instructions posted check.

Gender, Globalization and Aesthetic Surgery in South Korea

Ruth Holliday University of Leeds

Joanna Elfving-Hwang University of Frankfurt

Abstract This article explores the unusually high levels of cosmetic surgery in South Korea – for both women and men. We argue that existing explanations, which draw on feminist and postcolonial positions, presenting cosmetic surgery as pertinent only to female and non-western bodies found lacking by patriarchal and racist/imperialist economies, miss important cultural influences. In particular, focus on western cultural hegemony misses the influence in Korea of national identity discourses and traditional Korean beliefs and practices such as physiognomy. We show how these beliefs provide a more ‘gendered’ as opposed to feminist analysis, which allows space for discussion of men’s surgeries. Finally, we critique the accepted notion of the ‘western body’, especially its position in some literature as a more unobtainable ideal for non-western than for western women. We argue that this body has little in common with actual western women’s bodies, and more in common with a globalized image, embodying idealized elements from many different cultures.

Keywords cosmetic surgery, gender, globalization, Korea, physiognomy

South Koreans’ alleged ‘obsession’ with cosmetic surgery regularly

hits headlines both in Asia and the ‘West’ because of its reportedly

high take-up rate by both women and men. While statistics on the

numbers of people who undergo aesthetic surgery in Korea are not

entirely reliable – since most surgeries take place at private clinics

and the industry in Korea (as elsewhere) is poorly regulated – the

Corresponding author: Ruth Holliday Email: [email protected] http://www.sagepub.net/tcs/

Body & Society 18(2) 58–81

ª The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission:

sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1357034X12440828

bod.sagepub.com

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

numbers seem significant (Yang, 2007). The most recent ‘official’

statistics put the percentage of Koreans undergoing cosmetic surgery

in 2008 at around 20 percent. 1

However, the actual number is likely

to be considerably higher as only a fraction of surgeries are actually

recorded. Clinics offering discounts for cash transactions, though

common, are rarely documented. Moreover, other surveys consis-

tently estimate significantly higher rates, and in 2008 alone, around

30 percent of women between the ages of 20 and 50 underwent some

form of more or less invasive cosmetic treatment (Fackler, 2009).

Cosmetic surgery and skin treatment clinics are now commonplace

in urban shopping malls, viewed much like nail and beauty salons

in the UK, and providing procedures such as laser removal of

blemishes to ‘walk-in’ customers.

While aesthetic surgery continues to be generally understood as a

‘feminine’ practice, Korean men are also having aesthetic surgery in

increasingly significant numbers. The Korean Association for Plastic

Surgeons estimates this number to stand at around 15 percent of men

in 2010, and a recent survey conducted by a Korean employment

website found that 44 percent of male college students were contem-

plating some form of aesthetic surgery (Kang and Cho, 2009). Again,

these numbers are estimates, but give some idea of the scale of men’s

participation (similar estimates in the UK and US, for example, quote

men as less than 10 percent of clients, although statistics for men are

particularly unreliable in the West – see Holliday and Cairnie, 2007).

Cosmetic surgery, then, is a significant social issue, and one that per-

plexes both academics and policy makers in Korea – not to mention

the media, who generate many column inches of sensational stories

on this issue.

Existing research in Korea frames cosmetic surgery primarily in

two ways – either as an undesired effect of western cultural influence

or as a feminized issue evidencing women’s continued subjection to

patriarchy. However, our research questions these simplistic expla-

nations. We will show that the meanings and practices of aesthetic

surgery represent a process of negotiation between multiple dis-

courses concerning national identity, globalized and regionalized

standards of beauty, official and non-official religion, traditional

beliefs and practices (in some instances historically imported from

some other place), as well as the symbolic practices of coming of age,

caring for the self, marking social status and seeking success. All

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 59

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

these considerations frequently intersect with and occasionally

contradict each other. We argue that foregrounding cosmetic surgery

as only a feminine or culturally imperialist practice is a key weakness

of the existing literature and produces only partial accounts of

national cosmetic practices. The data on which this article is based

have been ‘scavenged’ (see Halberstam, 1998) from newspaper and

magazine articles, cosmetic surgery websites (both clinic advertise-

ments and discussion sites), official (government and professional

bodies) statistics, and from conversations and personal experiences

as well as from the existing literature.

Types of Surgery

The term cosmetic surgery (sǒnghyǒng susul) is used in Korea to

refer to invasive practices, rather than common ‘quick fixes’ such

as laser removal of facial blemishes or Botox injections to reduce

wrinkles or to shrink the jaw muscle, creating a desirable ‘V’-shaped

face (Jin, 2005). The most popular cosmetic surgeries in South Korea

are eyelid surgeries (blepharoplasties) and ‘nose jobs’ (rhinoplasties),

although jaw reshaping – performed using oscillating saws to reduce

the angular prominence of the mandible (J.-G. Lee, 2007) – is becom-

ing increasingly popular (and affordable). Blepharoplasty refers to the

creation of a visible palpebral fold to the eyelid where one is not

already visible (Sheng, 2000), but also more generally to the widening

of the eye or ‘lifting’ of the eyelid. There are three main surgical tech-

niques to create a double-lid appearance: the suture, the partial-

incision and the full-incision technique (Lam and Kim, 2003). The aim

of the procedure is to give more prominence to the upper eyelid, or a

‘wider’ gaze, without making the eye appear ‘unnatural’. Rhinoplasty

typically involves implanting silicone, or autogenous cartilages or

bone harvested from the septum or rib, to augment the tip and dorsum

of the nose, constructing a desirable ‘pointy’ (as opposed to wide and

flat) tip of the nose (Jin and Won, 2009). Breast augmentations and

liposuction are also common.

With the exception of breast augmentation, all these ‘enhancements’

are consumed both by women and men. Currently, young men in their

twenties seek a ‘softer’ image, mimicking the image of boy-heroes in

popular Korean manhwa and Japanese manga cartoons and anime. This

look has become increasingly prevalent since the late 1990s when

60 Body & Society 18(2)

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

popular boy bands began to sport the bish�onen look already popular in Japan (see Maliangkay, 2010). These so-called kkonminam (literally,

‘beautiful flower boys’) looks are epitomized in the highly popular

TV drama series Boys Over Flowers (Kkot-poda namja, broadcast on

KBS, 2009). The ‘soft’ image, for these men, includes a less angular

jaw, double eyelids and a prominent nose tip, while augmenting

pectoral and bicep muscles to give their bodies ‘definition’. The aim

is therefore to create a muscular but smooth (hairless) body with boyish

facial features. For men in their thirties and forties, ‘noble (sometimes

called ‘royal’) cosmetics’ are more popular. Under this umbrella

undesirable facial features, such as sunken foreheads, are ‘corrected’

by inserting implants to the front and back of the skull (M.-A. Lee,

2007).

Attitudes towards Cosmetic Surgery in Korea

While the global financial crisis recently hit the cosmetic surgery indus-

try in Korea, the government sought to protect this important source of

GDP by temporarily allowing its citizens to claim tax credit for the cost

of cosmetic surgery (Digital Chosun Ilbo, 2007). The decision was

undoubtedly partly motivated by a desire to gauge the income sources

of medical institutions, but is equally indicative of the value of the aes-

thetic surgery market to the ‘national interest’. This was even more evi-

dent in 2008 when £642 million was invested in advertising Korea as a

leading destination for aesthetic surgery tourism (Fifield, 2008). Ara

Wilson (2011: 135) argues that in Thailand medical tourism is similarly

valued as a national(ist) asset, as ‘transnational movements of bodies

securing exported medical services in Thailand reconstitute the nation

as the territorial locus for patients and economy’. In 2007 the late Pres-

ident Roh Moo-hyun had double eyelid surgery (albeit claiming it was

for ‘medical reasons’). However, despite a recent tax levy on ‘non-

essential’ cosmetic surgeries (Suh and Jung, 2010), the industry contin-

ues, by and large, to be unregulated. 2

While the government seems undecided on the benefits of

cosmetic surgery, and the women’s rights movements in Korea are

very clear about its negative implications, public attitudes to

aesthetic surgery in Korea have become increasingly positive. In

general, cosmetic surgery is perceived as a worthwhile and under-

standable investment in the body, rather than a sign of vanity (as it

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 61

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

is often understood in the West). A recent survey found that seven out

of ten people do not object to cosmetic surgery, with an even higher

percentage indicating they would have surgery if money was no

obstacle (Yang, 2007). However, new distinctions are also being

drawn between ‘natural’ and ‘surgical’ beauty, so that surgically

created beauty must erase its processes of construction to emulate

natural, ‘non made-up beauty’ (ssaeng’ǒl), which is still recognized

as superior (Kim, 2009). For example, South Korean celebrities tend

to deny they have had surgery, yet their features have shown subtle

‘enhancing’ changes over time. Successful surgery with no expense

spared should look ‘natural’, where natural is importantly defined as

enhancing Korean features. Interestingly, unsuccessful surgeries are

often defined as producing an unnaturally ‘Western’ appearance – or,

of course, marking the traces of their interventions. Only the well-off

can afford the services of the best clinics, hence the ‘natural (Korean)

look’ emerges as a sign of affluence and middle-class status.

While there is broad acknowledgement in both media reporting

and clinical research that surgery is a painful practice, clinic websites

play down the negative after-effects, and play up the positive benefits

with ‘before and after’ photos. Typically, cosmetic surgery proce-

dures are marketed much like a visit to a health spa in the UK; cus-

tomers are encouraged to book a day having double-eyelid surgery

with a friend. Sanitized and entertaining representations of cosmetic

surgery in films such as The 200 Pound Beauty (Minyǒ-nŭn kwer-

owǒ; Kim, 2006) and comedy drama series Before and After Cos-

metic Surgery Clinic (Bip’o & aep’ŭt’ǒ sǒnghyǒng we’gwa; MBC,

2008) serve to romanticize the practice with extremely rare refer-

ences to procedures gone wrong or the painful recoveries, although

the devastating effects of bad surgeries are occasionally reported in

the media. In fact, feminist organizations represent practically the

only opposition to cosmetic surgery in Korea, but their opposition

has in practice been limited to prosecuting cosmetic surgery clinics

for illegal advertising in women’s magazines. 3

Gendering (Western) Cosmetic Surgery

A number of studies have attempted to explain the high incidence of

aesthetic surgery in Korea by emphasizing ‘traditional’ patriarchal

culture. In doing so, they often draw heavily on key feminist writers

62 Body & Society 18(2)

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

from the West (but in so doing frequently ignore the specific charac-

teristics of Korean cosmetic surgery – and men’s surgeries). While

this feminist work tends to disagree on whether women strive to

achieve ‘beautiful’ bodies (Bordo, 1993, 1997) or ‘normal’ bodies

(Davis, 1995, 2003), there is general agreement that aesthetic surgery

exists within a misogynistic (beauty) culture, and only really affects

women, and exceptionally a small proportion of deviant (feminized)

men. Drawing on ‘official’ statistics in the West claiming just 10

percent of patients are men, Kathy Davis (2003) argues that men will

never be aesthetic surgery patients in significant numbers due to gen-

dered assumptions (active male surgeon and passive female patient).

Morgan (1991: 30) produces a higher figure of male clients (30–40

percent), but still omits men from her discussion. Locating cosmetic

surgery in normalization, then, Davis worries that ‘anyone’ is a

potential candidate for surgery (since no one is ‘normal’), and that

surgery becomes a choice rather than a ‘need’. Unlike Bordo

(1997), she emphasizes women’s choice and agency in improving

their bodies/lives. However, in linking such choices to pain – the

psychic pain of having the ‘wrong body’ and the physical pain of sur-

gery – while she counters the construction of women as ‘selfish’ con-

sumers, she repositions them as ‘victims’. Here we see a repetition of

the structure–agency dichotomy used in public health care (in which

Davis’ research was conducted), where those who represent them-

selves as ‘agents’ are characterized as misguided, apolitical and self-

ish, and those who admit to being victims are considered deserving of

surgery. However, for Bordo, all choices are ultimately produced by

the beauty industry itself:

the rhetoric of choice and self-determination and the breezy analogies

comparing cosmetic surgery to fashion accessorizing . . . efface not only the inequalities of privilege, money, and time that prohibit most

people from indulging in these practices, but also the desperation that

characterizes the lives of those who do. (1997: 337)

More recently, young women in the private health care market have

been characterized as highly demanding consumers of cosmetic sur-

gery. These ‘clients’ decentre the role of the surgeon in making both

technical and aesthetic judgements, albeit positioned as part of a

‘makeover culture’ in which becoming has become significantly

more important than the end result (Jones, 2008). Middle-class

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 63

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

women in the US position cosmetic surgery as a reward for hard work

and thrift, as well as looking after one’s body through healthy diet and

exercise. Thus, cosmetic surgery facilitates the manifestation of the

carefully tended body in which other significant investments have also

been made (Gimlin, 2007). To paraphrase Margrit Shildrick (2008),

the makeover does not just simply represent alteration to the body but

also improvement to the self, such that the subject of the surgical

makeover both stands back and comments on the new appearance of

her old self and claims to be a different person, brought into being

by the surgical cut.

Men’s procedures are still rarely mentioned in the cosmetic

surgery literature, perhaps because ‘official’ statistics in the UK and

US continue to hide men’s treatments by excluding cosmetic dentis-

try and hair transplants. Figures on breast reductions – the second

most popular surgery in the UK and US – are frequently assumed

to apply only to women, despite Miller’s (2005) claim that over

80 percent of these surgeries are actually performed on men. The few

articles specifically on men’s cosmetic surgeries position them as

either part of the ‘crisis of masculinity’ (Atkinson, 2008) or the ‘meter-

osexual’ consumer-subject (Miller, 2005). Holliday and Cairnie

(2007) have argued that while there is little evidence that masculinity

precludes men from engaging in cosmetic surgery – since surgeries

can provide significant body capital for men in the areas of both

employment and relationships – some do offer more instrumental

explanations than women; looking younger at work to remain compet-

itive, for instance (see also Elliott, 2008).

A further concern for Davis (2003: 7) is that ‘one ideal – a white,

Western model – becomes the norm to which everyone, explicitly or

implicitly, aspires’. While research into aesthetic surgery on the

white western body has tended to prioritize gender as an explanatory

category, studies of aesthetic surgery on the non-white body can

largely be characterized as gender-neutral investigations of ‘ethnic’

cosmetic surgery (Davis, 2003; Gilman, 2000; Kaw, 1997). ‘Ethnic’

cosmetic surgery usually portrays minority ethnic populations in

western ‘host’ nations as subject to racism, and frames aesthetic

surgery, as Eugenia Kaw (1997: 75) does, as ‘an attempt to escape

persisting racial prejudice that correlates to their stereotyped genetic

physical features’ (despite strong insistence from Kaw’s own respon-

dents that they were not trying to look western, but to avoid looking

64 Body & Society 18(2)

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

‘sleepy’). Thus, ‘white’ cosmetic surgery has emerged as (only) a

gender issue, excluding the theoretical intervention of ‘race’, while

‘non-white’ cosmetic surgery has frequently failed to engage with

gendered experiences. Whiteness is thereby constituted as a ‘natural’

category for all white people against which all non-white people

unfavourably compare.

In addition, feminist approaches to cosmetic surgery and accounts

of ‘ethnic cosmetic surgery’ tend to foreground different surgical

procedures. While accounts of ‘white’ cosmetic surgery tend to focus

on breast augmentations, tummy tucks and anti-ageing facial surgery

as attempts to normalize women’s bodies to unrealistic feminine

ideals, ‘ethnic’ cosmetic surgery studies highlight (gender-neutral)

double-eyelid surgeries, nose re-shaping and skin lightening as

attempts to approach a ‘white’ norm and avoid racism. Interestingly,

then, two sets of studies emerge focused on differently gendered

populations, with ‘ethnic’ cosmetic surgery studies including men

(but not a gendered analysis) and ‘feminist’ cosmetic surgery studies

excluding men (and a ‘raced’ analysis). 4

Each approach draws on

particular surgeries while ignoring others, such that practices like

tanning, collagen enhanced lips and buttock augmentations – popular

procedures which cannot be explained through ‘whitening’ or

idealized femininity discourses – are rarely discussed (except see

Holliday and Sanchez Taylor, 2006).

Another problem with ‘ethnic’ cosmetic surgery approaches is that

they have tended to present minority ethnic populations as static,

existing only in relation to a ‘host’ culture. Such studies have ignored

the distinct cosmetic surgery procedures popular in different national

contexts, as well as patterns of migration and ongoing connections

with cultures of origin through cross-national connections facilitated

by cheap airfares, the internet and cable and satellite TV (for more on

this see Body & Society’s 2011 special issue on medical migrations –

Roberts et al., 2011). This means that many expatriate communities

are routinely in contact with the culture of their ‘country of origin’ –

even if they have never actually visited it – and it therefore seems

likely that aesthetic preferences are drawn as much from these

connections as from a ‘host’ nation’s aesthetic ideals. In researching

cosmetic surgery in Korea, a further problem of ‘ethnic’ cosmetic

surgery studies which focus on Asian-Americans is that their results

have been generalized to apply to ‘countries of origin’; that is,

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 65

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

Koreans in Korea. Accordingly, what are seen as ‘whitening’ prac-

tices in the West are also presented as ‘westernizing’ practices in the

East without much consideration of localized discourses that inter-

sect with more globalized practices of cosmetic surgery. Explanation

of Korean cosmetic surgery only in terms of westernization seems

unlikely given Korea’s strong sense of nationalism, as well as its

national relationship with other regional powers, for example Japan

(we will return to this later). Presently, then, the same procedure may

be explained differently for different ethnic groups. A breast

augmentation for an ethnically Korean woman can be (and has been)

explained as ‘whitening’ or westernizing (depending on where she is

located), the popularity of breast augmentation implying that

Koreans have naturally smaller breasts than white women; whereas

the same procedure on a white woman is routinely explained as fem-

inizing and not related to ‘race’. However, since breast augmentation

is the most popular procedure in the West does that not, by the same

logic, imply that white women must also have naturally small

breasts? If Korean women are ‘whitening’, why not white women?

Or, if we reject the hypothesis that all non-western surgeries imply

perceived ‘racial deficiency’ in comparison with the ‘white’ body,

how do we explain procedures like calf trimming or cheekbone shav-

ing, extremely popular in Korea but not in other places? We will now

briefly review the work of key writers on cosmetic surgery in Korea

specifically, enquiring whether this work can help to answer these

(and other) questions.

Gendering and Westernizing Cosmetic Surgery in Korea

Studies in Korea typically position cosmetic surgery as conformity to

patriarchal versions of femininity in order to maximize women’s

chances of success in marriage and the economy. Some see women’s

desire for aesthetic surgery as a continuation of pre-modern ‘virtuous

femininity’ that required (upper-class) women to adhere to a strict

Neo-Confucian decorum. Under Neo-Confucianism, men were

expected to transcend their bodies (learning, philosophy) to become

‘superior’, while women’s success, bound to the intimate and the

domestic, was rooted in their ability to mimic a concealed and defer-

ential ideal, defined by virginity or maternity. Taeyon Kim (2003),

for example, argues that Neo-Confucian ethics continues to inform

66 Body & Society 18(2)

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

rigid gender scripts positioning men as subjects and women as

‘subjectless bodies’ in need of control and protection. 5

She asserts

that under consumer capitalism Korean women’s bodies have

entered the public sphere, no longer hidden away but now available

for scrutiny and consumption. Thus, visibility produces women as

‘object[s] for alteration’ (2003: 106) evidenced in Korea’s high rates

of cosmetic surgery. Kim locates cosmetic surgery in the Neo-

Confucian ‘culture of conformity’, where the unity of the whole is

more important than the individuality of the one, producing beauty

as a new ‘requirement of decorum’ for women (2003: 106–7); Woo

(2004: 53) notes that in this climate women are ‘obsessed with their

appearance’.

Park Sang Un’s (2007) essay on dieting and embodiment instead

deploys the Korean foundation myth to show how contemporary dis-

courses of women’s value continue to emphasize self-sacrifice. Park

argues that Korean femininity promotes suffering for the greater

good, evidenced in women’s willingness to endure pain for beauty:

Just as the [she-]bear in the [Korean foundation] myth had to over-

come the pain of staying in a dark cave and eating only mugwort and

garlic in order to become a human being, today’s bear-women must

undergo the pain of dieting and plastic surgery in order to become

beautiful women with bodies that are considered normal and socially

acceptable. (Park, 2007: 46)

Park also points out, linking patriarchal national culture with

western-influenced globalization, that today’s ‘bear-woman is the

Western female’ (2007: 47) – something the ‘average Korean women

can hardly attain’ (2007: 55). Kim (2003) also positions ‘Eurasian’

beauty as the Korean ideal since a 1994 legal change permitting the

use of non-Korean models in Korean advertising. For Cho (2009),

technology conspires with patriarchal aesthetic standards and neolib-

eral consumer capitalism to increase women’s human capital in the

marriage market and workplace.

Unlike the rather passive figures presented by Kim, Park and Cho,

however, Woo’s (2004) women emerge as highly informed, active

agents in their engagements with cosmetic surgeons. Cosmetic surgery

is positioned in tandem with significant gains for Korean women in

education and careers. Woo shows how women’s bodies have moved

from a limited maternal role to an active, pleasure-seeking one, and

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 67

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

how beauty brings not only gratification but also a degree of status in

contemporary Korean society. She is careful to point out that women’s

aesthetic surgeries are voluntary and empowering. However, she sees

this empowerment ultimately as a trap, the benefits of one surgical

procedure creating desire for another, producing women as surgery

‘addicts’: having internalized patriarchal and westernized beauty stan-

dards, they ‘helplessly accept the logic of technological capital that

makes women constantly examine their bodies in a negative and

pathological light’ (2004: 78–9):

As a non-white race, Korean women’s bodies were branded as inferior

and flawed and the images of white women conveyed through mass

media in such forums as Miss Universe competitions and Hollywood

movies presented a beauty ideal that Korean women felt obliged to

pursue. (2004: 60)

Woo shows how many employers try to enforce specific height and

weight restrictions for women graduates and how women’s bodies

are used to sell products and symbolize desire within Korean con-

sumer capitalism. However, in supporting these claims she draws

mainly on highly gendered, classed and embodied occupations such

as tǒumi (young women who sell products in department stores and

in the street), and flight attendants. There is much in Woo’s article

that adds to the discussion of aesthetic surgery in Korea (and else-

where); however, despite mentioning the increase in men’s cosmetic

surgery and alluding in a footnote to the significance of physiog-

nomy, her analysis remains rooted narrowly in patriarchal and west-

ern systems of beauty and neoliberalism. In grounding their

arguments only in patriarchies – be they Neo-Confucian, western

or technological – all these writers fail to adequately explain not only

men’s cosmetic surgeries, but all Korean cosmetic surgeries, since

gender is clearly not the only cultural mechanism at work here.

Other Colonizations

National identity politics in South Korea are complex, and cannot be

understood without reference to the Japanese colonial period (1910–

45). This period witnessed the imposition of western-style moderni-

zation in Korea via a colonizing Japanese culture, which emphasized

its own superiority over ‘backward’ Korea (Pai, 2000). Predictably,

then, since liberation in 1945, much effort has gone into highlighting

68 Body & Society 18(2)

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

the ‘un-Japaneseness’ of the Korean people. In particular, immediately

after the colonial period, nationalistic discourses mobilized the West as

a way of rejecting Japan as the self-declared bearer of civilization. For

example Na Se-jin, writing in 1964, distinguishes the Korean from the

Japanese thus:

The Korean is of medium to tall height, among many races of the

world. The neck is thin and long, and because of the superior devel-

opment of the Korean’s body and muscular structure, the posture is

straight and erect. The calf is long, and since every part of the body’s

measurements are very even, the Korean resembles the well-

proportioned stature of the Europeans and Americans [rather than the

Japanese]. (quoted in Pai, 2000: 260)

The western body, then, was mobilized in defiance of Japanese stan-

dards of beauty – as anti-colonial discourse. While in contemporary

Korea particular forms of Japanese popular culture are embraced and

emulated (sometimes themselves imported from elsewhere), the

postwar situation highlights how appearances – faces and bodies –

have been deployed in political and local struggles through complex

interplays of sameness and difference.

Following liberation in 1945, the Korean War and Korea’s subse-

quent division in 1953, South Korea endured a series of dictatorships

and rapid industrialization, quickly transforming from an agrarian to

an industrialized nation with an insatiable need for labour. During

this period, official discourses made sense of a divided (South)

Korean national identity by emphasizing the ‘traditional’, pre-

colonial national culture of the elite pre-colonial yangban class (and

the Chosǒn dynasty in particular). These values were generalized to

represent ‘authentic Koreanness’ for all (Elfving-Hwang, 2010). Pre-

dictably, this precipitated a return to traditional gender discourses

that associated women with the nurturing maternal body. Here again,

the body emerges as a site for negotiating and reinforcing national

identity.

Physiognomy

Related to this, many Koreans re-embraced traditional forms of divi-

nation, such as astrology and physiognomy, which were seen as

‘authentic’ elements of Korean culture (Kim, 2005). This enduring

belief is exemplified in the widely discussed case of President Chun

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 69

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

Doo Hwan (1980–8) whose mother had prayed for 100 days for a son

before conceiving. It is said that she met a wandering monk who told

her she had the face of a mother who would give birth to a successful

son – if only she had less protruding teeth. She promptly smashed her

teeth out with a rock, her son subsequently becoming president. 6

The

story undoubtedly underlines the importance of non-official religious

practices in Korea, explaning how Chun Doo Hwan’s mother altered

the fate of her son by altering her own appearance. Indigenous folk

religions and practices have undergone a revival during the past three

decades and physiognomy, as a prominent form of ‘Korean’ divina-

tion, has been enthusiastically embraced. Around half of all Koreans

believe that one can ‘read’ a person’s character by looking at their

face (Kim, 2005). With the growing affluence of Korean society, the

‘inauspicious’ face, previously having doomed its bearer to a lifetime

of bad luck, can now be fixed.

Although it has traditionally been considered disrespectful to

one’s ancestors (who bequeath one’s body) to alter physical appear-

ance (Kim, 2009; Shin, 2002), ‘physiognomic surgery’ (gwansang

susul) is gaining popularity as Korean customers seek auspicious

faces in addition to beautiful ones (Im, 2009). Many who consider

undergoing aesthetic surgery consult a physiognomist beforehand,

and aesthetic surgeons and physiognomists work closely together

making mutual recommendations to clients (Jeffreys, 2007). This

practice has little to do with enhancing the subject’s appearance in

line with accepted (western) beauty models. For example, a common

procedure removes moles or blemishes from under the eyes, since

these are seen to resemble tears – a sign of sorrows to come (Lee,

2006). While not everyone believes in physiognomy, having a ‘lucky

face’, ‘right face’ or ‘best face’ reduces the ‘risk’ of leaving an

unfavourable impression and can be of great importance in many

practical ways.

Many young men and women seek to attain an ǒljjang (literally:

‘best face’). The common practice of seeking approval from stran-

gers of the results of surgical procedures highlights the importance

of having the ‘right face’. Individuals post before and after photos

on internet chatroom sites 7

soliciting evaluations from other mem-

bers. As Featherstone (2010) explains, writing about the West, the

portrait photograph, posed and then, perhaps, Photoshopped, cannot

be separated from the imago. The image is related to the imagination

70 Body & Society 18(2)

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

and represents not what is there, but what one imagines one could or

should be. The photographic portrait, then, is never individual but

embodies cultural ideals. Cosmetic surgery enables these cultural

ideals to become (to a certain extent) a reality. This raises questions

about whether Korean aesthetic surgery is simply a desire to ‘wester-

nize’, or whether it represents a continuation of older traditions of

altering appearance for success or, more probably, some negotiation

between these two.

Blepharoplasty in particular has often been explained in terms of

‘westernization’. However, it is worth remembering that while many

Koreans already have a double eyelid, many westerners undergo ble-

pharoplasties too. Wider eyes signal youth, energy and alertness.

Korean women have used temporary eyelid tapes and glues for

decades, most usually justified as easing the application of make-

up. Eye surgery is seen as a more convenient permanent fix (the

surgery takes 10 to 20 minutes depending on technique) which saves

time and allows greater participation in sports and swimming, for

example. Blepharoplasties (like breast augmentations) appear to

have originated in Japan (the first performed by a surgeon named

Mikamo in 1896) and were originally used to treat children born with

one single and one double eyelid (Miller, 2006). East Asians tend to

have more adipose fat in the eyelid than Caucasians, and men and

women who have too much fat removed are seen negatively as arti-

ficially western. Wider eyes may be desirable, but they must be wider

Korean eyes, not western ones. The most important aim of cosmetic

surgery is to create a natural look that ‘enhances’ the body without

losing the ‘Koreanness’ of the subject who undergoes surgery.

However, ‘Koreanness’ in the context of blepharoplasty is also in a

state of flux, and wide eyes also have another, more gendered mean-

ing. Some of the features most commonly sought through aesthetic

surgery today would have been considered undesirable in the past.

For instance, Korean physiognomy has traditionally characterized

round eyes for women as suggesting lasciviousness, yet round eyes

are currently desirable, while a large ‘moon face’ has historically

connoted fertility and therefore value for women, yet women are now

having their faces narrowed. Under consumer capitalism, huge shifts

have occurred in Korean women’s roles, for the urban middle classes

at least. Most young, educated women are now working, delaying

marriage and having only one child in order to preserve their careers.

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 71

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

For Bordo (1993), writing in and about the West in the early 1990s,

similar shifts resulted in a ‘hard’ (muscular, toned) body as the ideal

for women. Rather than positioning this body as an attempt to simply

emulate advertising, Bordo shows how the hard body connotes

strength and independence, making women’s bodies unremarkable

in the masculine workplace. She also shows how the battle against

fat on hips and breasts signified a hatred of the material body that

represented a purely maternal, domestic destiny. Holliday and

Sanchez Taylor (2006) have shown that the surgically ‘enhanced’

– particularly breast-augmented – body connotes sexual self-

determination for women who reject the necessity to masculinize

their bodies to fit male norms. In the same way, Korean women seem

to be divorcing themselves from this maternal body – the moon face

traditionally so associated with fecundity – and embracing signs of

overt sexuality, such as wide eyes, thereby rejecting patriarchal mod-

els of propriety. Thus, while beliefs informed by physiognomy

clearly have some part to play, the definition of what is and is not

auspicious appears to be in flux and open to contestation. Unlike

Woo, then, we do not see Korean cosmetic surgery as a westernizing

trap, but as a way of expressing sexual (and marriage) self-

determination and occupation of the public sphere.

Gendering Korean Cosmetic Surgery

While studies on Korea deploy both feminist and postcolonial

approaches, they still fail to gender cosmetic surgery, accounting for

men’s practices. This is particularly significant given the large num-

bers of men in South Korea engaging with cosmetic surgery, and

demonstrates feminism’s hegemony in accounts of aesthetic surgery

and popular discourses which situate it as a ‘woman’s issue’ (see

Fraser, 2003). Feminist assertions like Kim’s (2005), about the

subjectivity of men and subjectlessness of women, are extremely

problematic from a Foucauldian perspective, which asserts that we

are all – men and women alike – subjects not of ourselves, but of

discourses. Neither women nor men can stand outside language and

culture and the power relations that produce our understandings of

the world and our positions within it; men are just differently posi-

tioned within it (Grosz, 1994). It seems, then, that Korean men are

also easily interpellated by the cosmetic surgery industry through dis-

courses like physiognomy that, while producing differently gendered

72 Body & Society 18(2)

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

associations, apply equally to women and men. In Korea, two differ-

ently gendered constructions of cosmetic surgery exist: kyǒrhon sǒn-

ghyǒng (‘marriage cosmetic surgery’) and chig’ǒp sǒnghyǒng

(‘employment cosmetic surgery’). Having the ‘right face’ can be cru-

cial in ‘marrying well’. The ‘right face’ can also be a determining

factor in gaining employment in a Korean job market where nearly

80 percent of young people now attend further education college

or university, and this is an issue of great importance for both men

and women. The ‘right face’ is one with no inauspicious features and

one that connotes youth, vitality and upper-class looks. Since a

photograph is a requirement of all job applications, and physiognomy

is often used to evaluate candidates where qualifications and experi-

ence are equal, an employee with ‘friendly’ (insang’i choun) facial

features will always be preferred, given the importance of social

bonding in the workplace. Cosmetic surgery is thus a practical issue

in an extremely competitive (and in some occupations ageist) job

market, chig’ǒp sǒnghyǒng making the difference between success

and failure in getting a job. Recruitment agency JobKorea found that

80 percent of recruitment executives considered the physical appear-

ance of a candidate ‘important’, and a 2006 study found that there

was a perception among high school students that appearance would

often be considered of greater importance than abilities and skills in

hiring decisions (Jung and Lee, 2006). While this pressure is inevita-

bly greater for women than for men, physiognomy and the extreme

emphasis put on appearance means that men cannot escape it

altogether.

However, there is also some evidence to suggest that since the late

1990s, beauty ideals for women and men are also converging in what

Sun Jung (2010) describes as a complex cultural deconstruction of

male and female, embodied by the feminine-looking kkonminam

men. According to Jung, the kkonminam are thought to be able to sat-

isfy complex human (especially female) desires because they possess

both feminine and masculine attributes. The growing popularity of

the kkonminam in popular culture certainly seems to reflect a desire

to break with earlier idealized masculinities which relied on tradi-

tional militarized images. Korean women’s increasing economic

self-sufficiency and reluctance to marry early, as well as a skewed

gender ratio are perhaps making women more choosy when selecting

a partner. Young men appear to be acquiescing in feminine desire for

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 73

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

a more caring and not ‘hard’ masculinity. The beautiful kkonminam’s

‘softer’ features signify a break from the cool, detached businessman

– men who are more interested in satisfying their colleagues than

their partners and whose self-worth is associated with long working

hours (Korean men work some of the longest hours in the developed

world). The kkonminam look thus emerges as part of a wider anxiety

about normative masculinity in contemporary Korea, and, impor-

tantly, does not carry the connotations of gay sexuality that it does

in the West. As a result, Korean men in their twenties and thirties are

more predisposed to cosmetic surgery than Western men, particularly

since good looks are so equated with success, because the fast pace of

contemporary Korean urban life demands quick fixes to any per-

ceived ‘problems’ with one’s body, and because ‘feminization’

through cosmetic surgery does not carry the same ‘risks’ to sexual

identity that it does in the West. This is evidenced in the prevalence

of walk-in cosmetic surgery clinics in large shopping malls, as well

as the affordability and ease of obtaining minor operations, such as

mole and skin blemish removals. Moreover, cosmetic treatments and

caring for one’s appearance are becoming increasingly associated

with a new kind of contemporary masculinity that is gaining in value

across East Asia, popularized by boy bands and popular actors with

apan-Asian fan base.

Conclusion: Locating Korean Cosmetic Surgery

Cosmetic surgery in South Korea is typically equated in both media

discourses and academic writing with a desire to appear ‘western’.

On the surface it does appear that Koreans prefer ‘western’ features

like wider, ‘double-eyelid’ eyes, more prominent noses and bigger

breasts. While undoubtedly influenced by globalized beauty ideals,

we argue, attempts to ‘improve’ the Asian subject do not erase eth-

nicity (McCurdy and Lam, 2005). ‘Westernphilia’ initially seems

to have constituted as much a rejection of Japanese colonial influence

as an embrace of western beauty norms. Explanations that rely on

women’s surgeries as responses to a male preference for Caucasian

physical features are simplistic, positioning women as objects in a

patriarchal economy. More sophisticated approaches position

women as negotiating with beauty discourses to gain agency (Cho,

2009; Woo, 2004). The modern Korean woman is said to have

74 Body & Society 18(2)

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

exchanged ‘virtuous’ (maternal, domestic) femininity for a slim,

well-toned body and beautiful face which offers clear gains in both

work and marriage (Kim, 2003; Park, 2007). However, critics ulti-

mately argue that aesthetic surgery is a trap, making profits by pro-

moting western beauty that requires surgery for Koreans to achieve

(Woo, 2004). Yet cosmetic surgery is also a consumption practice

generating meaning for people who engage in it that is not adequately

explained by these writers.

We would suggest that many instances of apparent westernization

can be related to a strong sense of indigenous identity. The existing

literature has a tendency to reify globally mediatized bodies as west-

ern, but the globalized body is already ‘mixed’ and bears little resem-

blance to actual women in either the West or the East. Rather, the

‘western’ body links to idealized (and, of course, exceptional) char-

acteristics in many countries. Paler (than average) skin, for instance,

in almost every country, has historically signified distance from

(agricultural) labour, representing high-class status. Western bodies

now mark status through tanning associated with leisure time and

foreign holidays. Positioning blepharoplasty as westernization

ignores the fact that wide eyes have local significations such as

youthfulness and active desire, and that western women also routi-

nely undertake similar surgeries. Claiming Korean women want to

look western denies the constructed nature of western beauty and that

western beauty has been valued because it entered Korea fitting pre-

existing notions of class and status. Such claims position western

cultural borrowings as appropriation and non-western ones as coloni-

zation while ignoring the fact that all modern nations actively appro-

priate, reject, hybridize or acquiesce in elements of transcultural

influences that circulate through the globalized media, cheap travel

and migrations. Taking on a ‘bit of the other’ signifies access to these

resources, a cosmopolitan identity informed by global, not just local

knowledge. To deny this grants westerners agency and creativity in

their identities while fixing non-westerners to traditional ‘authentic’

identities (a similar point is made by Miller, 2006, about Japan).

Neo-Confucian ethics in Korea advocated conformity as a virtue

that measured social success by approximation to an elite class image

(Deuchler, 1992), which can still be seen in the extremely limited

range of beauty ideals promoted in the media. This may explain the

desirability of the look which celebrates smooth features and the

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 75

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

extreme popularity of the ‘BB’ (‘blemish blocker’) cream, which is

used to smooth and whiten the skin. In addition, the belief that char-

acter can be ‘read’ from facial features has a very real influence on

social and career success, with physiognomy often indistinguishable

from ‘employment cosmetics’. Young men and women seem equally

subject to these beliefs and practices.

Feminist constructions of men as subjects and women as subject-

less objects can only endure if we ignore men’s cosmetic surgeries.

Feminist positions fail to account for the impact of feminine desire

in an economy where middle-class women now hold considerable

economic power and are increasingly reluctant to marry. Neo-

Confucianism may have addressed women as subjectless bodies but

consumer capitalism addresses women and men as subjects, albeit

subjects of consumerism. Neo-Confucianism also emphasizes care

of men’s bodies as well as their minds (far from the ‘rational’ disem-

bodied men of the West), which may explain Korean men’s predis-

position to aesthetic surgery. The emergence of the kkonminam

men (via Japan) offers men a new way to care for the self, their

reworked bodies alluding to a new flexibility within relationships

which acknowledges feminine desire.

What emerges from this discussion is a complicated picture of

Korean cosmetic surgery where negotiation between globalized and

national standards of beauty, official and non-official religious and

traditional discourses and practices and national identity, as well as

symbolic practices of coming of age, caring for the self, marking

social status and seeking success, all play a part. In reality, then, aes-

thetic surgery in Korea is influenced by a number of different, some-

times contradictory yet often intersecting factors, implicated in both

the (often cited) prevalence of surgery and the (rarely discussed)

types of surgeries practised, and resists explanations that rely only

on feminist or postcolonial readings.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank David Bell, Flemming Christiansen and the

anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of

this paper, as well as audiences at the Association for Korean Studies

in Europe Conference in Leiden, ‘Cosmetic Cultures’, ‘Appearance

Matters’, and the White Rose East-Asia network for their generous

feedback.

76 Body & Society 18(2)

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

Notes

1. See: www.nationmaster.com

2. In Korea there is no single body regulating medical malpractice.

Citizens may file a civil lawsuit under the Rules of Civil Proce-

dure. Medical malpractice cases can also be reported to the Korea

Consumer Agency or to Consolidation for Medical Consumers.

However, the first successful case against a cosmetic surgery

clinic was not until 2007 (Bae, 2007).

3. It is actually against the law to advertise surgical procedures

through the use of images in Korea for other than ‘education

purposes’.

4. Except research on vaginal surgeries (labiaplasties and vaginal

tightening), which tends to compare the surgeries of white women

in the West with those of black women undergoing FGM (female

genital mutilation) in countries in the global South and Africa.

5. Neo-Confucianism was the official philosophy of Korea for more

than five centuries during the Chosǒn dynasty (1392–1910).

6. Chun Doo Hwan turned out to be a violent and repressive leader,

perhaps as a result of the violent conditions under which his

fortune was made! 7. Such as www.café.daum.net

References

Atkinson, M. (2008) ‘Exploring Male Femininity in the ‘‘Crisis’’:

Men and Cosmetic Surgery’, Body & Society 14: 67–87.

Bae, J.-S. (2007) ‘Cosmetic Surgery: A Risky Temptation’, Korea

Times 21 November.

Bordo, S. (1993) Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture,

and the Body. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Bordo, S. (1997) ‘Material Girl: The Effacements of Postmodern

Culture’, pp. 335–58 in R. Lancaster and M. di Leonardo (eds) The

Gender/Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy.

London: Routledge.

Cho, J.-H. (2009) ‘Neoliberal Women’, Korea Journal 49(3): 15–43.

Davis, K. (1995) Reshaping the Female Body: Dilemmas of Cosmetic

Surgery. London: Routledge.

Davis, K. (2003) Dubious Equalities and Embodied Differences:

Cultural Studies on Cosmetic Surgery. Lanham, MD: Rowman

and Littlefield.

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 77

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

Deuchler, M. (1992) The Confucian Transformation of Korea.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Digital Chosun Ilbo (2007) ‘Government Makes Cosmetic Surgery

Tax Deductible’, 21 February, URL (consulted June 2009):

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200702/

200702210030.html

Elfving-Hwang, J. (2010) Representations of Femininity in Contem-

porary South Korean Women’s Literature. Dorset: Global

Oriental.

Elliott, A. (2008) Making the Cut: How Cosmetic Surgery is Trans-

forming our Lives. London: Reaktion.

Fackler, M. (2009) ‘Economy Blunts Korea’s Appetite for Plastic

Surgery’, New York Times 2 January, URL (consulted October

2009): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/business/worldbusiness/

02plastic.html

Featherstone, M. (2010) ‘Body, Image and Affect in Consumer

Culture’, Body & Society 16(1): 193–221.

Fifield, A. (2008) ‘South Korean Women See Shortcut to Success

through Cosmetic Surgery’, Financial Times 20 January, URL

(consulted October 2009): us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?

news_id . . . page¼1. Fraser, S. (2003) Cosmetic Surgery, Gender and Culture. Basing-

stoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Gilman, S. (2000) Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of

Aesthetic Surgery. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Gimlin, D. (2007) ‘Accounting for Cosmetic Surgery in the USA and

Great Britain: A Cross-cultural Analysis of Women’s Narratives’,

Body & Society 13(1): 46–60.

Grosz, E. (1994) Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism.

Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Halberstam, J. (1998) Female Masculinity. Durham, NC: Duke

University Press.

Holliday, R. and A. Cairnie (2007) ‘Man-made Plastic: An Alternative

Account of Aesthetic Surgery’, Journal of Consumer Culture 7(1):

57–78.

Holliday, R. and J. Sanchez Taylor (2006) ‘Aesthetic Surgery as

False Beauty’, Feminist Theory 7(2): 179–95.

Im, S.-M. (2009) ‘Saeroun gwǒllyǒg ‘wǒemo’ – sǒnghyǒng gwǒnha-

nŭn sahoe’ (‘The New Power Struggle: ‘‘Appearance’’ – A Society

78 Body & Society 18(2)

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

that Recommends Surgery’), Ik’onomi segye 8 July, URL (con

sulted November 2009): http://www.economysegye.com/articles/

view.html?aid¼20090703002935&cid¼71130100 Jeffreys, D. (2007) ‘Koreans Go Under the Knife in a Cut-throat

Race for Jobs’, The Independent 28 April.

Jin, H.-R. and T.-B. Won (2009) ‘Nasal Tip Augmentation in Asians

Using Autogenous Cartilage’, Otolaryngology – Head and Neck

Surgery 140: 526–30.

Jin, H. (2005) ‘Misconceptions about Mandible Reduction Procedures’,

Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 29: 317–24.

Jones, M. (2008) Skintight: An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery.

Oxford: Berg.

Jung, J. and S.-H. Lee (2006) ‘Cross-cultural Comparisons of

Appearance Self-schema, Body Image, Self-esteem, and Dieting

Behavior Between Korean and US Women’, Family and

Consumer Sciences Research Journal 34: 350–65.

Jung, S. (2010) ‘Chogukjeok Pan-East Asian Soft Masculinity: Read-

ing Boys Over Flowers, Coffee Prince and Shinhwa Fan Fiction’,

pp. 8.1–8.16 in D. Black, S. Epstein and A. Tokita (eds) Compli-

cated Currents: Media Flows, Soft Power and East Asia. Clayton,

Vic.: Monash University Press.

Kang, S. and K. Cho (2009) ‘Nose Jobs, Hair Implants Entice

Koreans Seeking Love, More Pay’, Bloomberg, 2 April, URL

(consulted October 2009): http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/

news?pid¼20601088&sid¼agREaAglqEG0 Kaw, E. (1997) ‘Medicalization of Racial Features: Asian American

Women and Cosmetic Surgery’, Medical Anthropology Quarterly

NS 7(1): 74–89.

Kim, A.E. (2005) ‘Nonofficial Religion in South Korea: Prevalence

of Fortunetelling and Other Forms of Divination’, Review of

Religious Research 46(3): 284–302.

Kim, E. (2009) ‘The Politics of the Body in Contemporary Korea’,

Korea Journal 49(3): 5–14.

Kim, T. (2003) ‘Neo-Confucian Body Techniques: Women’s Bodies

in Korea’s Consumer Society’, Body & Society 9(3): 97–113.

Kim, Y.-H. (2006) 200 Pound Beauty (Minyǒ-nŭn gwerǒwǒ), film.

Seoul: K.M. Culture Co.

Lam, S.M. and Y.-K. Kim (2003) ‘Partial-incision Technique for Cre-

ation of the Double Eyelid’, Aesthetic Surgery Journal 23(3): 170–6.

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 79

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

Lee, E.-W. (2006) Korea’s Pastimes and Customs: A Social History,

trans. J.-H. Park. Paramus, NJ: Homa and Sekey Books.

Lee, J.-G. (2007) ‘Mandibular Angle Contour Surgery’, Journal of

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery 65(9), Suppl. 1: 43.e116.

Lee, M.-A. (2007) ‘Changing the Face of Job Hunting’, JoongAng

Daily 26 April, URL (consulted November 2009): http://

joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid¼2874851 Maliangkay, R. (2010) ‘The Effeminacy of Male Beauty in Korea’,

IIAS Newsletter 55: 6–7.

MBC (2008) Before and After Cosmetic Surgery Clinic (Bip’o &

aep’ŭt’ǒ sǒnghyǒng we’gwa). TV series broadcast by MBC.

McCurdy, J. and S. Lam (2005) Cosmetic Surgery of the Asian Face.

New York: Thieme.

Miller, L. (2006) Beauty Up: Exploring Contemporary Japanese

Body Aesthetics. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Miller, T. (2005) ‘A Metrosexual Eye On Queer Guy’, GLQ: A Jour-

nal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 11(1): 112–17.

Morgan, K.P. (1991) ‘Women and the Knife: Cosmetic Surgery and

the Colonization of Women’s Bodies’, Hypatia 6(3): 25–53.

Pai, H.I. (2000) Constructing ‘Korean’ Origins: A Critical Review of

Archaeology, Historiography, and Racial Myth in Korean

State-formation Theories, Harvard East Asian Monographs, 187.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Centre and Harvard

University Press.

Park, S.U. (2007) ‘‘‘Beauty Will Save You’’: The Myth and Ritual of

Dieting in Korean Society’, Korea Journal 47(2): 41–71.

Roberts, E.F.S., N. Scheper-Hughes, and C. Roebuck (eds) (2011)

Medical Migrations: Beauty, Health and Life, special issue, Body

& Society 17(2–3).

Sheng, F.C. (2000) ‘Cosmetic Blepharoplasty in Orientals’, Aesthetic

Surgery Journal 20(2): 149–51.

Shildrick, M. (2008) ‘Corporeal Cuts: Surgery and the Psycho-social

Body’, Body & Society 14(1): 31–46.

Shin, K.-Y. (2002) ‘The Discourse on Women in Korea: Episodes,

Continuity, and Change’, Review of Korean Studies 5(2): 7–27.

Suh, K.-H. and S.-H. Jung (2010) ‘Revised Tax Plan to Net Extra

$57M’, JoongAng Ilbo 20 December.

Wilson, A. (2011) ‘Foreign Bodies and National Scales: Medical

Tourism in Thailand’, Body & Society 17(2–3): 121–37.

80 Body & Society 18(2)

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from

Woo, K.J. (2004) ‘The Beauty Complex and the Cosmetic Surgery

Industry’, Korea Journal 44(2): 52–82.

Yang, H. (2007) ‘‘‘Nae insaeng-ŭn na-ŭi kǒt’’ – sǒnghyǒng susul

chǒnsǒng sidae’ (‘My Life is Mine’ – The Cosmetic Surgery Era),

Han’guk ilbo 12 July, URL (consulted October 2009): http://news.

hankooki.com/lpage/health/200707/h2007071217180384500.htm

Author biographies

Ruth Holliday is Professor of Gender and Culture at the University of

Leeds and has written and presented extensively on aesthetic surgery,

material culture, sexuality and identity.

Joanna Elfving-Hwang is Lecturer in Korean Studies at the University of

Frankfurt. She writes on representations of femininity, trauma and national

identity in contemporary South Korea.

Holliday and Elfving-Hwang 81

at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV on December 7, 2015bod.sagepub.comDownloaded from