How large a market are we talking about? Consider these statistics: in a survey conducted in 2011, 21 % of adults 18–30 in South Korea said they had had cosmetic surgery and 83 % said they had considered or planned cosmetic surgery in the next five years. Virtually all of these surgeries involve alterations to the epicanthal fold of the upper eye, a procedure that, according to sociologist Ju-nah Park, “is strongly associated, in visual-association tests, with European beauty standards.” In South and East Asia, according to a 2006 study by the Economist Intelligence Unit, nearly $3 billion USD is spent annually on products and procedures designed to lighten the skin — despite the fact that virtually all of these products have limited efficacy and some carry well-known health risks. According to HUE’s own analysis (Appendix A) the potential global market for VIT might eventually reach as high as $10–15 billion.
What are the ethical and legal issues involved? As with any emerging health technology, VIT poses a number of concerns that will inevitably arise once HUE makes its debut as a public entity. At the same time, we must be aware that, just as norms of beauty can vary widely among cultures, each culture holds distinct views about the limits of permissible body modification. These views and norms are also subject to increasingly rapid shifts and developments, due to the globalization of visual culture. HUE is invested in strategic development for cultural scalability. Drawing on the latest market research and sociological surveys, our sales force will be able to target products at an emerging consensus model of beauty in a highly homogeneous marketplace (Italy or South Korea) or offer a more customizable, customer-centered experience for customers in a more diverse, trend-driven market or submarket (Tokyo or Los Angeles).
At the same time, we intend to use partnerships in the medical and bioethical community to develop a rationale for Racial Dysphoria as a psychiatric diagnosis. Over time (particularly with inclusion in the DSM and other diagnostic authorities) this opens the possibility for VIT as a covered, insured condition, removing barriers to affordability throughout the industrialized world. This two-pronged approach will allow HUE to drive the market from both ends, as a provider of both residential complete identity transition (a process which takes at least a year) and discrete, targeted outpatient treatments where smaller modifications may produce the desired result.
Our corporate mission is to create value for our shareholders by offering consistent, high-quality results while aggressively expanding our customer base. We have been highly successful at attracting the seed capital that has brought us to this level. At this point we are looking for large-stake investors to help us expand our operations in Thailand and develop PR and customer service operations for the North American, European, Middle Eastern and East Asian markets. Interested investors should contact Martin Wilkinson at wilkinson@orchidgroup.com or 011-410-435-4567.
HUE is The World’s New Spectrum. Come grow with us.
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9
Where I started, Silpa says, was with the skin. Of course. Otherwise, how would I have gotten the idea, how would I have glimpsed it? Even as an impossibility?
He shakes the ice in his glass and stares up at the sky: a long band of violet clouds receding away from a smoggy peach-brown sunset. We’re on the roof: a long tiled deck that traverses the rear of the house, not visible from the street. Phran manning the barbecue, Martin and Julie-nah and myself stretched out on lounge chairs, Tariko hunched over his laptop, playing DJ.
I’ve spent nights with matches and knives leaning over ledges only two flights up
It was just a summer job, he says, working as a technician in my adviser’s lab. The research was on pigmentation disorders retrofabricated in mice. Vitiligo. Have you heard of it? White blotches on dark skin. Very damaging, in some cultures. Humiliating, shameful. Even worse than albinism. You’ll have babies being abandoned, men who can never marry. It’s an autoimmune condition — the immune system attacks the melanocytes, but only here and there, nobody knows why. In any case, treatment can go two ways: make the skin lighter, or make it darker, to correct the patchiness and give the patient an even tone.
I’m like a steppin’ razor don’t watch my size I’m dangerous
Lightness is quite difficult, he says. You start with monobenzylether of hydroquinone. We don’t know how, exactly, but it wipes the cutaneous layer clean. As if melanin never even existed. You have to use it sparingly, because there’s the risk of skin cancer. And, some say, immune overcompensation. But darkening? Darkening the skin, permanently, consistently, beautifully? Nearly impossible, that was the consensus at the time. In any case, hazardous. Every possible conventional treatment was toxic. And, as they never tired of telling me, undesirable. Who would pay for it? Who would pay for a beautifully toned, brown, perhaps even a little reddish, maple color, a mahogany color, or a rich, full, espresso, actual blackness? Like Grace Jones. Like Seal.
Miles Davis, Martin says. Kobe Bryant.
Peter Tosh. Tariko speaking. Dinah Washington.
Queen Latifah, Julie-nah says. Oprah. I love Oprah.
Duke Ellington, I say. Angela Davis.
Right, Silpa says. You understand. In Rochester on my days off I went and sat in the movie theater and just watched one film after another. Brewster’s Millions. Dune. 48 Hours. Conan the Barbarian. Purple Rain. That was how I learned English and ruined my appetite for candy. And I wanted to say, look, you take a movie like Purple Rain, and then you think there’s no desire, no wanting, to be like that beautiful man?
When I start to laugh, everyone turns and stares at me.
Why? Silpa asks me. Don’t you think it’s true?
I’m not arguing with you. I just can’t believe it all starts with Prince.
You’re the writer. You can put that in your book. You know that song, “When Doves Cry?” Dig, if you will, the picture? Go look at the video again. Prince is all naked in a bathtub, and he stands up, and the camera is just looking at his face. And then he holds out his hand and does this—
Silpa gives me a sultry, low-lidded look and holds his arm out straight, beckoning me with one finger.
You want the big moment? That was the big moment for me. I don’t want Prince. I’m not gay. I want to be Prince. He understands. He knows it’s going to happen. If he was a chemist he’d have done it himself. I see that just by looking into his eyes. Amazing, right? And you know what it is? This is a person who says yes to everything. Yes to change. Nobody has to wear the clothes they came in with. Nobody has to be stuck in one body. Dig, if you will, the picture. To me, that was America. And the funny thing is, it takes a Thai guy to understand it. The melting pot. I mean, that’s what this is, right?