Pointy Noses

Pretty much every race of people share a common physical trait that they are generally not content with. For example, a lot of white people don't really like being pale so they tan a lot in order to darken their skin. Indonesians, on the other hand, don't like being brown, so they use lotions with chemical whiteners and carry umbrellas in the sun. Koreans don't like having straight black hair, so a LOT of Koreans get perms and dye their hair (even the men!). Also, it's not uncommon to have eye surgery in order to change the shape of the eyes and to create a folded eyelid. One day while I was riding the subway in Korea, I even saw an advertisement for a hospital offering facial extension surgeries - to move out the cheekbones and upper jaw so that the face wouldn't be so flat! It wasn't until that point in my life that I even realized that Asians have flatter faces than Westerners. 

As a bule (white person) living in Indonesia, I often hear people marveling about my physical features that they wish they had. This list includes:

• My pointy nose
• My small ears
• My curly, brown hair
• My big eyes
• My blue eyes
• My white skin (though I'm darker than a lot of Indonesians!)
• My arm hair
• My thick eyebrows

Once, when a friend of mine was pregnant, she told me that she hoped her child would have a pointy nose like mine! On multiple occasions, I've had Indonesian men come up to me and ask if they can feel my arm hair. It's also not uncommon to find people touching my hair or to hear people talking about my eyes. Things I've never even thought about before are things that other races are envious of!

Sometimes I think it is a little crazy the extent Indonesians will go to to try to look more western. They buy color contact lenses and bleach their hair. They draw in bigger eyebrows with black pencils, and some women will actually get eyebrows tattooed on! A lot of times, I see old women who have damaged skin from so many years of using chemical whiteners. 

But when I saw this little device online this week, I thought, "Well, this one takes the cake". It is basically a nose clip that promises a pointier nose after just 2 weeks of wearing it 5 - 15 minutes a day!