Blogpost 6: The K-pop Plastic Surgery Obssesion

       When you heard the word "Plastic Surgery", what comes in your mind? For me, South Korea automatically pops out my mind. Why? Because we know that  the country's plastic surgery industry has come under fire from foreign and local critics. 

      None the less, patients are lining up in front of clinics hoping to improve their lives via their faces, and are supposedly not to be apologetic about it at all, when ironically it’s also supposedly “shameful” when others are able to spot your modifications. (At first I thought this was merely a double standard - that celebrities are expected to be ‘perfect’ while there’s more leniency for us non-celebrities, but there are many cases in which the latter are just as vilified by those around them.) People know this happens, yet the whole notion of ‘looking good to get ahead’ is still widely valued. People glorify natural beauty.

       I've read an article entitled, "The Hardest Thing About Being Beautiful in Asia"  by Dana Ter of policymic.com tells that, in South Korea, beauty is necessity. Being beautiful has became a competition for many areas in our life, from securing a job to finding a husband. This exists in many cultures, in South Korea, teenagers are promised plastic surgery as high-school graduation present. Teenage girls look to western women as role models. Beauty is linked to future success in life. Dana also stated that, "The perception that Korean women desire to look "western" oversimplifies this complex plastic surgery craze. Many believe that these women are inspired by the looks of K-pop idols such as Girls Generation. They are not asking their plastic surgeons to make them look like western celebrities, but rather to resemble Korean idols. And yet, the facial features that these entertainers possess, regardless of whether they've had plastic surgery, are traits common amongst Caucasians including bigger eyes and narrow jaws. Perhaps the image of beauty that arises is more of a fusion between some Korean and the western qualities."

  Beauty and image play a critical role in Korean society and everyone – and I mean everyone  believed the prettier you are, the more likely you are to succeed, be that at pop stardom or otherwise. As popular culture becomes globalized, images of what the east perceives as the west and vice versa are constantly in fluctuation as the definition of "beautiful" changes with the times. 

      South Korea has the highest rate of cosmetic procedures per capita in the world. Some reports place the number of South Korean women who have had a cosmetic procedure at one in five. In the city's ritzy Gangnam district there's a strip known as the 'beauty belt', a suburb filled with hundreds of plastic surgery clinics and little else. It has one of the highest concentrations of plastic surgery clinics in the world. 

        

       According to the another article that I've read entitled, "The K-pop effect: South Korea's obsession with beauty" by Jeannette Francis of sbs.com.au tells that, K-pop stars and Korean celebrities have influenced the younger generation. But also K-pop is a international phenomenon. The idols are known for their catchy tunes, synchronized dance moves and trendsetting fashions and flawless faces. They also known for the amount of plastic surgery they get. I noticed that every time they released new songs their faces also changed. Jeannette also stated that, "There are exceptions, but it's a generally accepted principle that to succeed in the pop industry, you must be beautiful, in other words you must have those aforementioned features that define beauty. And if you – like most Koreans – are not born with these you can – and should – change them and many pop stars do. I wasn't entirely surprised to hear about the K-Pop industry's cosmetic compulsion, despite how systematic and excessive it seemed. What was surprising, however, was that the plight for perfection trickled down to the country's youth."

         There is an ideal standard of beauty in South Korea, one encapsulated by the country's pop stars. Whether it's natural or not doesn't particularly matter. As the K-Pop phenomenon grows so too does the plastic surgery industry. Instead of encouraging women to appreciate the many forms in which beauty exists, popular culture has churned out simplified "ideals," which upon crossing cultural lines, become "lost in translation."