and how messing with your body can be a horrible thing sometimes...
A young film-maker Kelley Katzenmeyer created this interesting look at Korean education. Specifically in this link is discussed what beauty means to Korean high school girls.
I also recently saw this short article/video on CNN about plastic surgery in South Korea and how Asians want the "western look". The article focuses on a young 12 year old girl (Min-kyong) who wants plastic surgery because she considers her eyes to be too small.
She lacks confidence, explains Min-kyong's mother, a problem she hopes will be solved when her pre-teen undergoes plastic surgery, to westernize her eyes.
"If I get the surgery, my eyes will look bigger," explains Min-kyong. Everyone, she says, points out her small eyes. It's why she doesn't think she's a pretty girl. A surgery which cuts a fold into her eyelid to create a double fold will widen her eyes. The effect will also be to give her a slightly more western look.
Her mother, Jang Hyu-hee, says her daughter didn't ask for the surgery.
"I'm having her do it," says Jang, "because I think it'll help her. This is a society where you have to be pretty to get ahead. She's my only daughter." (emphasis, mine)
But surgery doesn't stop at the eyes, nose, cheekbones, and other body parts. It's become more than cosmetic on the exterior. It's become a little too extreme.
A global ideal doesn't stop at the face, says dental surgeon Jung Hak. Dr Jung says he's been fighting a trend. Korean mothers who have been bringing in their toddlers to have the muscle under the tongue that connects it to the bottom of the mouth surgically SNIPPED. (again, emphasis is mine)
The belief, explains Dr Jung, is that it will help a Korean speak English more clearly. People from the Asia Pacific region have difficulty in pronouncing the "L" sound, says Dr Jung. But he calls the surgery, if it's only for pronunciation, misguided, and caused by the hyper-competitive drive in Korea.
"For 10 years, there's been this crazy drive for early English education. Mothers long for their kids to have better English pronunciation," says Dr Jung.
What makes a person beautiful? Are these surgeries worth it in Korea? What do you think?
1 comment:
I think they should -no they have to- see that the outer beauty isn't that much worth than the inner beauty, what's the most important.
Beauty isn't endless or something everlasting. Everyone will get one day old and wrinkles etc. But that's not my point. My point is a person with a 'pretty' outer appeareance more valuable than one who has some flaws but a great character?
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