Cultural Post #5

[Sarah Kwon]

For the cultural presentation, I plan to present on the beauty standards of Korea. Korea is known to have very high and unrealistic beauty standards. It is to the point that beauty can even dictate the success of your life and career. Therefore, I would like to present on what their beauty standards are and possible why their beauty standards have become so high. For my learning goals, I would like to learn more about Korean history and Korean government/economic and social issues. I would like to look into this because I believe that the high beauty standards do stem from historical influences but also issues with Korea's current social and economic outlook. 

[Michael Marsh-Soloway]

Great presentation, Sarah. This is a difficult topic to cover. Kristen, you raise an interesting point here. From a sociological standpoint, you could probably make the somewhat controversial argument that cultural conceptions of beauty and pain often go hand in hand. Consider the traditions of neck rings (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neck_ring), foot binding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding), piercings, tattoos, or even the fairly recent Japanese-Canadian trend of forehead bagels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagel_head). I agree this kind of physical manipulation can have unfortunate consequences for body image. The anthropological position would be to describe these phenomena without judging or condoning them, but from a medical perspective, these practices undoubtedly entail deleterious results for an individual's health and wellness. How do you take these considerations into account throughout the course of language and cultural studies?

[Kristen Mejia]

Great job! 

[Kristen Mejia]

I'm really glad that you decided to focus on this! I thought that American beauty standards were extremely unrealistic, but when I became aware of Korea's beauty standards, I was shocked and really disheartened. Living up to unrealistic beauty standards in any culture is difficult, but it seems to be even more heightened in Korea. Also considering that South Korea has a huge plastic surgery industry, these unrealistic images of beauty have a way to become actualized and this could perhaps lead to women morphing their bodies excessively. I also find it interesting that Korean beauty standards are so different from American beauty standards. Americans praise tan skin, while Koreans prefer more pearlescent, light toned skin. Also, makeup trends between the two nations are very different. Overall impossible beauty standards have the potential to ruin young girls' self-esteem and body confidence, therefore, it should not be an issue taken lightly in any culture.