South Korea is well known as the country with the highest plastic surgery rates in the world. This is due to their high beauty standards that have led many women and men to let their faces be put under knives. The society in Korea is very infatuated with what is considered beautiful and satisfying to see in a person. The first impression is considered very important and by impression meaning the appearance of a person. Such as a job interview, the employers tend to look at the person’s face and in some cases, justify their rejection by criticizing what was wrong with their face and why they didn’t like it. As harsh as it sounds, it is very true in this society, in which everyone admits that nobody dislikes looking at a good-looking person. …show more content…
The adverts however, purposefully choose someone who is considered “being in need of a transformation” and shows his or her before and after face to make it more apparent. With the before photo, the audience can tell that the company purposefully leaves the patient looking in need of a makeover such as a face with no make up, casual clothes, and casual hair style. The after photo leaves the patient looking “beautiful” after having them go through the surgery. However, this is not good enough so the patient is also clothed in beautiful clothing as well as their hair styled and a full face with makeup. This is what is assumed to be the “Cinderella transformation” that they display, an indication that the only way to become beautiful is by going through plastic surgery. Basically, plastic surgery is the magic that a person needs in order to be happier about the way they look and present themselves, something they cannot do with their own hands. There are several other ways these adverts are presented to make the audience feel even more insecure with themselves. There are such ads that not only include transformations of the face but also include transformations of the body. Now, even completely changing your face is not good enough that these industries are also targeting those who are skeptical of how they feel about their body. The adverts now are also constantly changing. The original “old to new” transformation is no longer effective
As of recently, the media has been flooded with positive interpretations of beauty standards all over the world. According to various sources, beauty ideals, in women especially, are socially constructed in order to judge a person’s value based on physical attractiveness; therefore, it is highly encouraged that people pay attention to their looks and take care of themselves, in order for others to create a positive first impression of one’s character. It is no secret that beauty standards vary from one culture to the next and it is difficult to establish a universal principle of what is considered beautiful. Many countries’ ideals contrast one another and, as a result, allow for stereotypes to emerge. This is the case between American
In modern times, more and more people think that they are not beautiful enough. They try to make some changes to their appearance. For some people, because they want to look like their favorite celebrity or idol, they change their appearance. Some girls might think their face shape, such as nose, eyes, and mouth, are not as perfect as they want. Moreover, owing to the development of technology, people can choose to do more activities to become beautiful; also, they may spend money to do so.
While people consider it to be an art form in today’s world, in the field of advertising these programs help to alter a person and their body to promote absolute flawlessness. The images are so extensively manipulated so as to produce the person with perfect skin, perfect features, and a perfect body.
Although I have not solved this dilemma of mine completely, I have become convinced of one thing, as one of the women featured in the ad said, “The body doesn’t need to change, the attitude does.” People need to realize that there is more than one type of beauty. There is a wide range of beauty standards. I have also realized that I should also believe this which is why I have been trying to accept how I
Many individuals risk their lives in order to change their appearance. By changing their image they can either gain confidence or lower their
A group of young adult Vietnamese women are interviewed in the documentary, all of which relate to being pushed to perfection by their parents; perfect bodies, perfect education, perfect everything. The psychologists and plastic surgeons interviewed in this documentary even mention how it is common for Asian women to request surgical procedures in pursuit of what they think is beauty in American culture. Specifically, they most commonly request the procedures that give them larger, more expressive eyes. However, even beyond Asian-American culture, many people in modern society view themselves through a looking glass of societal standards and find something they want to change. Normally, it is rare that people are satisfied with their innate self-image when it comes to physical beauty— though, this notion is even more amplified among Asian-American culture.
Extreme Makeover mostly presents the working middle class Caucasian women in ages roughly twenty-five to forty-five who are the major target for cosmetic surgery and reasonably, a substantial piece of the audience. Instead of plainly displaying a progression in which the participant’s appearance is suddenly reformed, the show tells the narrative of a normal individual revolutionizing his or her life. Extreme Makeover brilliantly exploits participants’ transformation stories and thus normalizes the audience into thinking their external looks must parallel with their inner ideals. With this mindset, cosmetic surgery is less about becoming physically attractive and more about becoming the inner self: by expanding the space that were disagreed or considered
Thesis Statement: Since the media has placed remarkable pressure on the physical imperfections of women, the majority of females nowadays are unable to understand the fact that getting their face reconstructed to fit society’s concept of beauty is definitely not the way to promote beauty.
The article, “About Face” (2015) by Patricia Marx discusses the overwhelming appeal of plastic surgery in South Korea. She travelled to Seoul, South Korea to get a closer look at the importance of plastic surgery here. In her research she discovers that South Korea is the plastic surgery capital of the world with appearance being incredibly important in attaining a job, spouse, or approval from one’s own family. The author also found that the most popular surgeries including double-eyelid surgery, nose jobs, and jaw-slimming surgery. The article proves how important body image is in society.
Smith focuses on Koreans’ desire to achieve or acquire Caucasian like features. He examines South Korean history in order to uncover the reasons why plastic surgery became so important in South Korean culture. He also explains the benefits of having an attractive appearance not only for social purposes but also for work.
107) Second, magazines geared toward women often run stories focusing on the ordinary woman’s experiences with surgery of the benefits of surgically improving one’s appearance. Also, advertisements typically promote the benefits of cosmetic surgery using gendered stereotypes, with men represented as concerned with virility and professional competitiveness whereas women are investing in aesthetic improvements. Therefore, the idea of personal transformations and self-improvement is not particularly novel but standard approach that has become entrenched in mass media representations of cosmetic surgery (Adams, 2009, p. 108). However, the potential health risks are downplayed and negative outcomes are attributed to the unpredictability of the aesthetic results or poor surgeon selection. More importantly, these frames tend to diverge from the actual surgical experience, which rather being neat and instantaneous, is often complex and painful. Nevertheless, it is the media-mediated frame that dominates the broader social discussion of cosmetic surgery and often reduces it to a consumable lifestyle option as opposed to a complicated medical procedure fraught with potential risks and uncertainties.
Plastic Surgery has become a worldwide epidemic in today’s world. The number of plastic surgeries continues to increase since 2010. In today’s day and age, plastic surgery is one of the most popular and requested procedures. Females are opting to have plastic surgery because they dislike their body image. Society has impacted many people by brain washing them to believe that a person’s body has to be perfect. In order for one to be considered beautiful, television and media influence people’s perceptions of beauty.
“Don’t like the way you look? Ready for a quick and easy change? We can help you with one simple cosmetic surgery.” We have all heard or seen advertisements like this on television or in magazines, but why is cosmetic surgery so appealing to people, especially women? Cosmetic surgery is used all over the world to enhance one’s features and make people “happy,” but is it worth it? Is it beauty or is it a beast having cosmetic surgery done? There are many options and things to consider when thinking about getting any kind of surgery. Body image is a huge aspect especially when there is a demand for beauty by society. The cost of cosmetic surgery and the dangers are also something to take into consideration, but there are many positives in getting this type of surgery.
We live in a society where people worship beauty. As far as recorded history people have gone to extremes to seek beauty. From foot binding in China to wearing strangulating corsets in Victorian era. People from different race and culture have experimented in every way possible way to look beautiful prior to this popular age of plastic surgery. It’s very common to hear people complain about their appearance, whether it’s their crocked nose, thin lips or flat chest. Remarkably, plastic surgery has been the solution for people who complain. Most people tend to think of plastic surgery as only cosmetic surgery and not as reconstructive surgeries. Plastic surgeries seems to be an invention of modern technology; however its roots lie in the ancient history of India. An Indian surgeon contributed towards the establishment of plastic surgery, it was intended to correct physical deformities acquired during birth, accident, disease or war. These surgeries did not gain the popularity it has today until the First World War. It was during the late 60’s, when doctors started realizing the endless possibilities of plastic surgeries. With the help of this surgery a trained surgeon can replace an amputate body part, remove skin cancer, get rid of unattractive scars and visible birthmarks or rescaling a nose or enhance body parts. Today more and more people from different age groups opt for plastic surgeries to obtain dramatic physical changes. These surgeries were envisioned to restore
The people of South Korea have a strong connection to plastic surgery which is evident by its usage among both women and men. According to a statistics website called nationmaster.com about 20% of the Korean population have had some kind work done on them. It is estimated that women between the ages of 20 and 50 years old underwent the knife for some reason, be it eyelid surgery or a nose job. While the act of cosmetic surgery mainly occurs in women, it has estimated that about 44% of college men think about getting plastic surgery at some point in their lives (nationmaster.com). In 2010 the number of Korean men who had cosmetic surgery was around 15% based on the Korean Association for Plastic Surgeons estimations. Any attempts to explain the high popularity of cosmetic surgery in South Korea mostly frames it in two ways: 1) Koreans have the desire to look more like white people or 2) according to feminists it is the continued subjection of women to patriarchal ideas. (Kim 2009). However, this is a very limited way of explaining why plastic surgery is so important to in South Korea because the issue is more complex than that. The plastic surgery world of South Korea shows a struggle between what they believe is beautiful, what the world and social status believes is beautiful, and what their culture believes is beautiful.