her secret was rather shocking. Julie admitted that when she was just 25 years old she got plastic surgery to make her eyes appear larger and to look less chinese. Her reasoning? The advancement of her career.

“My secret dates back to—my heart is racing—it dates back to when I was 25 years old and I was working as a local news reporter in Dayton, Ohio,” she said. “I asked my news director [if] over the holidays, if anchors want to take vacations, could I fill in? And he said, ‘You will never be on this anchor desk, because you’re Chinese.'”

“He said, ‘Let’s face it Julie, how relatable are you to our community? How big of an Asian community do we have in Dayton?'” she recalled. “‘On top of that, because of your Asian eyes, I’ve noticed that when you’re on camera, you look disinterested and bored.'”

“Well, fast forward, I’m like I need to get another job—if I can—so I start meeting with agents for career advice,” she said. “This one big-time agent basically told me the same thing. He said, ‘I cannot represent you unless you get plastic surgery to make your eyes look bigger.”

Chen discussed it with her parents and they gave her their blessing. She went under the knife and got the procedure done. 

“And after I had it done, the ball did roll for me,” she said. “And I wondered, did I give in to the man?”

“I have to live with every decision that I’ve made,” she said. “And it got me to where we are today. And I’m not going to look back.” Julie goes on to say that there is no one more proud of her Chinese heritage than she is.

Okay, so this takes me back to black women not wearing their natural hair at the work place so that they can advance in their career, society, or whatever the case may be. Wearing a weave is nowhere near as drastic as going under the knife but do you think people ask Julie if she is trying to appear more Caucasian? Do you think people tell her that she hates her self and her heritage? Maybe they say she did what she had to do to get ahead, and it worked for her.

You can chop your eye lids off for career advancement but I can’t wear a weave for convenience? I think that men have got to understand that they are NOT women and under no circumstances do they have to deal with what we have to deal with in the work place or in society. Your preference in our look is appreciated, but we don’t owe anything to you.