Korean Plastic surgery ~ 한국 성형 수술

Hello my dear Viki followers!

“South Korea is the Mecca of Plastic Surgery.”
We all know that there are tons of good looking korean boys and girls out there. But this isn’t reality. Of course in every country there are people which are really great looking by nature, but there are also lots of normal looking people just like in every country. If you’re visiting korea and you’re expecting all korean are good looking like your Idols, then you’ll get a bad surprise. As plastic surgery becomes more popular more korean common people are also changing their appearance. And there are a lot of shows (for example Let Me In) in which they experts “fix” people’s appearance and show them to the audience.

=> The most popular procedures in Korea are double eyelid surgery, rhinoplasty and a less angular jaw.

I would like to know what you think about the korean plasic surgery in K-Dramas and K-Pop (and of course also other asian countries) and if you know some korean stars, which haven’t done any surgery yet.

If you don’t know much about plastic surgery yet you can visit this page to get an idea of it: http://www.buzzfeed.com/kierawrr/31-crazy-before-and-after-photos-of-korean-plastic-4gx1


I just know few korean stars, which haven’t done any surgery yet. One of them is Yuna Kim, the south korean figure skater:

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I don’t know who really had surgery done or not but the following people pretty much look about the same as their childhood pictures.

  • Han Ga In (Moon Embracing the Sun)
  • Song Hye Gyo (The World They Live In/ All In/ Full House)
  • Kim Tae Hee (My Princess) - Some ppl say she got teeth done but come on! Most people in America get braces when the are in pre-teens. To me, that’s not plastic surgery.
  • Park Shin Hye (Flowerboy next door, Heir)
  • Hwang Shin Hye - She is the main MC for the show “Let Me In”
  • Kim Hee Ae (Midas/ Secret Affair)
  • Lee Young Ae (Jewel in the Palace)
  • Kim Min Jeong (Thorn birds/Gap Dong/The 3rd Hospital) - She started acting as a child
  • Han Ji Min (Rooftop Prince)
  • Lee Yeon Hee (Miss Korea, Gu Family Book)
  • Han Hyo Joo (Dong Yi/Shining Inheritance)
  • Suzy (Gu Family Book, some girls group singer)
  • Moon Geun Young (Mary me, Mary) - She started acting as a child
  • Lee Na Young (Movie - Teach me English)
  • Im Yeh Jin (Mother in Flower over Boys) - She started acting as a child.
  • Yoon Yoo Seon (Queen in Princess Hours - Goong) - She started acting as a child.
  • Yoona, Taeyeon, Sooyoung, Seohyun from Girls Generation
    • Some say they got it done but they don’t look very different from when you were young, except for looking older/mature and makeup. Maybe they got some minor surgery done.

Everybody do go through those ugly duckling stages as they go through pre-teen and teenage years until their facial features are fully developed. When I was little, a lot of my relatives adored me as a pretty child. Then I went through a real bad ugly duckling period. One of my uncles that I hadn’t seen in years saw me during that time and was shocked at how ugly I got! And my other aunt didn’t even recognize me! And then, when I grew up, my relatives said my old face sorta came back again! haha. Thank goodness that I look normal now!

I have no issues with any plastic surgery that make people feel better about themselves, I mean people decide what to do with their own bodies. Korean society is extremely demanding about looks and about a certain standard of beauty, so people see that the plastic surgery is needed in order to get a job, find husband and others, is not wrong or good is just the way it is. I’m sure most of the idols and stars (kpop, actors) have some plastic surgery, in some is obvious in some is not as much.
http://popdust.com/2013/09/18/k-pop-star-reveals-that-shes-had-so-much-plastic-surgery-that-people-don/
But I think in some like in this article have toooo much surgeries but again they like that so… check the pictures of how they have changed, wow!!! I don’t recognized them in the first pictures!!!

Wow, you listed a lot of people. But I’m not sure about Kim Tae Hee (My Princess): Of course teeth surgery is either for me a plastic surgery. But there’s a rumour that she had an extensive eye surgery. But she doesn’t seem to admit or deny it…

Hahah that’s a bit harsh saying that to you as a relative. I think that everybody is in their on way beautiful. There are no “ugly” people for me as everyone has another kind of taste. ;D But still great that you could overcome your “ducklying period” :smiley:

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Yeah of course it also depends on the country and its society. I mean everybody should feel comfortable in their own body but I think, that they should at least confess it when they do surgery and not try to deny it. Some minor surgeries aren’t the problem but if you change your whole self, I don’t consider that as normal. They should better do course where they learn how they can love themself.
Of course you have to consider the peer pressure and for the stars the pressure of their company. I once saw a documentary where they said, that companies had an tight relationship with plastic surgery companies so their idols can get surgeries at a lower price.

Aigooo she really changed a lot…but at least she confessed it

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IKR?! But I took no offense. :slight_smile: I was their favorite little niece and they always said I was the prettiest of all cousins combined. So they were pretty shocked. I was in special activities and had very little sleep during those times AND my permanent teeth came out crooked so that definitely didn’t help! I think after the braces, they told me I got my face back. So I guess having good teeth does make a lot of difference in your appearance!

haha yeah I think so too. So if you do a correction on your teeth you can already change a lot. So what do we learn from this little story? always brush your teeth :smiley: hihihi

Actually, it has nothing to do with brushing teeth. I just had too many teeth for my mouth so there wasn’t enough space for all the teeth to come out straight. So they had to extract some teeth in order to straighten the rest of the teeth. It’s actually quite common procedure here and majority of children in America get braces.

AWWWWW omgggg T-T that must be hard to hear as kid especially when you’re in puberty.
I mean I for example already have problems liking myself I think I would cry if someone said that I got very ugly LOL

In the end it’s important to like yourself haha

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There is a large field of debate, both sociological and psychological, about the culture, or better yet, the idol of plastic surgery in Korea (and US, for that matter).

Girls are growing up watching women on TV, women who are considered beautiful according to the current standards. Those women have had plastic surgeries. Girls, watching them, become less confident in their less-than-perfect features, and almost feel obligated to undergo plastic surgeries in order to look, but most importantly feel good and “confident”, like their idols. It’s a vicious circle that’s only getting bigger and more aggressive and detrimental to natural beauty.

I love that word “confident”. I love how it’s being twisted into this justification to do surgery. Confidence is when you feel good about what you’ve been given, no matter how imperfect that is. Confidence is loving your imperfect self, despite what the world around you tells you.

The word we need to use here is “ease” or “comfort”. As in “I feel more at ease with this appearance”.

My attitude is that there is nothing wrong with girls and boys thinking about plastic surgery. My attitude is that there’s everything wrong with the society that refuses to tell them they don’t need it, because they’re already beautiful!

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Wow, there’s so MANY! There’s some on the list I’d been know who had plastic surgery, and others… are just, wow.

Just so I’m clear, the ones I listed are the ones that are supposed to be natural beauties with little or no plastic surgeries.

Yeah I think so too. I mean, we’re already manipulated a lot by the media when we grow up. They give as a standard that you know ah this is considered as beautiful and this not. It’s hard to break out from this square that they give us and if you break out, you are considered as an outsider.

“Confident” is a good word as you said. Surely there is no one who hasn’t one thing that they don’t like about himself/herself. But its important to learn how you can love your self and be confident with your appearance/body (or even your characteristic) If you achieved that you’ll learn that there are people which love you the most for this part, which you didn’t like before.

Beauty is not definable. Everyone should think for theirselves and should have his own opinion. :blush:

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Perfectly agree.

I wish they would put more actors on screen with a distinct physical characteristic, perhaps a flaw of some sort, specific for them only. Diversify the faces on TV and thereby make them more memorable as well.

P.S. This is a very intensive, but educational blog about these things from a male perspective:
http://thegrandnarrative.com

Could you please put a link to the entries you find most educational/intense? It’s rather lengthy to sift through all of that.

Of course, I haven’t read them all, but I like to see things from a historical evolutionary perspective. It’s fascinating to see how our current ideal of beauty has emerged so recently, only maybe 30-40 years ago, while the one before that was created in renaissance and lasted for centuries!

This was the first entry I read, and remains the best one for me:

http://thegrandnarrative.com/tag/choi-yeo-jin/

I don’t exactly feel a certain way for plastic surgery. People have their own preferences of what they think is beautiful/handsome. What I worry about are the people who do too much. I mean like more than 5 is a little intensive and that person may have more than an appearance issue. They might have some sort of mental instability.

When I was younger, people gave me mixed comments. Some would say I was beautiful and I should be a model (I was tall for an Asian girl) and then some would tease me for my flaws. I have some big ears, my teeth aren’t the straightest and I was a slender-flat-as-a-board kind of girl. Now, as I am in my mid 20s, I have embraced those flaws and the comments from my childhood doesn’t make me feel bad anymore. People are always going to say what they want. I can’t stop them. But what I did was accept my individuality and uniqueness.

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yeah its fascinating how the ideal of beauty has changed in all cultures. What is OUT today will maybe be IN in the future. Like fashion ;D

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I live in Korea, and a lot of people in my school got a nosejob. In the middle of the year before doing those yearbook pics, a week before our break they say that they are going on a vacation but in fact they are getting a nosejob.

OMG really ? so young and a nosejob ? is the pressure of being a “perfect beauty” that much ? Don’t get me wrong. I am just curious because I am sure everyone once said they want to change sth about themselves but we actually never do. That’s why I was shocked when you said it’s a lot of ppl who get a nosejob over there.