Plastic Surgery: Desire to be Beautiful, or Forced to 'Fit in' the Society?

South Korea : first runner for Plastic Surgery

When we search ‘plastic surgery’ in google, South Korea appears as the first related result 

in the search box. As living in a country with one of the highest plastic surgery rate, I see

 many Koreans with similar faces, which are made by several different doctors. Looking at 

their faces, I’ve always had a question, “Why do they all want to look alike?” To satirize 

this social consequence, one cartoonist drew women with same faces as a cartoon. 

programssun.tistory.com

This cartoon is named as, ‘Gangnam Yeoja’, which means girls of Gangnam. In this image, 

4 women have the same faces, because of excessive plastic surgery. Regarding with this 

cartoon, many plastic surgeons have responded that this photo is exactly how most people

 desire to be like. Without any exaggeration, I actually see a lot of women with that ‘big-

eyed, v-line’ face who look the same with that picture. To those people, I dare throw this 

question: Why don’t you just be yourself?

Ok. I know this question contains a lot of controversies that I cannot answer to. I 

know this question can be heard so irresponsible, because it is the problem of Korean 

society that triggers people to eventually have plastic surgery. 

How is Korean Society like? 

womenlink1987.tistory.com

Though there has been great improvement on woman’s right and discrimination problems, 

still, Korean society forces women to be beautiful. There was a program called, “They are 

Beautiful, because they are Different” (Diversity,Now!) which was held towards 22 

women (4-10s, 10-20s, 6-30s, 2-50s) who have experienced extreme weight loss, and 

aimed to figure out the factor that made them to decide whether to lose weight or do a 

plastic surgery. Through reading the interviews from this program, I figured out the four 

major problems of Korea: 1) Lookism rampant in labor market 2) Acceptance of woman 

3) Generalized opinion (women should be beautiful) 

Lookism rampant in labor market

http://www.argentinepost.com/2009/02/page/2

Lookism basically is focusing on only physical appearance of a person, rather than looking 

their ability or characteristics. Although looks of the people do not actually improve the 

efficiency of work in a job, many people consider their appearance as one of the 

specification that they need to care and develop, in order to be accepted in a job. Of course,

 it is not literally written in the require sheet. However, there is some kind of silence 

discrimination between the one who has ‘fine’ appearance, and the one who has ‘bad’ 

appearance. According to the Korean job-search site named, ‘Alba Chunguk’, it is said that 

amongst 10 female workers, 4 of them had felt discrimination because of their 

appearances. 

 4 from 10 females. It is quite a large number of people who have experienced the thing 

they should not experience. Several interviewers from the program “They are Beautiful,

 because they are Different” have responded that people have this stereotype that the ones 

who do not care themselves cannot work well either, and the one who are able to care 

themselves also develop their appearance thus have good physical appearance at all. 

Therefore the one with ability to success should be able to continuously develop their 

appearances. This theory is so stupid that it contains no any sense at all. Who in the world 

decided that the one who are successful should be looking good? And why this concept 

always held to females only? Then the one with ability and skills, but with a bad 

appearance is a person who has failed to success self-improvement? Who can actually 

decide the range of beauty? I am sure that no one can answer these questions, because 

they are asking for answers that are totally non-sense. However, this ridiculous concept of 

relating physical appearance and one’s rate of success is ongoing in many parts of society, 

triggering females who go on a plastic surgery if they desire to be employed.

Acceptance of Woman

http://www.freedomkorea.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=863

Though it is not the problem of females who do not meet the standard of ‘fine’ appearance

 that the society has made, many of them accepts it as their disability to develop 

themselves and decide to have a plastic surgery. I totally understand how it is to live as a 

female with ‘bad’ appearance. When a woman that does not meet the standard of beauty 

that most Koreans identically has, walks on the street, then she will probably hear ridicules

 from the people who believe they reach the standard of beauty. I also have experienced 

this. I have a big burnt scar on by right leg. In the Philippines, where I live, I actually did 

not care about showing the scar, because there were no criticisms followed after when I 

wore shorts. However, when I went back to Korea and wore shorts, I heard bad words 

saying that my scar is disgusting from both male and females in a bus, train, streets… 

Although there were some people who were concerned about the scar, still, I hated all the 

attentions that were held to me, just by the reason that I am different from them. I hated 

that looks, silently forcing me to cover my legs. Why should everyone look the same just

 like the standard of beauty that is even impossible for all Koreans? One interviewer from

 the project has responded that, Korean society is accepting the fact that the ones who are 

overweight should be criticized, saying that they should be affected by what they say, and

 should lose weight. By accepting the fact that being ‘ugly’ is a fault, Koreans are 

continuously having plastic surgeries, in order to be accepted to a society and not to be a 

faulty person. 

Generalized Idea: Woman = Beauty

http://heavenising.tistory.com/205

Among the reasons why Koreans became so concerned about their physical appearances, 

people’s generalized ideas that woman should always be beautiful sets as an important 

reason. Korea is a very developed country, where almost everyone are able to access to 

media. In this media, though not intended, beautiful and handsome stars are the one who

 get to appear in the major programs from dramas, comedy to news program. For the ones 

who have ‘ugly’ face or body, they are used as a method of entertainment. Looking at 

these beautiful stars, many people look up to them and make their faces to be similar with

 the ones of the famous actors or singers. So, when you visit Korean plastic surgeons and 

get counselling, you can actually ask for a particular shape of an actor’s eyes, nose, or just 

everything. This type of media marketing using beautiful and handsome people to catch 

people’s attention makes the beauty standard of the society, making the ones who does

 not fit to the standard, as someone who are ugly. It is not only the problem of the media

 that are imposing the concept of beauty standard towards women, but also the way how 

plastic surgeons advertise their hospitals. 

www.i-boss.co.kr

In the major train stations in Korea, such as Gangnam or Apgujung, there are several 

plastic surgery advertisements that grows the ideas that women should be beautiful in 

order to be popular and recognized by the one who they love. In these advertisements,

 they put women’s before & after getting the plastic surgery, with a phrases such as 

“your new life can begin”, or “don’t you want to be popular?” which increases the lookism 

of the people, at the same time driving them to only depend on their physical appearances.

 It is so dumb thing to believe these advertisements, which is made from a business that

 making profits is the main aim, not to change someone’s life. 

If Possible, Can they?

• Can businesses make a society where ability comes first, not physical appearance of a person?
• Can media start showing people with average size of the body?
• Can media stop ridicule those who are overweight or ugly?
• Can government do their best to create a culture which does not contain any lookism?
• Can government restrict the number of advertisements of plastic surgeons which aren't actually truth?

I Just want to say......

At this point, you would be questioning about me, saying ‘be yourself!’ to those who are 

actually victims of Korean society. I know that it is not an easy thing to just ignore all the

 criticisms and looks from other people. But, accepting the idea that woman should be 

beautiful and continuously changing the appearances will just lead to a continuous cycle of

 plastic surgery. So what I am saying is, rather than being a victim of Korean society with 

serious lookism, why don’t you shine yourself through raising your value? Not by 

enhancing physical appearance through plastic surgery, not by following after particular 

stars that appear in media, but by finding out something that you can be the best with, so 

that you do not need such thing as plastic surgery to improve yourself. No one can actually 

define the standard of beauty. It differs according to the perspective of the people. The 

way how you view yourself and others can always change the standard of beauty. In 

my perspective, there is no one who are not beautiful. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! 

SEXISM Ongoing in Music Industry

                      Sexy is OK, Slutty is not.  

http://www.sawfirst.com/miley-cyrus-in-wrecking-ball-music-video-caps-2013-09-10.html/miley-cyrus-wrecking-ball-caps-5

How is Miley Cyrus? 

Miley Cyrus. Once a cute Disney Hanna Montana girl is now called as a 'slut' towards people. She totally took off her cute image and wore an image of an adult having fun in life, without caring anything. This big change has brought her fame, but at the same time a lot of criticisms. Having most attention in her life, which isn't pretty positive at all, Miley is feeling great and wants this attention to go long. To all the worries and concerns from people, Miley's reaction is as if she does not give a sh** about them. 

Many singers and music-related people are showing up some concerns and criticisms, but Miley is responding through mocking the concerns that truly came from their hearts. Her attitude is just not right. If she had made all audiences to get attention to her, she should have responsibility at least to what she has done publicly. 

Is it only Miley? 

It is no longer time of unfairness of females. However, gender inequality problem is still happening in the music industry. It is not only Miley Cyrus. It is not only in US. But, it is happening in the most part of the world, through female singers. Executives in music industry want the young girls, who are almost at the same age with me, to take off their clothes more and more. Of course, their full interest is on getting people's attention. But is it only 'STRIPING' that can catch people's attention? I guess not. Look at Taylor Swift. Did she ever do 'twerking' in front of audiences and fans? Without any slutty actions, she is still remaining her fame. Being sexy is fine for everyone, if the singers understood that the  meaning of 'sexy' is different with the meaning of 'slutty' well enough. 

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/music/charlotte-church-hits-out-over-6185440

             As Charlotte Church stated in her lecture, music industry is dominated by males. It means that those music videos with naked females are mostly directed by males. They say stripping can bring the singers fame. However, Charlotte Church, who had an experience to strip off in her music video, lost her popularity that she had made through her beautiful voice. Her talent was buried by just one music video. A young girl, with full talent, lost her dream just by the delusion of the male directors that all people would like Church her body shown. She just followed them, because they convinced her to be popular with more revealing clothes. Until now she has this slutty image which disturbs her to resume her music life. It is not a rare experience.  It is not the singer's fault. It is the fault of the music industry.

http://cafe.naver.com/dbgirls1004/27

The problem is their wrong concept that all people would like those naked girls. It is true that beautiful girls wearing revealing clothing takes a lot of attention from the people. However, will that attention go for a long time? Singer's job is to sing, not showing their body. It is not only the problem of US music industry. It is also
happening in Korea. In Korea, grouped singers are catching young teen's attentions, whose average age is 19. Despite their age, they wear extremely short pants, tight dress, or erotic costumes and sing songs that attract the males. Isn't this insane? Can’t the executives try really hard to come out with concepts that will emphasize the talents of the singers more dramatic? Audiences, want singers to sing well instead of twerking or wearing slutty clothes. The first ability of the singer is to sing well. It is just not right to use someone’s desire, and dream to be popular singer, by their tool to solve theirappetite through letting them more and more naked. It is true that taking clothes off will take audiences’ attention. That’s all. What singers earn through taking off their clothes is the cheap image which hinders their music life. What the singers really want is not a temporary attention from the audiences, but love towards their music.

                                       Here's a video about Sexist Music industry 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbsd5Qtry0A

Are we OK?

http://www.today.com/toyotaconcertseries/miley-cyrus-visits-today-says-i-dont-ever-really-8C11339820

Apparent from the music industry, the problem is us. Now I am 17. May be I am too old to be called a teenager enjoyng the entertainment world, where gossips and rumors flourish. But what the media shows are all that stimulating things that grab attentions of us, teens, who are curious about those sexual things. It is normal for us to be inquisitive. But it is not normal for the adults to produce those sexually revealing videos to us, who are yet immature and inexperienced of those things! It is not the only problem of singers who show their body themselves, but also the fault of music industry that has made young singers, who are at the similar age with me to take off their clothes.

http://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/
68418-how-do-you-tyically-dress/page-3

 Some people say that it is an  overstatement to say that teenagers  actually get affected by the music.  However, the answer is easily figured  out through looking around us.  Compare teenager’s outlooks nowadays  to few years ago. The skirts got shorter,  and tighter, showing up their body  shapes. Among the teenagers, it has  been a 'cool' thing to be aware of sexual t hings and wearing revealing clothes. Can  you say that this isn't the effect of the  media? It is so obvious that the  atmosphere and the trend among the  people constantly changes, through the  effect of the media and the one who  actually cares a lot about the trend is the teenagers and young women. The  problem is that nowadays, the trend  shifted into inappropriate way that those  young females should not follow  through. 

OK. What so then?

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/5740649/miley-cyrus-the-movement-documentary-10-things-to-watch-for

 Singers need to at least have some talents, instead of beautiful face and sexy body. I know it is not the fault of the singers who are forced to get off their clothes. However they should also recognize the fact that being ‘erotic’ will never last their fame for a long time, and stop being used by the male executives. It is even worse when talented singers like Miley decided to go for the erotic side even she has opportunity to earn fame through her beautiful voice. Without any erotic actions, she is still beautiful. Also the male directors who think being sexy is the only advantage of the female singers, should change up their minds by looking at singers who focus more on their ability sing, not being erotic.





The concept contained in male executives in the music industry that female can only appeal themselves through sex, comes to me that SEXISM has taken part deep inside their minds.

Blurred Lines - Blurred Morality?

Why so Issued?

http://thisislavie.com/videos/
robin-thicke-ft-t-i-pharrell-blurred-lines-video

If you get some attention to the news, you would know that Robin Thicke's song, 'Blurred Lines' has been a big issue among some critics. 'Blurred Lines' by Robin Thicke has been remaining the top place in the Billboards. The song has grabbed the attention of the people by its provocative lyrics which actually brought a lot of controversies about it. The song is all about a man addressing woman to be sexually active, and encouraging woman to have sex with man. If Robin Thicke expressed these things indirectly, it would not be that issued. However, 'Blurred Lines' has so much direct lyrics that mainly degrade and objectify women. When I listen to the song without looking at the lyrics, I actually liked the song because of the melody. However, when I looked at the lyrics, I could not listen to this song again. 

Blurred Lines 

Here's the music video of the song. Even the music video is as provocative as the lyrics, and contains the concept of objectification of women by dressing up as almost naked, and by acting rude.(Pulling their hair, breathing the smoke towards the face of the woman) I could not understand the intend of this music video. It just ruined my feelings while looking at it. 

Problems with 'Blurred Lines'

http://rapgenius.com/
Robin-thicke-blurred-lines-lyrics#note-1644843

The main problem with 'Blurred Lines' is the lyrics obviously. Robin Thicke uses 'bitches', 'you are an animal', or 'good girl' which show both the degradation of women and the superior side of the men. The lyrics of the song totally insults the women by assuming all women want to have sex with him, but are hiding their feelings. Also, he is saying that all good girls have some bad parts which are just covered by the blurred lines. Is it true that ALL women are so excited to have sex in their deep insight? Who would agree with this preposterous logic? Not only degrading women, but 'Blurred Lines' also expresses sex very lightly. I am not saying that sex should be somewhat deep topic, but it cannot be something light. What if young teenagers listen to this song and think that sex is something that they can easily do? Even the song is kinda 'rapey', which can strongly affect the audiences by growing the thought that all girls want sex in their deep insight, which is absolutely wrong. Even Edinburgh University in UK, banned this song by the reason of 'rapey' lyrics.( https://ed.edim.co/8003714/edinburgh_university_student_union_bans_robin_thicke_s_blurred_lines_because_it_trivialis.)

Why Do These Problems Matter?

http://www.123rf.com/
photo_12352581_press-and-mass-media-concepts.html

Some people say that the song is just the song, and banning it is an over reaction towards not that serious problem. However, today, world communicates through internet. Almost everyone access to internet and get a lot of information. But some information can affect people in bad ways, especially the teenagers who cannot filter what is wrong or right. Therefore, a song such as 'Blurred Lines' can strongly affect the teenagers to begin to have a wrong thought about women and sex. Any teenagers nowadays can access to the song very easily. The adults should be the one who should teach children good things and stop them from learning wrong things. However, now the adult is the one who is addressing the wrong idea to the young ones. 

Masculinity - Stereotypes that block teenager boy's healthy growth

Masculinity: Is this a Real COOL stuff?

http://www.catholic.org/
hf/faith/story.php?id=48985

I am sure that not all of men are born to be a real masculine men with strong hearts which never feel pain or sorrow. No one knows from when men were forced to act masculine. Masculinity can be defined as quality that has traditionally ascribed to men, or an appropriated image of a man. But who decides the appropriate image for men? Society has always put pressure to men to be a real man, and portrayed man as what they expect, which are, "Hide your emotions, do not cry, do not be scared of anything, do this because you are man". However, is hiding emotions and pretending to be cool masculine? I don't think so. 

"The Mask you Live in"

https://www.facebook.com/MyStrength

The video "The Mask you Live in" is filmed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a director of documentary films and a miss representative. This video was made by the concern of Jennifer to the young boys who are forced to be masculine, which can be called, a boy crisis. What I really liked about this video is that it really looked at the deep insight of the boys, who had to hide their emotions, just by the reason that they need to be a real man. According to the film, masculinity stops boys to be emotional, sensitive and warm men, but makes them as disconnected, cold, and lonely men by the stereotypes of the masculinity that society has made. Actually, a lot of boys were affected by the forces of the society to be masculine, be a man. I began to think that masculinity can lead the boys into acting violently because of the stereotype that men always should be strong. Boys then accept the concept of being cool, as being strong in a inappropriate ways. Such as beating up their friends. Also, the boys are always forced to hide their feelings. All men should not cry anytime, and always act manly. Again, who chooses what is it to be 'manly'? Do real men really not cry and always have 'coolness'(which also is difficult to define)?. No. Hiding emotions, can be thought as being boring. When the boys go to high school, they all are adapted to the masculinity and do what others do. As a result, they get no one to talk with about serious topics like their concerns, because a 'cool' man does not ask for help to others, showing his emotions. Actually, I can see many boys in high school who try to be cool but have many personal concerns. It is a serious problem that teenage boys, who have a lot of personal concerns during that time, cannot express them to anyone, because of the stereotype that the society has made. So if the teenager boys cannot express their feelings to anyone, then how can their stress and concerned be solved? During the video, when Ashanti Branch, the educator and youth adviser, told the boys to write the things that they do not want to show others, most of them wrote, pain, anger, those emotions that masculinity denies. This kind of coercion can bring desperate end to men who feel suppression by the stereotype that the society has made. Actually, a lot of people are getting interested in this topic, 'Forced Masculinity'. If you want to see more opinions from other people, you can go to this site, and read the posts. (http://masculinityu.com/blog/)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jensiebelnewsom/the-mask-you-live-in

Here is the video about masculinity. 

My Thoughts...

Masculinity is something that should not be forced to any of the boys. Everyone has different perceptions of what a real cool man is. For me, expressing violence, and hiding true emotion do not actually look cool. During researching about masculinity, I found a blog that posted about the reality of masculinity. (http://reclaimingmasculinity.tumblr.com/) In this blog, it addresses really well about what it means to be a man.  Forced masculinity problems are happening not only in America, but also in Korea. Korean society forces boys to be always powerful so that they can protect the women. This concept has been progressed more by the military program, which strongly forces the concept of masculinity. This kind of thoughts has already affected teenage boys in Korea. Most of the Korean boys accept cigarettes as a symbol of masculinity. Because it looks cool teenagers try once and then be addicted to the cigar. Masculinity can affect and is affecting teenagers in bad ways and is leading to the desperate ends. Therefore the society must stop forcing boys to be a real man with stereotyped masculinity. 

Mena Trott- A Real Blogger!

START of the Blog

http://www.collegefashion.net/beauty-and-hair/
the-7-best-mac-cosmetics-collaborations-of-all-time/ 

This is my first time to have my own blog excluding CAS blog. At first, when I thought of blog, I could think about some beauty blogs from Korea that I usually track into, and enjoy looking at them. However, I had no interest to other blogs such as blogs about analyzing the situation happening in economy, or something about science. Also, I thought that beauty blog was the only interesting blog to look at. However, it wasn't! After I heard to the presentation of Mena Trott, I now have different view towards the various blogs of different people, from various places. 

What Changed my View

http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Mena_Grabowski_Trott

Mena, in her presentation about blog, continuously emphasizes that to her, blog is not a tool to make her famous, but to write her stories and feel empathy with the people who visit her blog and write comments, being curious about her, and sometimes also concerning about her. This 
strongly hit my mind, because I always thought that it would be really boring if there are only few visitors in my blog. I could not think that only few visitors are also important to some bloggers.  As Mena said, "Blog is who you are", I learned that even the boring topics I mentioned, such as economy or science blogs, they are all interest topics to someone else, and there are people who enjoy them as I enjoy the beauty blog. Also, I found out that blogs have not only distinct subject, but also just daily life pictures or writings. During Mena's presentation, she gave several examples of blogs, including hers, that just upload daily life pictures, or even selfies of the bloggers. Through blog, we can remember any moment again by looking at the post we posted before. Like how we felt that day, and what we did. For example, during the presentation, Mena mentioned about a father who took a picture of his baby who was born with so light weight that he had danger to be dead. However, the father uploaded his pictures everyday, showing how he is getting better. I think to the readers, this kind of records can be a very interesting and touching post. 

Mena's Speech 

Here is the speech from Mena Trott

My thoughts..

I really liked the presentation of Mena, because I was able to learn a lot about why people write a blog and the main objectives of most of the bloggers, which are to record their daily lives, and share them to the people online. The daily lives can include anything, even researches, because it is their lives. I also want to make my blog, as somewhere I can always write my thoughts, opinion, even only few reads them. If you want to know more about her, or if you are interested on her blog, visit her twitter! (https://twitter.com/dollarshort)