This segment is the second part to my series on South Korea. This segment covers body image and plastic surgery.
One of the most interesting things about Korea is the prevailing ideology on what the ideal body is supposed to look like. The need for Koreans to look whiter, have a pointier nose, have bigger eyes can only be explained by one thing. My hypothesis is that Koreans want to look western. If we look to Snow White for example, we see a fair skinned woman with a pointy nose. The kind of body image shown in early western movies might be the cause of the desire to look western. Another thing is that this kind of body image does not necessarily fit a race of people who have tan colored skin and usually have a round nose. Having lighter skin can be solved by putting on lots of sunscreen, but the same doesn't go for making someone's nose pointier or making someone's eyes bigger.
This is why plastic surgery came into play. Plastic surgery has become so common that we can't even tell what's real anymore. There are other surgeries that change the way you look that are a bit different from the normal plastic surgery procedures we've heard. Apart from the common nose jobs and breast implants, there are surgeries to add fat from different parts of the body to one's face to change the shape of the face. Someone I know put their hip fat in the forehead area to make her forehead look more round.
The justification given to undergo these surgeries are ideological. If people didn't believe that they needed to change to fit a certain body image, the plastic surgery industry would not be booming in Korea. The message we promote in the United States about being happy with one's own body and accepting oneself is almost nonexistent in Korea. There are some people who are content with their bodies, but most people are very much concerned with different parts of their bodies not being good enough. What's wrong with having a round nose? What's wrong with having smaller eyes? There's nothing physically wrong, but something in their mind compels individuals to change anything that could be surgically altered.
The thing that I want to get across isn't that plastic surgery is wrong. If you want to alter your body, that's up to you. However, if the reason why you want to change your body is entirely to fit the impossible beauty standards set by society, then it's not worth it.
Love your body, and most importantly, love yourself.
