The
readings for today discussed the debate on whether or not plastic surgery,
specifically cosmetic surgery, is being used by Asian individuals as a method
to become more ‘Western’ looking. The argument runs in two directions: on one
side, people argue that Koreans who get these surgeries are motivated by
Western beauty and have the goal of becoming more Caucasian looking, whereas the other
side argues that there are several other factors involved to motivate someone
to endure the pain and cost of plastic surgery. The author of the BuzzFeed
piece seemed to be narrow minded when analyzing Leo Jiang. In my opinion it is
hard to believe that Leo Jiang change this whole appearance solely because he
wanted to look more ‘white.’ Mr. Jiang speaks of the success and joy he has
received from plastic surgery and the opportunities that have sprung up from
participating in such body-modifying alterations. Yet he still wants to learn
to speak his native language? Is this man confused about his identity and does
not know which ethnicity he wants to represent? Or is the author of the reading
oversimplifying the situation and not looking deeper into the reasoning why Leo
Jiang would endure such surgery? I side with oversimplification of the
situation. Having a crest in one’s eyelid is not exclusively a white
characteristic. Here is a picture of different races and how the post-surgery
appearance of blepharoplasty (double-eyelid) surgery can be relatable to all of
these races and not just Caucasians.
Blepharoplasty
surgery before/after:
Now,
the eyelids of other races:
My point is that
someone cannot generalize that Koreans getting these surgeries are trying to be
“white.” Rather, they are trying to improve their appearance as a Korean. An
overwhelming majority of these Koreans most likely want to continue to hold onto
their ethnicity and not throw it away to become another race.
In the reading, “Gender,
Globalization, and Cosmetic Surgery in South Korean,” it discusses the
popularity of plastic surgery in South Korean. However, the difference between
this reading and the BuzzFeed reading is the fact that the authors give more
insight on the underlying motivations for someone to get plastic surgery. They
point to reasons such as, coming of age, caring for oneself, marking social
status and success, and increasing opportunities. I believe that these
individuals are partaking in plastic surgery mainly to improve their
appearances to conform to what ‘their’ society sees as beauty and not because
they want to erase their ethnicity in an attempt to become white. I understand
that Western society has huge influence throughout the world and many of you
may side with the BuzzFeed author with regards to Koreans consciously getting
plastic surgery to become whiter, however, it is important to see this
phenomenon in a light that does not focus on ‘whiteness.’
One thing that I thought was really
interesting was that Gangnam is a region that is known for being a plastic
surgery mecca. Everyone knows the song Gangnam Style but few Americans know the
message behind the song: that Gangnam is seen as “affluent and aspiration.” The
music video demonstrates this clearly. When watching this music video, focus on
the girls that are represented.
Every single one
of them conforms to the idealistic look Koreans want, specifically, having
“soft” facial appearances. Overall, my main argument is that Koreans endure so
much plastic surgery because they see videos such as Gangnam Style or they see
other successful Asian individuals and therefore are influenced to look like
those individuals. The large majority does not intentionally alter their
appearance to become another race.
The discussion of cosmetic surgery in any culture generates some interest. I think the reasons behind wanting some type of surgery are similar across countries and cultures. Some people wish to alter a displeasing aspect of their body or they wish to appear more like a public figure or some other model appearance. Some Koreans wanted to appear to fit the modeled appearance while others were more concerned with "fixing" something. However, surgery can become quite the slippery slope and result in excess. They are plenty of Western examples of over doing cosmetic surgery. Your mention of Gangnam style is interesting, as the song begins to make a little more sense given the context of the material.
ReplyDeleteCosmetic surgery is and has been used by people for a wide variety of different reasons. Some individuals utilize it for health reasons, others for beauty reasons. I think that cosmetic surgery can be a positive thing in many situations. It can be used to help people deformed in accidents or burns, or even just to help someone’s self-esteem in some situations. It is this slippery slope that has been mentioned that is the problem. There can be too much and many times it can be for the wrong reasons. I found it surprising that in the reading by Holliday 80 percent of job recruiters took physical appearance highly into consideration. This forces young men and women to feel they need these dangerous and unnecessary procedures. People should be able to be comfortable with who they are and not be pushed into these superficial acts of changing their bodies.
ReplyDeleteLike Lucas, I believe plastic surgery can be a positive thing. I do not think that all people choose to get plastic surgery solely to look more white but to look more attractive. Although what is "attractive" is socially constructed, it still is more than just looking like a different race. One of the readings talked about how koreans getting breast implants are "westernizing" their bodies while american women getting breast implants are "feminizing" themselves. I think getting a breast implant anywhere should be "feminizing" not taking on qualities of a seperate race. I think plastic surgery could be a positive thing because it helps people gain confidence in themselves and how they look. If someone doesnt like the way they look and are able to modify their body to their liking, why wouldn't you?
ReplyDeleteI think you make some really interesting points, and I agree with your commentary. I found the idea of "westernization" a very interesting one. An entire race of people wanting to look like "white," a simple privilege that I take for granted on a daily basis. I thought that the Holliday article brought up a very interesting point. In countries like Korea, breast augmentations, eye lifts, and the like are seen as attempts to look more "western." Rather in America, these same surgeries aren't seen as white people trying to look more white, but as an attempt to look more beautiful. There is certainly an intense double standard at play here. If a black woman wanted to undergo surgery to make her skin lighter, there would be a steep amount of controversy surrounding it, yet when an asian woman wants to have a double eye lift (essentially a surgery to make her eyes "whiter") it is seen as far less outrageous, even normal to some. It's very concerning to me that the standard for beauty has become that of white, Western beauty. The characters portrayed on stage and screen don't just determine our standards for beauty in America and the rest of the Western world, they have infiltrated countries and entire continents the world over and are now the standard to which millions of people are holding themselves to. This is just another example of outward appearance being used to create a system of privilege and exclusion.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with your point regarding the need to for the majority not needing to alter their race, but that's because the majority can not afford it. What I find interesting is that Korean women want to be socially accepted as beautiful, but use surgery to look more Caucasian or white. However, is that standard of beauty changing for white women as well? I’ve noticed for a while that in the media, bigger is better, bigger butts and bigger lips. What’s crazy is that these anatomical body features are associated with African American. Although it’s popular now, these voluptuous curves weren’t always popular. So are these white women trying to be Black? I doubt it, but similar to Korean women they follow society’s changing beauty standards, but they have the ability to actually choose. In an article titled “I want a bigger Butt” on the daily beast, “a former Miss Argentina died while having plastic surgery to sculpt her buttocks”. It’s not just Asian women that look to change what it means to be beautiful. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071230145611AALUAuR
ReplyDeleteI thought that they were making another argument against this idea that plastic surgery in other countries is primarily to make a person look more white. In the Holliday article, they give the example of breast augmentation as one of the most popular forms of plastic surgery in both Korea and in the U.S. The article said that if American naturally have larger breasts then why is that the one of the most popular surgeries? Instead it would seem that both women in the U.S. and women in south Korea have small breasts and are ascribing to a beauty trend rather than a depiction of whiteness. Beauty trends can be different in different countries, it doesn't all have to follow a model of whiteness, to say that it does is rather narcissistic on our part. When listening to the audio video, it struck me that it is common for girls in South Korea to be judged on appearance when applying for University. As the video pointed out, it is common practice for of two girls applying with the same qualifications, the prettier girl gets the job. This could be also be why the cosmetic surgery market is growing in South Korea, not necessarily to appear more white to compete with white people but to appear more attractive within their own culture with its own specific beauty trends.
ReplyDeleteGreat critique of the article. There is definitely more at play than just the whitening/westernization of Korean women in this piece. With the Holliday article evaluating that Whitening is not the main reason for Korean women to undergo plastic surgery, they also give not so subtle hints to the discourse of how white women are beyond having their race being the sole motivator for the high amount of plastic surgery in the United States. Only races other than white women are westernizing/whitening themselves to adhere to the beauty standards. In reality, Korean women are faced with cultural pressures on their own side as you reiterated from the Holliday piece. The need to be beautiful as described by Neo-Confucianism for Korean women is a strong underlying cause for this large occurrence of plastic surgery in the East. But again, a strong underlying cause that does not inherently explain the entire reasoning. Race does in fact play a role in the debate but to what extent is arguable.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you and Holliday et al. that Koreans are not getting reconstructive surgery for the sole purpose of becoming white, but for other purposes such as being happy and confident and being accepted into the more affluent society. However, all those reasons exist because of underlaying social pressure to conform to the standard of beauty, which happens to be white middle class. You state that they are trying to approve their appearance as Koreans, but they are choosing to emphasize exclusively non-Korean features. In the Holliday piece, the authors state that Koreans are trying to replicate the appearances in anime and manhwa, which are large eyes, smooth features, and overall youthful appearance. Although anime and manhwa have already westernized the characters featured in their works. Take Sailor Moon for example, a highly popular anime and manga in Japan and US. The main character is a tall, skinny, blonde hair, blue eyed white girl who fights crime with girl power in Tokyo. Young Japanese girls look up this figure and want to be her, but they obviously are not capable of replicating the appearance. Although Koreans do not whole heartedly want to be white, so many popular and coveted things in society replicate this "whiteness" that they are unawares of their conformation to westerners.
ReplyDeleteI thought your interpretation of the Gangnam Style video was interesting. I did not make this connection before you pointed it out. I think what women in society consider beautiful changes every day. It does not matter what race you are, if big bright eyes are in style then women who can afford it will get surgery to make this happen. I agree with Jihads comment when he says "white" girls want big lips and butts because that is what society views as beautiful characteristics; not because they want to be black. This brings up the case of Julie Chen we previously looked at. Julie's boss said that she looked disinterested and bored when interviewing people and because of that she would be fired. Feeling degraded for her Asian facial characteristics, Chen under went cosmetic surgery to open her eyes more, similar to that of a white girls. In my opinion, Chen did not undergo this surgery because she wanted to be more "white"; she just wanted to keep her job, therefore she had the surgery. Is white the standard? I do not think so. I think beauty is created by all races in society and women strive to be beautiful by this image, not because they want their race to change.
ReplyDeleteI guess my question would then be why does this popular surgery increase status and feelings of happiness? How does this surgery make one more beautiful? I think the point of today was to see how bodies can be permanently altered to fit a possibly non-permanent social construct of beauty. Beauty trends change and people use their bodies to express these trends, from hair cuts to muscles to weight ect, but how does this expression change when you make a permanent change with a possibly fluid ideal of beauty? Plastic surgery is very popular and we hear that breast implants are the most done, along with nose jobs, but there are also many instances where women who once feel empowered by these changes begin to regret going under the knife and they get the implants removed or try to undo a procedure that is more difficult to reverse. As people have pointed out white american women undergo a lot of plastic surgery and people asked doesn't this then show it is not only used for westernization? Well we have read how people alter their bodies to fit beauty ideals, maybe these american women felt they didn't fit the young beautiful perfect unattainable (naturally) ideal here either? These individuals are altering a part of themselves that is natural and normal. Maybe subconsciously they are trying to fit the stereotypical current ideal of beauty?
ReplyDeleteI also agree that cosmetic surgery could be a positive thing. Done people just aren't happy with the way they look and want to alter it, but it's just important that they are doing it for themselves and not to get someone else's approval. It's kinda like getting braces, that's cosmetic, no you don't have to forgo surgery but it still takes a great amount of pain to have a beautiful smile that is also considered cosmetic. The holiday article points out that the Korean woman have these surgeries to westernize themselves and look more white, when the white woman that have the privilege of being white already have these cosmetic surgeries to become the "beautiful" that society portrays. I like how you explained the Gangman style song, it goes hand in hand with the material and I would have never put two and two together.
ReplyDeleteTaylor, I think your post does a great job highlighting the difference between popular explanations for the status of plastic surgery in countries like South Korea (e.g. the one from the Stokel-Walker piece) and the more complex reasoning that Holiday and Elfving-Hwang provide. I too found myself more persuaded by their multifaceted argument, but I would also add that accepting their conclusions does not necessarily require an endorsement of cosmetic surgery. The fact that men and women are willing to pay thousands of dollars to permanently alter themselves for the social benefits it provides is a clear indication of a hierarchy in the process of being constructed. The only real difference I see is that gender, race, and sexuality aren’t so much the axis of the hierarchy as they are influencers of it—the overall package of appearance is becoming the key in determining privilege. As long as some people have better access to altering their appearance, blatant inequality will persist.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Koreans are not trying to become white, Instead I think they are trying to become more beautiful and to them that means soft features that just so happen to also be features of the white race. However like Holiday points out, if Asian women are having breast enlargement surgeries because their breasts are known to be small, and breast augmentation is the most popular form of cosmetic surgery in the west, then the procedure can't be a westernizing one. It is also unrealistic to only provide one theory of why people are undergoing cosmetic surgery. In Iran, the women there are oppressed and the only thing they can spend their time on is their family, cooking, cleaning, and beauty. The most popular procedure done there is rhinoplasty, and these women will leave their bandages on for much longer than they were told to because the face is the only part of the body they can show off and if you see a bandage on a woman's nose you know she must have money. In this case, the women aren't as concerned with the appearance as they are with the status. When you live in a patriarchal society you tend to imitate the appearance of those with status, so I think plastic surgery is done not out of wanting to look white, but wanting to look powerful.
ReplyDeletePlastic surgery is a big topic that arises for foreigners. They goal is really to look as "white" as they possibly can make their physical appearance. I support many foreigners decision to get plastic surgery. America is a very bias country that will stop a person from working a career that they want too because of their physical appearance. In Leo Jiang case people weren't satisfied with how she looked on TV so Leo had surgery done to change her image to the viewers liking. She is really satisfied with her appearance but the negative thing about the surgery is that she lose her ties to her culture. It takes away from who she really is. I agree with the second reading because it gives more valid reasons on why a person would get plastic surgery. "Western" appearance is what is portrayed as beauty today which is a horrible stigma that has been created.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, they may not be fully aware of the underlying pressure from western ideals it seemed to me that a lot of the features Koreans chose to have surgery on did not represent "whiteness". One of the examples Holiday gave was breast augmentation. She discussed how many scholars have seen breast augmentation as a method for Koreans to replicate "whiteness" as one would say. Yet, American women and Korean women have breast augmentation done at similar rates. So we cannot properly assume that Korean women are attempting to look more like white women if they are both altering their bodies to a similar standard. I think what we can assume though is that there is an overarching bodily ideal that is shared amongst our modern cultures. It may be true that this ideal is disproportionally composed of "whiteness" but it is also influenced by the other cultural ideals.
ReplyDeleteI understand why some people see why they would think Koreans getting cosmetic surgery would suggest they do not want to look white, but I totally disagree. They are participating in an elective surgery to conform their body to what Western culture deems beautiful which is the constructed image of the white, beautiful woman, so to say that they are trying to become beautiful signifies their acceptance of the narrative that to be beautiful is to aspire to the white woman portrayed in media texts. Even in the Buzzfeed article, Jiang didn't feel comfortable because of the phenotypes that are biological to his race and wanted to escape that predicament. I think that the cosmetic surgery taking place could be compared to a whole new cultural assimilation to fit in with the Western world so that they are "normal" and "beautiful". It also raises the question as to whether they feel pride in their ethnicity if they are willing to change their physical features to become somebody completely new. #beyourself
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