Korean Cool - About Face PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Korean Cool - About Face PDF

Description

Julie Ann Punzal INST-4250-40 Reading Paper on South Korea: About Face & Korea Cool If we talk about the rise of the cosmetic surgery market and pop culture, South Korea is indeed one of the most notoriously known countries that represents a significant infatuation with beauty. From body image alteration to the obsession of Korean beauty products, it is undeniable that they see the glorification of ideal “face” as a key to better social acceptance and happier lives. Korean idols and celebrities usually play an important role in influencing people to go under the knife. In this paper, I will assess the article “About Face” by Patricia Marx that provides the reasons for South Korea’s obsession with beauty and the readings from Korean Cool that focuses on the rise of Korean Wave, and its success and challenges among Korean idols and the society. South Korea is undoubtedly known as the Beauty Capital of the World. A big part of Korea’s economic prosperity is often credited with the drastic rise of cosmetic surgery and the expansion of the K-beauty market in all parts of the world. In the article, “About Face”, I think that Patricia Marx did a great job in describing and explaining the reasons for the pursuit of perfection among Korean society. I like that she started with the influences of the remarks from relatives, “You would be a lot prettier if you just had your jaw tapered” In Korea, it is not uncommon to hear parents and relatives convince a young teenager kid to get plastic surgery. Among everything, the pursuit of beauty is what matters the most in this nation. It is a part of their culture. It creates the basis for one’s acceptance in the society.

It is common for parents to buy their daughters cosmetic operations as graduation gifts. You can see the severity of this craze as they do not consider a double-eyelid or nose job anymore as surgery but just a “cosmetic procedure”. In an interview of Marx to one of the college students, “We want to have surgeries while we are young so we can have our new faces for a long time” this reminded me of some Koreans idols who were accused of doing plastic surgery at such a young age to be able to get casted by entertainment companies. Most people do plastic surgery while they are young to create a perception when they get older that they are a “natural beauty”. Young people, mostly in high school, are willing to go under the knife because of the social pressure from their peers and classmates. It is considered a normal thing in highschool to compete with one another in terms of physical appearance. This is problematic as it results in bullying of those who do not fit the beauty standards and eventually affects one’s mental health. The role of beauty standards are also highly important in pursuing careers and getting a desired job among Korean people. As Marx mentioned, “Job applicants are typically required to attach photographs to their résumés.” This reflects how someone’s physical appearance is important and prioritized by companies to hire applicants. Mostly Korean women opt to do plastic surgery to fit in the ideal beauty standards, double eyelids, small head, v-shaped jawline, light and youthful skin, and thin waist. For them, it is easier to get accepted in a job if you fit these qualifications. In the 2008 Korean movie “200 Pounds of Beauty”, a talented but obese girl Kang Hanna was only accepted in a job to ghost sing on backstage for a non-talented but beautiful pop star. She then chose to do extensive plastic surgery to become slender and beautiful in order to be a pop singer. This movie made me cry when I was younger and opened my eyes to the sad

reality that in South Korea, being beautiful is the ultimate goal for the desire of being successful. No matter how smart, talented, and good a person you are, you do not have a place in the society if you do not meet the beauty standards. Another point that was made in the article was the notion that Korean beauty standards “emulates a Western aesthetic”. I agree on this statement because of Korean women’s obsession with British actress, Audrey Hepburn. Whenever I read Korean forums and blogs, Koreans comment on how beautiful an actress or idol is if she has similar features as Audrey Hepburn which is their “image” of a perfect beauty. I also have noticed how Korean beauty standards are changing nowadays to a more and more Western appearance. From their obsession of having small lips for a youthful look, there is now a rise in cosmetic surgery for lip fillers which makes your lips thicker and more plump. This is a result of the crazy global trend of “full plump lips”, often credited from the Kardashian-Jenners who are known to set global trends around the world. One major economic factor that contributes to Korea being a Beauty Capital of the World also relies on the “surgery tourists” traveling from abroad to South Korea to go under the knife. Plastic surgery has then become a high demand in a lucrative industry for its affordable cost, advanced medical technologies, and the rising number of plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists and doctors from other fields that enter the beauty industry. Most surgery tourists come from China as they mostly get influenced by wanting to look like their favorite Korean idols and actors. According to the discussion video this week, “Chinese want a big change” when choosing their surgical procedures. Attracting more international clients is also a matter of survival for the clinics. You can see how important medical tourism is in this country with the establishment of Gangnam Medical

Tour Center that is a specially designed government-funded center open for foreign medical tourists. This has also created a job among illegal third-party brokers who are paid commission by clinics to persuade people to get plastic surgery. Another interesting part of the article for me as well is the attribution of the Korean mindset of beauty to Confucianism, which teaches the importance of in Korea, other people’s evaluation of you more matters than what you think about yourself. This makes sense in a way that a Korean would get easily influenced by his or her parents, relatives, peers, and co-workers to do plastic surgery as it is a “necessity” to be part of the societal image. This relates to the explanation of the Korean word “woori” in the article that pertains to the collective “I”. It explains how it is very important for Koreans to “be part of your coalition or clique... the feeling is, if you can look better, you should. Not to do so would be complacent and lazy and reflect badly on your group.” This quote stood out to me the most as it reflects the teaching of collectivism under Confucianism that emphasized on the importance of homogeneous society or the notion that you do not want to stand out. For the last part of my essay, I wanted to touch on the rise of Korean Wave, and its success and challenges among Korean idols and the society. What most people do not know is that Korean idols and actors, like common people, also experience the judgements and the desire to look “perfect” in order to gain acceptance in the society. As mentioned in the Chapter 4 of Korean Cool, “Korea looked up to pop culture as a way to create new sources of revenue, unite people and generate.” This resulted in Korea using pop culture as an exportable product that would help spread Korean culture around the world. The article also mentioned the competitive process of casting trainees

to become idols. At such a young age, young Koreans are trained for 4-11 years to debut as an idol to build a strong collaborative mentality. This has become problematic in the society as it created the image that this is how manufactured Kpop is and how Kpop groups are prefabricated. Despite all the negative images of Kpop culture, it is more known to bring positive outcomes for the country. First is for breaking the cultural and language barrier among different nations. BTS and Blackpink, for example, are the most globally known Kpop groups at this time. The two groups have been sweeping the world music market ranking, defeating some of popular American singers. Korean pop idols have also an important role in promoting beauty standards in the society that most Koreans and foreign customers would show pictures of a Korean celebrity who they wanted to look alike. K-culture is also believed to have the potential to be a powerful diplomatic tool. I definitely agree on this as it was seen in 2018, when North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un himself, confessing that he is a huge fan, invited the SM entertainment girl group, Red Velvet to perform at East Pyongyang Grand Theatre in Pyongyang. To conclude my essay, I would say that the standards of beauty among this society play an influential role in every aspect of their life and culture. There might be pros and cons but at the end of the day, everything goes back to their background of being an utmost conformist society. I personally think that there is no need to totally wipe out this idea of the importance of beauty among this society as it is already a part of their culture, but I would say, I hope that they move forward to becoming more open and accepting of an individual’s personal choice and stop all the negative comments on someone’s personal

life as it creates a serious mental health issues in the society. I love got7 I lot ve got7 mark jaebum, mark, bambam, youngjae, mark, yugyeom, yes, jinyoung, jufhfod...