--- description: A doctor answers questions after Bruce Jenner comes out as transgender title: How Plastic Surgery Can Make a Face Feminine image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb532edeff500a83/698784d5cd68489b3a09a49a/bruce-jenner-kim-kardashian.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [celebrities](/tag/celebrities/) ## celebrities Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # How Plastic Surgery Can Make a Face Feminine by [Jon Turk](/author/dr-jon-turk/) ## Jon Turk Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 23, 2015 8:06 PM CUT  Bruce Jenner and Kim Kardashian are seen filming their reality show in Los Angeles on Oct. 20, 2014. Bruce Jenner and Kim Kardashian are seen filming their reality show in Los Angeles on Oct. 20, 2014.JB Lacroix—GC Images/Getty Images by [Jon Turk](/author/dr-jon-turk/) ## Jon Turk Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 23, 2015 8:06 PM CUT As a plastic surgeon, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about Bruce Jenner’s physical evolution, and the fascination with Jenner’s changing look is only going to deepen [now that he has decided to come out as a transgender woman](http://time.com/3835205/bruce-jenner-diane-sawyer-transgender/ "undefined"). One thing almost everyone asks is, “What do surgeons do when a man comes to them asking to look more like a woman?” There are certain aesthetic characteristics that typify the feminine face, including a more laterally arching eyebrow, a narrower nose, smoother skin and fuller lips. Male faces, meanwhile, typically display deeper forehead furrows, straighter and thicker eyebrows, broader noses and rougher skin. When treating male patients who are not transitioning, plastic surgeons are usually careful to avoid anti-aging or cosmetic treatments that “feminize” the face. Sometimes men with feminized faces aren’t going through a gender transformation—they may have gone to a plastic surgeon for one (or a hundred) too many little procedures resulting in that stereotypical Hollywood face with overly plump cheeks, inflated lips and flat-ironed skin. If someone desires a fuller cheek or bigger lips and wants to look more like a woman, we can certainly enhance these features in a subtle and natural-looking way. But areas of the face such as these need to be treated conservatively or, rather than looking softer and more feminine, they may wind up as looking androgynously unnatural. ### See The Life of Caitlyn Jenner  At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Bruce Jenner won the gold medal in the decathlon, setting the world record at 8,616 points. Getty Images  Jenner became a national hero following his Olympic win and was later inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in 1986. Tony Duffy—Getty Images  Jenner became an NBC Sportscaster in the late 1970s following his Olympic performance in Montreal. NBC/Getty Images  Jenner married actress Linda Thompson, above, on Jan. 5, 1981, following his divorce with Chrystie Crownover. Getty Images  Jenner was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. In October of 1985, he received the Outstanding Learning Disabled Achiever Award from then-First Lady Nancy Reagan alongside stars such as Cher and Tom Cruise. Getty Images  Jenner was a successful race car driver in the 1980s, though in a 2013 interview he said, "I was a lot more badass runner than I was a driver.” Ann Clifford—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  In 1991, Jenner married Kris Jenner, previously Kris Kardashian, just one month after she finalized her divorce from Robert Kardashian. The two had dated for only five months. Maureen Donaldson—Getty Images  Their marriage merged two already large families, evident here in this 1991 portrait. Donaldson Collection/Getty Images  After his sports career, Jenner, seen here at a celebrity golf event in 1993, had a number of small acting jobs and television appearances. Stephen Dunn—Getty Images  The family poses at an event in 1995, the year Jenner and Kris welcomed the first of their two children together, Kendall Jenner. Ron Galella—WireImage  Kylie Jenner was born two years later in 1997\. The girls can be seen here on the red carpet in 2000, long before they covered magazines and appeared on TIME's Most Influential Teens list. Scott Nelson—AFP/Getty Images  Jenner, seen here in 2005, would re-enter the spotlight thanks to Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which first premiered in 2007. Steve Granitz—WireImage  Jenner spoofed his reality-star fame with a commercial for Tropicana Juicy Rewards in 2010. AP  Jenner and Kris, here at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2011, announced their separation in 2013\. She filed for divorce the following year. Kevin Winter—Getty Images  Jenner poses with a box of Wheaties in 2012\. He appeared on the front of the box first in 1977 after his Olympic gold-medal win, then in 2012 when Wheaties rolled out a retro series. Noel Vasquez—Getty Images  Jenner appears with two of his sons, TV personality Brody Jenner and musician Brandon Jenner, who records with his wife as Brandon & Leah, at an April 2013 release party. Chelsea Lauren—WireImage  Jenner walks with step-daughter Kim Kardashian in October of 2014 — about five months after rapper Kanye West became his son-in-law. Bauer-Griffin—GC Images  Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, appeared as a woman for the first time on the cover of Vanity Fair's June 2015 issue, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. Annie Leibovitz—Vanity Fair  Caitlyn Jenner accepts the Arthur Ashe Courage Award onstage during The 2015 ESPYS at Microsoft Theater on July 15, 2015 in Los Angeles. Kevin Winter—Getty Images It’s important to note that our concept of what is a typically male or female look is evolving, as are the debates over boundaries between genders—thanks, in part, to moving portrayals of transgender individuals on television shows such as _Transparent_ and _Orange is the New Black_. I would argue that if one were to examine the transgender character that Jeffrey Tambor plays in _Transparent,_ one would notice that the changes reflective of a male-to-female transition are as much internal as they are external, if not more so. It is Tambor’s overtly masculine physical characteristics (balding, bulging belly, hirsutism, jowls and wrinkles) that prompt the viewer to rely on more intrinsic emotional and psychological facets to give credence to his character Maura’s transition. Laverne Cox as Sophia on _Orange is the New Black_ embodies some of the more stereotypically “bombshell” feminine attributes; though hormone replacement is part of her character’s plot line, Sophia is generally portrayed as simply living as a woman, whether it’s trading contraband for hair products or giggling with her prison girlfriends. Both Tambor’s Maura and Cox’s Sophia portray a realistic and believable combination of physical and emotional feminizing traits that champion femininity and gender identification. As far as Jenner is concerned, the years of living in the Hollywood fishbowl of reality television, and in a family of women for whom physical appearance is an integral part of their business, will distort public perception. I hope it does not affect how he sees himself. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3755018/bruce-jenner-diane-sawyer-transgender-interview-plastic-surgery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3755018/bruce-jenner-diane-sawyer-transgender-interview-plastic-surgery/"},"headline":"How Plastic Surgery Can Make a Face Feminine","datePublished":"2015-03-23T20:06:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:54.671Z","description":"A doctor answers questions after Bruce Jenner comes out as transgender","url":"https://time.com/3755018/bruce-jenner-diane-sawyer-transgender-interview-plastic-surgery/","keywords":["celebrities","plastic surgery","Bruce Jenner"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb532edeff500a83/698784d5cd68489b3a09a49a/bruce-jenner-kim-kardashian.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jon Turk","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dr-jon-turk/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteb532edeff500a83/698784d5cd68489b3a09a49a/bruce-jenner-kim-kardashian.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bruce Jenner and Kim Kardashian are seen filming their reality show in Los Angeles on Oct. 20, 2014.","caption":"Bruce Jenner and Kim Kardashian are seen filming their reality show in Los Angeles on Oct. 20, 2014.","creditText":"JB Lacroix—GC Images/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3755018/bruce-jenner-diane-sawyer-transgender-interview-plastic-surgery/","name":"How Plastic Surgery Can Make a Face Feminine"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Behind the Scenes of Laverne Cox's TIME Cover Shoot","description":"Actress and LGBT activist Laverne Cox talks to TIME about acceptance of transgender people and awareness of discrimination and civil rights issues","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/16Vyqo82/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-05-30T20:44:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/16Vyqo82.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3755018/bruce-jenner-diane-sawyer-transgender-interview-plastic-surgery/","duration":"PT1M40S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3755018/bruce-jenner-diane-sawyer-transgender-interview-plastic-surgery/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```