South Korea taking plastic surgery to the extreme

[Kitteh]

The faces of the 2013 Miss Korea contestants.

South Korea has the highest rate of plastic surgery in the world, with 1 out of 5 women Seoul having had some kind of cosmetic surgery.

This is pretty disturbing. Also interesting to note is that one of the most common procedures is shaping the eyes to make them look "less Asian/more Western".

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Given how Venezuela's economy has been going, it's not surprising that some other country would replace it as the poster child for why too much plastic surgery is a bad thing.

[Lief 🗽]

Eh, I'm sure a Korean person looking at the portraits of the Miss America contestants would think the same thing.

[Beet]

Plastic surgery is the wave of the future (along with designer babies, etc), but I'm not a fan of the particular look. They all look like they have an overbite and a Michael Jackson nose.

[Beet]

This is pretty disturbing. Also interesting to note is that one of the most common procedures is shaping the eyes to make them look "less Asian/more Western".

Advocates would say it's not about being less Asian/more Western, it's simply about having larger eyes, which some Asians naturally have anyway. The doe-eyed look on these Korean women is kind of freaky, though (I don't know if it's the eyes or just the uniform expressions). It's not good if it *always* looks like they're posing or staring straight at you.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Plastic surgery is the wave of the future (along with designer babies, etc), but I'm not a fan of the particular look. They all look like they have an overbite and a Michael Jackson nose.

No.

And yes, this is pretty culturally disgusting. Nothing more to say. (Waiting for someone to come in with a vacuous speech attacking me by saying the word 'empowering' over 8794+ times)

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

You don't get it Gully.  Plastic surgery is empowering these women to choose their own appearance instead of being oppressed by their genetics.  Why should beauty be restricted to a fortunate few?  You should feel empowered by this trend not oppressed. Or perhaps you wish to be one of those who oppress rather than empower.  (Only 8792 more uses of empower to go. 8791 now.)

[Famous Mortimer]

If you have to take a knife to your face to avoid being oppressed, you're still being oppressed.

The way to avoid sexism is to stop judging people by their appearance or at least have more realistic expectations about appearance.

Not to mutilate women so they all conform to the sexists' standards.

[Cory]

The way to avoid sexism is to stop judging people by their appearance or at least have more realistic expectations about appearance.

We're trying to be realistic here.

[Beet]

What about breast implants? Do you guys consider them oppressive? (serious question here.)

Also, what about celebrities like Beyonce wearing a weave, instead of their naturally curly hair? Have they given in to white beauty standards? (also serious Q)

[Lief 🗽]

A cultural standard of beauty that makes a woman think she needs large breasts to be attractive or makes a black woman think her naturally curly hair is ugly is oppressive, yeah. But at the same time people should be allowed to do whatever they want to do with their bodies. It's a tricky subject.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Advocates would say it's not about being less Asian/more Western, it's simply about having larger eyes, which some Asians naturally have anyway.

And why would they want to give themselves eyes that were larger in that particular way? Beauty standards don't exist in a vacuum. (Also, the eyes can be enhanced and made to look larger or differently shaped with makeup, fairly easily actually, but that's neither here nor there.)

This is, in part, an honest question, by the way. I'm not as familiar with what Korean beauty standards historically were like as I am with Japanese.

[danny]

Those women don't actually look that similar, it's photoshop+makeup that make it look that way.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Those women don't actually look that similar, it's photoshop+makeup that make it look that way.

Probably true. I doubt every single contestant pictured there had plastic surgery, though a fairly large number did no doubt.

What about breast implants? Do you guys consider them oppressive? (serious question here.)

Also, what about celebrities like Beyonce wearing a weave, instead of their naturally curly hair? Have they given in to white beauty standards? (also serious Q)

Calling breast implants "oppressive" is quite strong. More like ugly and almost always unnecessary. However they aren't too common in the real world and it's not like most women can afford them anyway. And are almost never spoken of positively.

The latter is no more "oppressive" than someone dyeing their hair.

[Velasco]

What about breast implants? Do you guys consider them oppressive? (serious question here.)

It depends. Dolly Parton's are really oppressive, literally speaking. However, I'm totally in favour of reconstructive surgery and plastic surgery may be right if you have some physical flaws that affect your self esteem. Many people can live with the ears of the Prince Charles but an excessively hooked nose may be a drama to others.  I see plastic surgery as a personal question and one of proportions (Dolly Parton's boobs are disproportionate, not to mention other celebrities, porn stars and the like) and, though I believe in the freedom of choice, I think that some patients need psychological evaluation. There are too many dishonest doctors and surgeons as well. Michael Jackson is an obvious example of a person with psychological issues (and loads of money to waste) surrounded by a bunch of vultures and the aesthetic result of plastic surgery on him is well known.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Those eyes do look kind of weird, but I don't think they're trying to look more white.

[Hatman 🍁]

Personally, I think breast implants are oppressive. But that might be because I think they are disgusting to look at.