South Korea : first runner for Plastic Surgery
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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.
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.
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
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.
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?
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!
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