平和
和平
평화
ASIA
26 March 2014
Holiday day 3 - it's popular in Korea to get plastic surgery to make it look like you're on ecstasy

South Korea's plastic surgery obsession

South Korea’s apparent obsession with plastic surgery has been getting a lot of press recently, writes Lila Nojima.

South Korea’s apparent obsession with plastic surgery has been getting a lot of press recently, writes Lila Nojima.

What social pressures could be pushing Korean women to undergo plastic surgery procedures? Factors like the rise of manufactured K-Pop stars, employer preferences for attractive women, and parental requests, have been suggested in articles in media like Vice, The Atlantic and The Economist.

But is this new obsession simply a quest to look more American, or is it something more?

The United States does have the highest incidence of plastic surgery worldwide, with 3.11 million procedures performed in 2011. But South Korea has the highest percentage of procedures, with a staggering 650,000 performed in 2011, according to The Economist. That means about one in five Korean women undergo some type of procedure, compared to only one in twenty women in the US.

The most popular procedures in Korea are double eyelid surgery and rhinoplasty. Forming two eyelids and reshaping the nose creates what some would call a more Western silhouette. In contrast, the most popular procedures in America are breast augmentation and lipoplasty.

The origins of Korean plastic surgery go back to Dr. Ralph Millard, who arrived in Korea in 1954, and began performing double eyelid surgeries to make his patients look less “Oriental”, according to a recent Atlantic article, “The K-Pop Plastic Surgery Obsession”.

The globalization of beauty now flows in both directions. While Korean women still ask for double eyelids and other surgeries, the industry has shifted from focusing on reproducing Caucasian features to working with many different facial structures.

Although some features are prominent in both Asian and Caucasian surgery requests, such as a slimmer face, Korean surgeon Dr. Park, interviewed in The Atlantic argues that Korean women still look for distinctively Korean features, rather than Caucasian ones. These women find their inspiration in Korean celebrities, rather than American ones.

As Seoul resident, "Sparkles", told Vice in a recent interview, “That idea [that Koreans want to look white] may have started off only because white people generally have taller noses and larger eyes, so it's easy to describe it as a Western look, but no one in Korea will say they want to look Western.”

Not only are Korean women moving away from a Caucasian model of beauty, Korean surgeons are also moving into new territory focused on Asian facial preferences. For instance, the controversial V-line surgery is “unique to Asians,” The Atlantic reported. This surgery removes part of the jaw and gives the face a more tapered look.

South Korean surgeons develop new ideas of beauty, disconnected from the American or Caucasian norms. Just as surgeries spread from the United States to Korea in the 1950s and 60s, these new techniques do not remain isolated in South Korea.

From 2011 to 2012, there was a 21 percent increase in the number of cosmetic procedures undergone by Asian Americans, the highest increase of any ethnic group in the US, according to The American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Just as in South Korea, eyelid surgery tops the list as most popular procedure. Asian American women are also opting for more radical procedures like the V-line surgery. Some even travel to Korea just to get it done, where the surgeries cost less and doctors are more willing to experiment with new techniques and methods.

So, while many dismiss this South Korean surgery boom as evidence of Western hegemonic power, it is important to realize it is not that simple. This obsession with cosmetic procedures is something distinctly Korean and at the same time distinctly global. Surgical procedures and beauty templates are not deposited directly from West to East. Korean doctors and patients create their own standards of beauty, some part Eastern and some part Western.

As cosmetic procedures become commonplace in Korea, it will be interesting to see how Asians in America deal with the changing beauty norms. Asian Americans are the fastest growing minority group in the US.

Will the US see an increase in plastic surgery catering to Asian faces, or will surgery remain something tied to the rich and famous? Globalization seems to be pointing to the former.

Acknowledgements

Lila Jun Eron Nojima is a student at Cornell University in the US, and is enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences. She has also studied at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan
Tags: asia, south korea, plastic surgery, asian americans, united states

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