However the rise in requested cosmetic
procedures has been blamed on the
Korean music industry in particular, K-pop.
Recently, PSY the international K-pop star,
revealed that his record label urged him to
get plastic
surgery in order
to become more
successful within
the industry.
The CEO response to that was ‘Just a bit?’
(PSY 2012)
PSY turned down the offers for plastic surgery but later gained international stardom
with his single
‘Gangnam Style’.
“How about we
make him wear a
cool mask?”
“The
agency
heard my raps
and were picturing a 6ft tall, sharp looking, trendy guy. But
the CEO opened our meeting with ‘What
are we going to do with this? How about
we make him wear a cool mask?’”
“Everyone was coming up with ‘solutions’
to my looks problem, they said, ‘How about
a bit of plastic surgery here and there?’
This pressure
applied to the
young
upcoming
stars who are
desperate for
success
is seeing identical westernized
looks spread
across the industry
and consequentially society as
South Koreans all strive to achieve
life’s
greatest accomplishments
via the scalpel.
There is an increasing trend for young Koreans being given
the gift of double eyelid surgery as high
school graduation
presents from their parents in order
for them to pursue
a successful education at universities,
often in the West.
This procedure involves the skin
around the eye being
re-shaped to create a upper eyelid
with crease. This trend
is rapidly reducing the age of
patients receiving plastic
surgery to mid teenage years.
This has caused great
concern so much that in
2011, South Korea’s
Ministry of Education issued a booklet to warn high
school students about
‘Plastic Surgery Syndrome’.
The problem has escalated with strings of surgeries
opening in the affluent South Seoul and Gangnam areas, creating what
is known as South Korea’s ‘Beauty
Belt’. Surgeries
are also heavily advertised around public
transport stations, offering relatively cheap procedures
to create a
‘better you’.
19
Miss Korea 2013 contestants
Despite this plastic bombardment, the
procedures are still seen as a taboo within
Korean society. The public receive surgery just
as casually as westerners get their greys
covered in the hair salon; everyone does it but
not everyone is willing to admit to it. This has
created a blurred vision of what natural
beauty is in Korea and leaves the citizens
questioning who is naturally beautiful and
who has been surgically enhanced. The plastic surgery phenomenon has filtered through
many of Korea’s industries including the beauty industry. This year it has been reported that
plastic surgery is to blame for creating
‘a beauty clone parade’ in the Miss Korea 2013
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