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"Pretty is a small head, big eyes, and high nose and forehead," she says earnestly. She's elbowed by her classmate Kang NaYeon on her left, and she shrugs and looks up again. "Eyes there were slanty and sleepy." Seonghee giggles and hides behind her long bangs. "Older standards of beauty were big body, wide hips, and good to make baby," says Bae Seonghee, a 16-year-old schoolgirl from Gumi, South Korea. This is in direct contrast to the identikit images of contestants in pageants over the last decade, where contestant pageant teams often feature a consulting surgeon on staff. Women were expected to enhance rather than alter their physical beings. Beauty in the 1960s had a very natural slant to it. Miss 1960's face is full, her nose is flat, and her eyes are small. Mihija Sohn, Miss Korea 1960 looks nothing like Sung-hye Lee, the winner of Miss Korea 2012. K-pop group Girls' Generation performing in Seoul (Jo Yong-Hak/Reuters ) This popularity - and the value placed on the surgery behind the stars - has meant that South Korea is now synonymous with medical tourism, and has established itself as an epicenter for all sorts of cosmetic surgery. K-pop culture - think "Gangnam Style" - and its look have spread across East Asia and into the Asian community in the United States. K-pop has created a completely new beauty aesthetic that nods to Caucasian features but doesn't replicate them. Feminist criticisms of body objectification are barely heard, and the racial argument that this surgery is a form of "trying to look white" has faded - due to the rise of Korean pop music culture.
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A powerful Korean consumer culture over the past two or three decades has made Korean women equate beauty with professional and economic success. Remarkably, one in five South Korean women has had some form of cosmetic surgery, compared to around one in 20 in the U.S., according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. To understand why, you have to go to South Korea. But the danger and the physical pain - and the possible confusion of seeing a totally different person in the mirror - is seen as a small price to pay by many Korean American women. The jaws are wired together for six weeks, and it can take six months for the swelling to disappear. You could have permanent numbness, and there have been cases where people have died from this operation." It does have an aesthetic benefit, but that's not why we do it. "This is first and foremost a functional procedure for when teeth are misaligned. "I perform corrective jaw surgery," he says. Koslovsky, a maxillofacial surgeon at Columbia College of Dental Medicine, performs the V-line operation regularly, though he has a different name for it. My wants may be drastic, but I'm not trying to look exactly like someone else."ĭr. "I hope to achieve a slimmer, oval face from the procedure," Kim says. The V-line shape gives the face a certain fragility, and its childlike appeal has won Kim over. This surgery is popular amongst young Korean pop stars, who have their faces reshaped to give them elfin, anime-like appearances. It involves breaking and shaving the jawline to create a V-shaped face. Kim recently read about a relatively new cosmetic procedure that is colloquially known as V-line surgery. One in five South Korean women has had some form of cosmetic surgery, compared to around one in 20 in the United States. None of these operations, however, are as radical as what she wants to do next. "I found out about this when I was in elementary school." "My cousin had her nose and eyes done, my mom had her eyes done, and my aunts had noses and eyes done, all in Korea," she says. Kim hopes to study psychology when she goes to college, but she's deferring for a year so she can work and save money for more surgery. And why shouldn't she? Her mother and aunts have all had similar operations.
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Kim had full support from her family for these operations. These have given her eyes a Western crease and made her nose small and high. Unhappiness with appearance is de rigueur for many teenagers, but for Korean Americans perhaps more than any other ethnic group, this is increasingly being addressed with a scalpel.Ĭalifornia-born Kim has already undergone two procedures: a nose job and double eyelid surgery. Her reflection fuels a cosmetic surgery wish list - bigger lips, higher cheeks, and a more delicate chin. Her face is too round, she thinks her lips too thin, her nose not quite right. When 17-year-old Hailey Kim looks in the mirror, she doesn't see a pretty person.