Socio-Pathological Beauty Standards

By Chuchu Liao / Fall 2019

Before starting my paper, I want to ask a question to my readers. How will you feel if you are judged because you don’t apply makeup? I guess most people would feel angry or ridiculous. We trust that women have the right not to make up. However, in South Korea, people believe women have the responsibility to wear makeup when they are not at home. Wearing makeup is basic social etiquette. We can see a clear example of this. A girl had no makeup in Starbucks and was heckled by another customer. The reason was she made him uncomfortable. Starbucks replied: “Sorry to make you feel this, we will deal with it.” It is annoying when I say the reply because this conveys that not only girls value their faces, but also the whole society overlooks them. Another experience comes to mind: When I was traveling in South Korea, I was shocked there were streets and streets of cosmetic shops with the same brands in different sizes in Seoul. Even if the cosmetic stores were so dense, the stores were full of people. The social system here is pathological. In order to make sense of this issue, we need to consider their history related to the dominant ideologies. Women are especially impacted by this problem. It is the elephant in the room. I know if women break the solidified rules, then men will be shocked and panic because their authority and privilege will be challenged. However, for the bright future of females, we should stand together to face these abnormal, impossible beauty standards.

To fully understand why South Koreans accept these beauty standards, we cannot skip their history. The American government sent the military troops to South Korea in 1953, at the end of World War Two. Korean forces are under the control of the USA. If a nation relies on another country to protect its citizens, its politics is also controlled by that country. In this case, America exports its culture to Korea. Under the dominance of the USA, Korean people believe whiteness is superior to darker skin. Then at the beginning of this century, the Korean government imitated the Hollywood style to produce their films, TV programs, and music to strengthen the development of the cultural industry. Professor Jin mentioned “k-pop songs are almost the same as American pop songs. They love to hire American music producers to create the songs. (para.7)” On this point, we can say that Korean culture is westernized. These cultural products transmit beauty standards to the mass public. People accept western countries’ dominant ideologies---- white supremacy, sexist standards, and consumerism. They should be attractive when they are outside, be as pale as possible, have double eyelids and V-shape face and wear a size 0 dress.

After having the idea about the connection between these beauty standards and history, we realize that women are the victims of these unfair criteria. We can get the sense of this by reading the data from cosmetic market. The data reveals the beauty pressure of women to us. According to the statistics from the Korean Cosmetic Association, “South Korea is the 8th largest cosmetics market in the world. In 2017, the market size was estimated to be $8.8 billion (Para.1)” The Amore Pacific Group can rely on the single industrial structure of cosmetics to become Korea's sixth-largest chaebol with 3.5 trillion won, only behind the established consortia such as Samsung and Hyundai. Most products aim at female and are consumed by them. Before they apply makeup, they have to go through 10 steps of skin routine. Also, we have to face the problem of plastic surgery in South Korea. Alexandra, the journalist from The New York Times, mentioned “It[South Korea] has the highest rate of cosmetic surgery per capita, over 80% of Koreans admit they have done the surgeries, and it keeps rising (Para.5).” While more and more men are doing the surgery, still most plastic surgery hospitals focus on their female consumers. K-pop stars who often get extensive who often get the extensive cosmetic surgery are held up as the standard.

Social media such as YouTube and Instagram are also aggressively promoting this abnormal beauty standard to girls. They play the role of an accomplice that brainwashes people’s minds. There are a large number of YouTubers who have hundreds of subscriptions and thousands of playbacks. For example, Pony is one of the most popular bloggers in South Korea. She has 5.37 million subscribers on YouTube and 6.8 million followers on her Instagram. She provides fancy tutorials on how to apply makeup. On the Instagram, before posting a selfie, girls need to wear makeup, to find the angles for better photos. After shooting the picture, they use photoshop to make them more perfect. They barely upload the “unprocessed” photos. Girls are bombarded with these kinds of information all day long. Under the influence of beauty standards, it causes social inequality.

Korean women are especially impacted by these pathological beauty standards, and another alarming trend is that females are getting more pressure at a younger age. Koreans treat the manner of makeup as a family etiquette. They have learned how to makeup since their childhood, especially girls. Some of them know they will do plastic surgery at a very young age. Kim Ji-Yeon is one of the examples. She knew she wanted plastic surgery when she was 7. For the next 13 years, she destroyed photos of herself until her parents paid for double jaw surgery, a procedure that requires breaking the jaw to realign it. Korean cosmetic manufacturers have realized it is a huge business opportunity to develop cosmetics specifically for young children. They, as accomplices, foment the ideologies of appearance. Korean students have a lot of pressure among study. However, when opening their backpacks, you will see the stationery and different kinds of cosmetic products. These examples are keeping tell us, females, no matter the age of them are the victims of this system.

Before solving the problem, we need to explore why it is difficult to break the beauty standards and address the problems. South Korea is under the control of the USA for decades. It is influenced by western countries. South Korea is a highly patriarchal society, the female is on the weak side. People think that women are inferior to men. They are not dominant in the culture. This has resulted that women’s voices are not being taken seriously. According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Female representation in high-level government positions in South Korea stands at a mere 6.7%, This figure is significantly lower than the OECD average of 28.6% (para.1). Another analysis of the semi-annual reports of Korea’s 100 largest public companies (in terms of sales) released by recruitment firm Unico Search on Oct. 29 found that there were 244 female executives, only 3.6% of the total of 6,932 executives. Even worse, 44 of 100 companies do have a single female executive (Hankyoreh, para.2). These invariably highlight the absolute leadership of men in society, and they set criteria for female appearance. The criteria have continuously promoted the spread of lookism throughout Korean society, and at the same time due to the set of solidified beauty standards formed by the makeup culture, it has also become a shackle of women's liberation of their non-makeup right. It is hard for them to challenge the beauty standards, which have existed for a long time and has been accepted by most people.

After discussing the largest obstacle, the ideology of women’s objectification, we now come up with some principles to make society progress. Standing on the other side of the beauty standards is an actual feminist movement. Very similar to “No more Miss America”, a protest was set up in 1968, Korea females are also conducting a movement, named “Escape the corset”. During the movement, they throw their feminine products, such as fake eyelashes, girdles, and high heels, and protest the strict beauty standards by destroying their cosmetic products. This movement espouses feminist principles that allow women to understand that they have the right to go out without makeup. It challenges the long-standing male-dominated control in South Korea. Empowered by this movement, women use social media to deliver the powerful idea that we, women, have the right to reject these abnormal standards. For instance, Lina Bae, a celebrity who gives makeup tutorials on YouTube, uploaded a video titled “being not perfect is okay”. In the video, she shows her bare face to the followers. Her video gives the courage to girls. They are heartened to go out with their pure faces. Besides uploading videos on social media, female celebrities can be the pioneers to practice this right on the TV or in the workplace. Yim Hyun-ju, a national broadcaster, is one of the examples. She decided to wear her glasses on her morning news show on April 12. Her fake eyelashes were making her eyes so tired that she was going through a bottle of artificial tears every day. Even though she was reproached by her producers and was complained by audiences but women came up to her in public to thank her. Now she wears her glasses from time to time, an act that she sends viewers a message to judge her based on her competence and not her appearance.

We’ve seen how celebrities can adopt these feminist principles, now let’s see how the mass women can act in the daily life. They need to establish a feminist organization, such as the "Women's Political Participation Association" set up by American women in 1890 to fight for women's right to vote. Under the help of this organization, they can speak out their wills, thoughts, and hope. Women who have been suppressed for nearly a thousand year in a country like South Korea, they need to unite together, standing in front of this patriarchy society to say no to the men’s game rule. These guidelines are for women to have an equal dialogue with men, to make noise in this fast-speed society.

If Korean women successfully achieve this goal, they will be able to better realize their self-worth. The confidence from the self-fulfillment will create greater social value, not just as a vassal of men. Productivity determines the production relationship, and the economic foundation determines the superstructure. This increasing social value will help them fight for the rights or become the cornerstone of the power that has been secured. More practically, they will reduce the use of cosmetics, will be able to wear glasses to go out and not care about the eyes of others, and will no longer be criticized or even asked why they do not make up. Of course, this does not mean that they no longer wear make-up, but they do not need to cater to, or even please, others. They apply makeup simply because of their happiness or need. And more importantly, they will no longer care too much about their appearance and thus transfer their money from expensive and complicated cosmetics to other places that can enhance their inner self. More and more women will transform from housewives to social women to form a true "feminine liberation".

The female fight for the rights is not only for themselves but also for every human being in the present and future. History repeats in every generation. American females experienced “no more Miss American” movement last century. In the manifesto, they revealed “Conformity is not the key to the crown---and, by extension, to success in our society. (P.215)” In this generation, Korean females are experiencing the similar feminist movement. They gather together to protest against sexual harassment, unequal laws, and rigid beauty standards. This movement shakes up politics and society under a deep patriarchy culture. Moreover, the female opposes the beauty standards is opposing the suppression. This is the ideological progress brought by the continuous development of the economy. We fighting for our rights, and also work for the next generation. In the future, Korean women should not be “forced” to make up, nor should they be told "You should" do something. Everyone has their own choices. They choose their own way. They choose their own life by setting up a new female image while eliminating and weakening the beauty standards. So why not giving a hand to Korean women? We can stand together to change society's stereotypes about the sexes, and eliminate the traditions of sexuality. If we hold hands together, we can give a push back to these abnormal impossible beauty standards. We can create a more equal society. The elephant is in the room. We cannot deceive ourselves.

Work Cited

Fudan University Korean Introduction Department. “Talking about the Hanization and Westernization of South Korea”. 2017.3.31.

Hankyoreh. S. Korean glass ceiling proves durable for high-level government positions. 3.19.2019

Hankyoreh. S. Korean women comprise 3.6% of top corporate executives. 10.30.2019

Korea Cosmetic Association (KCA), Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. 8.29.2019.

Morgan, Robin. No More Miss America. 1968.

Stevenson, Alexandra. South Korea Loves Plastic Surgery and Makeup. Some Women Want to Change That. The New York Times. 11.23.2018