“Every single woman wishes to become more beautiful,” claimed Tracy, a woman in her 20s, who admitted to having surgically enhanced her facial features.
Her simple generalization of the nature of women can explain the obsession with beauty in South Korea. It can account for the tall and skinny girls ubiquitous in South Korea, clad in the latest fashion of jump-suits worn over a white shirt and gladiator-inspired heels; it can also explain the steady rise in sales of cosmetics even when the Korean economy has yet to recover from a downturn.
Fashionable clothing and expensive make up can raise one’s features to a more aesthetically pleasing level. However, while this may satiate some, it is not the case for a significant number of women. They are looking for something more permanent, such as cosmetic surgery.
South Korea belongs in a category of nations in which nose jobs and breast implants are not longer uncommon, but are regular fixtures in society. In fact, according to statistics provided by ARA Consulting, over 30 percent of twenty to fifty-year-old women in South Korea have had some kind of cosmetic procedure last year. While the numbers have declined as a result of the economy recently, the percentage of those willing to undergo surgery is still very high.
This phenomenon is even prominent among students. “Well, this is a bit embarrassing but I want to have my breasts enlarged,” replied Emilly, a high school student, when asked if she would be interested in plastic surgery in the future. “If I get surgery, I would be able to have more confidence in my body.”
Others are more ambiguous in their opinions to plastic surgery. In answer to a question where he was asked if he would mind if his girlfriend decided to receive plastic surgery, a seventeen-year-old boy replied, “I would not like altering my body with a knife, but that is my problem. I mean, if someone is willing to do that and can get prettier along the way, then that is okay.”
Despite all the debate of whether cosmetic surgery is a good thing or not, a number of people will still undergo plastic surgery. in the midst of confusion and opposition over the issue of paying for prettier faces, millions of Koreans, like Tracy, are determined enough to accept whatever consequences there may be. “Of course I had regrets. I used to look at myself in the mirror and say to myself ‘Why did I do this?’ But I eventually let go of my regrets and decided to just live with it.”
What Changes You...? 