East Asian Beauty Standards

East Asian Beauty Standards

The physically destructive expectations carried on through tradition

당신은 아름답다 ?

"Are you beautiful?" in Hangul

"It's Official: South Korea Has the World's Highest Rate of Cosmetic Plastic Surgery, But..." South Korea Has World's Highest Rate of Cosmetic Plastic Surgery. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2016.

"Before & after of Idol Edited Pictures." K-POP, K-FANS. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2016.

Wen, Liu. "Liu Wen, the First Asian Spokesmodel for Estée Lauder, Writes About Changing Beauty Ideals." N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2016

What does it mean to be beautiful? Is it tan skin, high cheek bones, full lips, and elegant curves? or is it pale skin with soft features resembling youth?

Ethos

Beauty is indescribable for it is a definition made to be interpreted. In some places with a vast interpretation and others strict to the point of unhealthy. Especially commonly known in areas of Eastern asia.

I have found my information through much extensive research done on east asia, modern and ancient to provide the most accuate information possible. Sources steming from images of bound feet in ancient China to advertisments of skin whitening products sold in South Korea.

"Every now and then I was told, “You’re beautiful.” Hearing this always brought a slight shock at first. After years of receiving the opposite sentiment, it wasn’t so easy to accept the word beautiful. I thought people were using the most general description to accommodate my limited vocabulary, and so I moved on with job after job, nodding at the occasional compliment while never fully believing them. In truth, the word was even less familiar to me than the new place I called home."

- Liu Wen, the first Asian spokesmodel for Estee Lauder

Pathos

Julianna's story

http://www.koreaboo.com/featured/korean-american-girl-shamed-looks-called-south-korea-unrealistic-beauty-standards/

• Many of these problems stem from from ancient tradition and reasoning. One expectation is posessing small arched feet, this all became from the mandatory foot binding that used to take place in China. Breaking and crushing the bones in the foot until maluable over time in the desired position
• Another unrealistic being for nearly all asian women (less commonly but men as well) to have white dewy skin also steming from past tradition.
• Or whether it be pressure from peers to receive plastic surgery for their flat noses, "V face shape"**, or monolids to be beautiful.

반대

"opposition" in Hangul

Logos

Foot Binding

Whitening cream

v face shape surgery

**The "V face" is a face shape considered beautiful in east asian countries, if not naturally then typically surgery is preformed where the jaw bone is shaved down in order to achieve shape. Other non surgical devices are offered as well claiming to "slime the edges of your face".

Despite any possible bias I may have concerning this topic I do understand where this influence comes from. Starting with influential ancient culture. As referenced before Chinese foot binding was one example. Another, being relevant to "white" or "pure" skin. Having tan skin implied you worked outside all day and were apart of the poor working class therefore inferior, meaning pale skin was only possessed by the wealthy becoming admired over time. The modern reason happens to influence its citizens in every part of the world. Media. When looking at K-pop idols from Korea, China, Japan ect. they tend to have a very strict lifestyle with strict physical requirements. Being that these people are their representation, east asian citizens feel pressured to look as they do just like american citizens do towards their media. There are also influences from other countries, when another area may see a person from said country and they have pale skin, a gentle jaw, double eyelids, and a perfect figure, they tend to generalize creating even more pressure to look a certain way for others.

But be this as it may there is no real excuse to continue this type of harmful thought process. The simple solution is for the rest of the world to destroy their generalizations and for the east asian countries themselves to stray from tradition. Straying from tradition is always a scary thing to most being that culture is so important, but without change where would we be?Our evolution and progression in this world wouldn't exist. If there is a time for change it is now for the sake of the millions populating these countries.

The unrealistic standards put upon these citizens cause them to spend thousands of dollars on plastic surgery in order to feel adequate

- The survey to the left shows that the highest plastic surgery rates are taken by east asian countries

Citizens in Japan acknowledge that they are fed up with the standards and have made efforts to rebel against them

- The photo shows a street fashion called ganguro that is being more popular as citizen wear it to protest the expectation of white skin, long black hair, ect.

Tanner K-pop idols are rarely able to debut and made fun of by media as well as pressure to bleach their skin

- If allowed to appear in the first place nearly all pictures of them are edited to make them look pale and white

South Korea 365,000 49,232,000 74

Brazil 1,054,000 193,000,000 55

Taiwan 103,000 22,929,000 44

United States 1,300,000 309,000,000 42

Japan 411,000 127,288,000 32

Thailand 76,000 65,500,000 11

China 1,215,000 1,322,000,000 9

India 683,000 1,184,000,000 6

미디어

"media" in Hangul

Sistar - 씨스타

A popular k-pop group known for challenging the perfect k-pop idol image and keeping tan complexion

Zoë Amowitz

period 4