Plastic surgery in South Korea is nothing new. Korea is one of the biggest beauty capitals of the world, along with Europe and the United States. However, it also known that the epidemic of plastic surgery is becoming a bit too pressurized and typical, for example, it can usually be something given to a young girl as a graduation present. Not only is the widespread encouragement of plastic surgery a problem, so is the idea that a woman must not leave the house without some type of makeup on or work done, something masking her true features. If she is seen without any on, she can expect negative comments on her bare face throughout her entire day. All in all, plastic surgery, makeup and other cosmetic constraints that most females have to deal with on a day to day basis are resulting in a lack of confidence and self-worth for people of all ages in Korea, not only women.
A movement that has since been established very recently in South Korea to push back at these constraints of a woman’s appearance is the “Escape the Corset” movement. This group is run by women for women, to let them know that they are beautiful without any of the type of cosmetic work to their physical form.
In the video above, Bae Eun-jeong, a Korean YouTuber who goes under the name Lina Bae, is seen performing the many tedious steps of applying her makeup and then by the end of the video takes it all off, telling her audience that she is not pretty but that is ok, telling her viewers, “Don’t be so concerned with how others perceive you. You’re special and pretty the way you are.” This small yet powerful movement is what can guide us, small steps mind you, to slowly breaking down the barriers of the impossible beauty standards set on individuals, in Korea especially, then slowly around the world. Though “Escape the Corset” has to do with such a great and positive cause, the backlash it receives is disturbing. Lina Bae and other members of the group have gotten death threats and an immense amount of online hate because of this cause. This just goes to show how hateful people are and what happens when women try to fend for themselves and their beauty standards.
I feel that this movement is not only a huge step in the right direction for feminism in Korea, it is also a huge step in breaking down the frustrating walls of misogyny. Misogyny is something extremely prevalent in South Korea and the beauty industry just piles onto that issue. The amount of advertisements and endorsements by celebrities for various beauty products alone is great for the economy but devastating for the individuals that are being brainwashed into buying these things, and if one doesn’t, they are automatically judged and looked at as not good enough. They don’t want us to evolve into individuals that are empowered not by our appearance but by our actions and voices.
The Politics of K-Pop 
Reading this article after listening to the SNL Korea “Plastic Face” makes me think a lot about the different ways feminism is appropriated and used for different agendas. With “Escape the Corset,” you are not wearing makeup in the name of feminism because you’re accepting the way you are as good enough, and not wearing makeup despite the criticism and ugly-shaming makes a statement. With “Plastic Face,” you’re getting plastic surgery because it makes you feel empowered and more beautiful, and getting in despite the criticism against plastic surgery makes a statement. However, I can’t help but think that both sides are a little extreme because I feel as though there exists judgement towards the alternative groups for their choices — “Escape the Corset” members have judgement towards those who get plastic surgery and vice versa. The way I understand feminism, it’s about accepting and supporting the choices of womxn even if it’s a choice you would make yourself. If you want to not wear makeup, great! If you want to get plastic surgery and put on a full beat, great! At the same time, I’m conflicted because there is such a twisted historical background behind Korean plastic surgery, but does that discount or take away from a womxn’s agency when deciding to get lip filler? Are the choices womxn make – to wear to not to wear makeup, to get or not to get plastic surgery – forever tainted by historical context and societal analysis, or can we simply be happy for whatever choices we want to make?
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I agree with the above comment. It is difficult to say that feminism can only manifest itself in one way, and whichever way it manifests, it will always receive hate in one way or another. I would not have expected people involving in Escape the Corset to receive death threats, but I’d imagine it is probably a similar story for women who champion plastic surgery.
No matter which direction a woman will take, society has already predetermined that it will be judged relentlessly. Just as in the previous Hoang reading, beauty is constantly on a turntable changing and upgrading in regards to time and region. In America, there is a so called beauty standard. In Korea, there is a beauty standard. However in ten years, they will probably radically change. Those for mainstream beauty treatments and procedures will then also be praised and hated.
Beauty is one of those matters that will never please the masses in any singular form. To free oneself from the pressures of society is a fantastic way to break away from the rat race of beauty, but those who choose to partake in cosmetic surgeries or products should not face shame for it either. Beauty should be about empowerment of the individual however they see fit whether it is breaking away from the standard or using procedures and cosmetics to boost their confidence.
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The discussion about the phenomenon of people getting plastic surgeries on a more than frequent basis in South Korea in this blog is interesting to see. The amount of plastic surgeries happening in South Korea is hard to compete with. It is to the point where parents offer plastic surgeries to their children when they graduate and people can even receive small scaled plastic surgeries, such as the famous double eyelid surgery, in just about any beauty salons around the area.
Additionally, the exploration into the topic of high beauty standards in South Korea is closely connected to the one about plastic surgery in the country. It is often true that a large majority of women feel the need to put makeup on their faces before heading out, even if it’s just for a 10 minute food run, because the society deems it more appropriate for women to maintain their good looks, and thus, indirectly pressuring them to maintain that look to their best effort. Consequently, the movement of “escaping the corset” is a great way to combat the subtle and nonsuble pressure targeting people, mainly women, in this regard. Here, people are being encouraged to embrace their faces and bodies despite what other people may have to say about them. It is wrong to judge and critique someone for not reaching a certain level of beauty standards because everyone’s faces and bodies comes in different shapes and forms so it’s important to respect that ideal, for yourself as well as other people.
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Thinking of makeup as a form of labor that women are often expected to perform puts the Escape the Corset movement in a different light. It seems as though make up becomes a way to identify those who cannot or do not perform the labor of changing the appearance of their body. Of course, the gendered aspect of this labor, in which men are not expected to use makeup while expectations dictate that women are almost required to use makeup or surgery. It seems as though there’s a point where this labor becomes seen as part of a nationalizing practice, that to wear make up or to use plastic surgery is way to 1) better identify as the typical/ideal Korean subject and 2) show that one is willing to perform the labor necessary to better oneself in the national image.
I think the nationalism associated with Korean femininity is partly why Escape the Corset is so controversial. That by challenging these gendered labors, that the movement is also challenging ideas central to Korea’ national identity as a modernizing nation. Maybe this is too much of a stretch to say. I certainly believe that the politics of beauty and aesthetics are more relevant to nation building than I did prior to this class though.
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I can see your point where the “Escape the Corset” movement is directing Korean feminism in the right direction. Women in Korea are starting to be aware of the fact that putting makeup on their faces and wearing provocative clothes are actually partially created for men’s demands and desires. However, what if putting makeup and wearing pretty clothes are women’s actual desires for themselves? What if it is not just created under the social constraints of the women’s appearances? I personally think we should still be careful to this idea since the women can also have their free will to dress up for themselves and feel satisfied, although people can have different opinions about where this satisfaction is actually coming from. On the other hand, I understand and agree with the idea that those advertisements, which brainwash the consumers with the fixed image of gender roles and attract each gender with the sexually stimulating visuals, tend to create the corsets for both genders and therefore should be eliminated. TV commercials have their most benefit on intruding people’s unconscious minds, and it is their responsibility to reconstruct the whole beauty standards since the media and people’s lives are very indivisible these days. Although pursuing a beauty should not be criticized since everyone has their free will to follow their own standards, forming a certain standard for the others to follow, and forcing them to do so, or blame them for not fitting into the “dominant,” or “general” pool, should definitely be criticized for sure.
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