Julie Chen is (apparently) famous. The 43-year-old Queens native hosts the CBS reality TV show Big Brother (which we’ve never watched) and is a co-host of the daytime dishfest The Talk (which we’ve never watched). She’s also married to Leslie Moonves, CBS’ president and CEO.
Why do we care? We don’t really, although Chen made news this week by confessing to her fellow babblers on The Talk that she underwent “eye widening” surgery years ago in an effort to make herself appear less Asian (Chen’s father is Chinese, her mother Burmese-Chinese).
In the late 1990s, Chen was a newsanchor at WDTN-TV in Dayton, Ohio. During her tenure, she was allegedly told by a producer that her “Asian eyes” were holding her back.
“You will never be on this anchor desk, because you’re Chinese,” she claims the producer told her. “Because of your heritage, because of your Asian eyes, I’ve noticed that when you’re on camera, when you’re interviewing someone you look disinterested and bored because your eyes are so heavy, they are so small.”
So Chen underwent surgery to “Westernize” her eyes.
“I will say, after I had that done, the ball did roll for me,” Chen told her fellow hosts. “Which I struggle with. You know, wow. Did I give in to ‘the man’ and do this?”
Of course Chen also maintains that “no one’s more proud of being Chinese than I am.”
Liberal website Slate is onboard with all of this, of course …
“You could argue that Chen sacrificed one part of herself to save another; that she ultimately achieved a platform from which she could advance our conversations about race more effectively than if she’d remained obscure,” the website notes.
Really? Connie Chung was kicking ass and taking names at the national level around the same time Chen was battling her insecurities in Dayton.
But hey … let’s all hate on some white people and have another “teachable moment” on race relations, mmmm-kay?
Sheesh …
14 comments
Yep Yep. I used to watch Connie coming up. Cal played a lot of commercials on that station as I recall.
…the CBS reality TV show Big Brother (which we’ve never watched)…
You’ve got this backwards, Will. Big Brother watches YOU.
Big Brother watches you watching Big Brother?
It’s her story, she has a right to tell it. But Slate is using it to reinforce their bias. I guess they have nothing better to do.
There is no way to tell what would have happened with her had she not had the surgery. Just like with the fork in the road decision you know what happened on the road you took but you can not possibly know what would have happened on the other fork. People that say “if I had left the house 5 minutes sooner I would have been in that accident” have the same weakness of argument. Thousands, if not more, decisions culminated in the people being at the accident at the time it happened and any discussion about what might have changed it is purely conjecture and most likely WRONG.
The only “teachable moment” on race is that no matter the race, hard work pays off, and it helps to be pretty.
Wait… WHAT?
TBG just moved 70 miles because he saw where 80% of all car accidents happen within 10 miles of home.
“You could argue that Chen sacrificed one part of herself to save
another; that she ultimately achieved a platform from which she could
advance our conversations about race more effectively than if she’d
remained obscure,”
“Let me tell you about the time that Rosa Parks got tired of having to ride in the back of the bus because she was black, so she went and got skin whitening treatments until she could pass for a white person and sit at the front.”
Yeah, that’s not quite so inspiring.
Tags: Julie Chen, CBS, CBS News, The View, No matter how successful/rich people are– they still bitch, Yellow People, Les Moonves, cosmetic surgery, Trisha Takanawa, Big Brother, Westernize, Western eyes.
As a magenta person, I’m grateful that you included a people of color, but I still feel left out.
If Julie Chen was actually watching many of the posters on this website, chances are she would not have had to have had surgery to widen her eyes…
I’d hump her till her eyes stay round permanently.
Bada Bing!
fits is gay
So slightly adjusting her eyelids was the most significant factor in her success? I’m sure marrying CBS President Les Moonves had virtually no impact by comparison.
Married to CBS president and CEO. That explains a lot about getting the ball rolling.