In a capitalist society, someone has to teach the younger generations what beauty means. No beauty standards can stand as a universal choice. It also transcends aesthetics as it leans into the realm of race. Wall Street Journal and Oprah took the Korean plastic surgery craze as an extreme method to achieve a more Western look. This could not be more wrong. of an update of what Korean beauty has been considered. Also used as a further tool to enhance its economic goals in K-Pop. As quoted in the Lee selection, “Korean popular music is driven by the visual.” It is a way to upgrade their stars and country as a whole. What is more visually pleasing than groups and tv shows full of beautiful people?

In this video, the before and afters of several K-Pop stars are shown and they explain why they chose to do it. In many cases, it is viewed as a necessity or a form of body positivity.

As seen in the video above, men have also gone under the knife for a new look. Lots of the literature on the topic of beauty portrays the dilemma as a sexist one in which women are the ones forced to conform to these beauty standards. In history, women have been the ones held to higher standards globally, but in today’s world, especially in Korean, men are right under a magnifying glass with them. Men are putting in body work and using the technologies of beauty just as much as women in K-Pop. They are just as active consumers of beauty products from makeup to plastic surgery as women are. 

In K-Pop groups, both men and women undergo intense grooming from to forced plastic surgery contracts to even be allowed to debut on stage. Different standards are afforded to each gender, but in general both require a lot of change. In the following video, 

Featured are members from EXO, BEAST, SuperJunior, and more. The K-Pop contract can lock in a production company’s right to the person’s voice down to having agency over their body. It says it in the world itself, “idol.” To become an idol, a person must be practically perfect for the eyes of the public. 

The process of this is well explained in last week’s readings. In the Kimberly Hoang’s article, Dealing with Desire, she refers to the act of changing herself to conform to beauty standards “bodily labor” and “body work” which will then result in “body capital” (127, 129). This is essentially part of the process of any K-Pop artist, male or female, to continue to advertise the beauty of Korean people to make Korea more appealing in everything that they do.

When holding two national identities, which one do you choose to represent on a worldwide stage? If you’re Korean American, who do you choose to represent as an Olympian, Korea or America? This concept with athletes also bleeds into the decisions of music artists and those joining into K-Pop groups. Each person who decides to go into the limelight and holds two salient identities will have to usually make a choice of which to highlight as they go step into the spotlight.

A prime example of that decision and multicultural nationalism is found within K-Pop group, NCT 127, a subgroup of NCT. They have several members who were not born in Korea and some that are not even of Korean descent. Johnny was born in Chicago, but he was discovered by SM entertainment when they did auditions in Chicago. He decided to go to Korea to represent in a K-Pop group as opposed to starting a music career in America. Yuta is from Osaka, Japan. He also passed one of the global auditions that SM Entertainment conducted. This in a way could even create a tension for Yuta within the two identities being the history that Korea and Japan have with each other. Would some consumers say that he doesn’t fully comprehend “han”, the innate suffering in Koreans? It is hard to say. Beyond those two, Win Win was born in China and Mark was born in Vancouver, Canada. Why did these four decide to become pop stars in Korea instead of their countries of birth? That’s too deep to get into here, but these four stars are far from the only two examples of K-Pop stars that came from outside South Korea.

This creates a curiosity to fully understand what exactly is it that allows a person with multiple national identities to decide which nation to represent as they rise up in popular culture. Is it convenience? Is it strong emotional conviction? Does it change from individual to individual?

According to Rachael Miyung Joo, many times it is to suit nation’s agendas. Perhaps having members from different parts of the world is more convenient for reaching other audiences across the globe. Example, when NCT decides to tour in North America will Johnny and Mark be most convenient when communicating with fans because they were born there and speak English fluently? China and Japan are also popular consumers of K-Pop so in these cases, will Yuta and Win Win be most convenient? Will they be the mechanism to spread “Koreanness” to Americans? These members from other parts of the world can serve as ambassadors for Korea and vice versa for their nation.