A participant of a makeover television program “Let Me In,” suffered from a traumatizing childhood due to her unattrac-tive appearance. By virtue of a $23,100 cosmetic surgery fund-ed by the program, she reshaped her facial features and bodyline, gaining confidence she never had before. Her artificial trans-formation, however, did not disgust viewers. Rather, many sympathized with her story and applauded her change, recog-nizing the benefits of plastic sur-gery.

According to The Econo-mist Online, compared to 2003, when 20.2 percent of survey re-spondents positively considered cosmetic surgery as a mean to fix their facial flaws, in 2006, the number rose to 58.7 percent. As a result of changing attitudes, plastic surgery is no longer a hushed secret for its recipients in Korea.

“I would not say plastic sur-gery is good or bad,” said Amy Thompson, high school coun-selor. “Although plastic surgery [was] a taboo subject in Korea, I know people who have done [surgery] and found it a good experience because they thor-oughly thought over it. There

was something about their looks that made them unhappy and after [the surgery], they had a much better outlook and men-tality.”

Korea lies on the bound-ary between accepting and ex-pecting plastic surgery. Yet the mounting societal pressure to undergo cosmetic surgery is no longer restricted to celebrities and females, but also to men, who feel that the changing per-ceptions will open up new op-portunities. According to Joon-gAng Daily, the number of men seeking cosmetic surgery has increased by 15 percent.

“Living in Apgu, the plastic surgery hub, has given my fam-ily and myself so much exposure to plastic surgery,” Angela Jang (10) said. “My mom often jokes around with me and my brother, suggesting that we should get nose jobs. [Although] she is jok-ing, the fact that plastic surgery for both genders is a topic open enough to laugh about shows how different things have be-come in society since several years ago.”

Well aware of the changing reception to cosmetic surgeries, the plastic surgery industry has used the opportunity to market

its service to a wider age range, especially the younger genera-tion. One hospital at Seocho advertised up to a 50 percent sale for graduates wanting double eyelids. Similar spe-cial sales for stu-dents who have just taken the College Scholastic Abilities Test, the Korean college-en-trance exam, have become popular among cosmetics hospitals. Other clinics provide package products to mothers and daughters, providing the same procedures to avoid sus-picion from their future family members and other acquaint-ances.

“The cultural fad for plastic surgery is becoming too much,” said Julia Kim, Strings director. “Walking by the Gangnam area, I often see people that look like siblings because of surgery. Ko-rea should be frowning, not em-bracing our obsession with plas-tic surgery. It is embarrassing being a part of a culture that is increasingly accepting of its peo-ple losing their uniqueness and personal identity.”

KOREA’S OUTLOOK ON PLASTIC SURGERY SHIFTS OVER PAST DECADE

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People deemed “less at-tractive” received about nine

percent lower wages than their “prettier” counter-parts, according to a study

in 2001 by scientists from the University of Texas.

Lookism, the discrimina-tion of people based on societal notions of beauty, is expected to lead to a growth rate of 30 percent in cosmetic surgery op-erations each year.

The prevalence of lookism was revealed by an experiment by the Uni-

versity of Messina in Italy in August 2013. Ten thousand

identical fake resumes were attached to different head-

shots that varied in attractive-ness. Fifty four percent of the most attractive female job applicants received callbacks, while only seven percent of the less attractive women did.

“If people want plastic surgery, they should be able to get it,” said Jaeha Kim (9), National Honor Society TED Talks speaker on lookism. “The only way to avoid lookism, especially [in the workplace], is to change society’s [per-ceptions of beauty] entirely,

and an individual cannot do that. [Though] it’s not okay to change oneself that easily, the fact that people need looks to [succeed] in our society justi-fies the [reason] many people undergo these procedures.”

A poll conducted by the Dove Corporation’s beauty magazine indicated that one in four parents encouraged their children to undergo plas-tic surgery and that 44 percent of teenagers have considered it. Because of societal pressure to fit Western ideals of beauty including wide eyes with dou-ble eyelids, a high nose and a small, V-shaped face, Kore-ans in particular often resort to plastic surgery. According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, Korea is the most cosmetically enhanced nation in the world.

“From [a foreigner’s per-spective], Korea is a judgmen-tal culture, which leads to an obsession with plastic surgery,” said Gray Macklin, counse-lor. “In the nineties, a female’s diligence was shown by the heavy amount of makeup she wore. It took years of my com-plaining about this complete nonsense to my wife for her

to get past that perception. The obsession with cosmetics back in the nineties and the plastic surgery fever can both be linked to the same Korean judgmental mindset.”

Lookism was brought to court in California by Elysa Yanowitz, former sales man-ager of L’Oreal, in 2005. She claimed that there was a cam-paign to get her to resign be-cause she refused to obey her boss’ orders to fire a worker due to her looks. However, the court dismissed her lawsuit and instead decided that she could sue based on sexual dis-crimination, but not lookism.

“The direct correlation be-tween a person’s attractive-ness and his or her success is going to increase, which raises the question of com-bating lookism,” Angela Yoon (10) said. “However, cases of lookism are not as simple as other discrimination lawsuits because there is no set stand-ard of beauty. The only way to fight lookism is not through the court, but through the media, which has the power to influence Korean society [to] promote natural and innate beauty.”

LOOKISM IN WORKPLACE INSTIGATES PLASTIC SURGERY TREND

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Graphic by Christine LeeSources: Buzzfeed, ABC News,

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