In the process of normalizing and homogenizing an ideal beauty standard, the cosmetic surgery industry is able to not only benefit from this but it also institutionalizes it, namely through popular culture and digital technology. Through strategically taking advantage of these channels, the cosmetic surgery industry has come to aggressively target youth as a key consumer class— specifically young women. A key indication of the cosmetic surgery industry targeting youth is demonstrated through the increasingly popular practice of Korean parents bestowing their children with double-eyelid surgery or nose surgery as a high school graduation gift. In fact, in 2001 the Korea Times estimated that up to 70 percent of plastic surgery patients are high school students (Kim 105). As a matter of fact, this practice has become so common that it has become likened to a ‘rite of passage’. The element of parental approval also plays a key role in normalizing cosmetic surgery amongst young people, and the industry has even come to strategically target parents as consumers in presenting cosmetic surgery as a necessary investment in their child’s success. As Davies and Han state, “Cosmetic surgery is presented as offering adolescents and young adults a competitive edge at school, university and in the workplace” (Davies and Han 149). 

Furthermore, the widespread use of digital technology in Korea and the significant influence of Hallyu have strongly facilitated the normalization of cosmetic surgery. It is worth noting that Korea is the world’s most wired society, with an impressive rate of 97 percent national broadband penetration (Davies and Han 147). Therefore, the extent to which digital technology infiltrates the everyday experience of Korean citizens is immense, notably amongst Korean youth. According a 2008 study conducted by the National Information Society Agency (NIA), young people under the age of 30 make up the majority of Internet users in South Korea, with a usage rate of 99 percent. This demonstrates that digital technology is deeply integrated into South Korean youth culture. Accordingly, digital technology has played a key role in facilitating the normalization of cosmetic surgery in general. As Davies and Han assert, “The widespread use of technology in Korea has been a catalyst for Koreans to view cosmetic surgery positively as a form of human physiological enhancement” (Davies and Han 146). For this very reason, the South Korean cosmetic surgery industry’s appropriation of digital technology has come to target youth in particular as a primary consumer group. Indeed, this outcome is inevitable, simply due to the ubiquitous use of digital technology amongst Korean youth. 

With regard to popular culture, it is crucial to note that on one hand, the cosmetic surgery adheres to and reproduces popular cultural images. Yet on the other hand, it is simultaneously utilizing popular culture to homogenize and normalize an ‘ideal’ beauty standard in order to accommodate mass consumption and achieve maximum efficiency. Moreover, it is crucial to conceptualize popular culture and digital technology not only as simultaneous entities but also as interwoven entities, wherein one is constantly interacting with and depending on the other. For instance, digital technology encouraged the rapid growth of Korea’s lifestyle and entertainment media platforms and has been a key factor in its economic success. Correspondingly, the success of the Korean cosmetic surgery industry relies heavily on this interaction and intersection of digital technology and popular culture. Thus, we will now explore the various ways in which the industry strategically both benefits and takes advantage of this intersection.  

The Korean cosmetic surgery industry has come to take advantage of the country’s widespread use of technology in effectively targeting consumers through various digital publicity tactics. Firstly, it is becoming increasingly popular for Korean TV, film and music celebrities to receive free cosmetic surgery in exchange for them promoting a specific clinic and hence its expertise (Davies and Han 148). The specific celebrity’s ‘improved’ image is typically promoted as a complete success, through the extensive use of social networking sites such as Cyworld and Twitter (Davies and Han 148). However, it should be noted that many Korean celebrities deny having received cosmetic surgery procedures (despite continual speculations), as the admittance of having received cosmetic surgery still continues to be looked down upon to a certain extent. Nonetheless, this negative perception of cosmetic surgery is becoming arguably less dominant as the industry continues to further normalize cosmetic surgery through mainstream media and online platforms. 

Secondly, there have recently been a large number of Korean movies, television dramas and reality/game shows that further normalize, encourage and even romanticize the practice of cosmetic surgery. For instance, the film The 200 Pound Beauty (2006) and the drama series Before and After Cosmetic Surgery Clinic (2008) and Birth of a Beauty (2014) have experienced widespread popularity and accentuate the positive aspects of cosmetic surgery. Additionally, various reality/game shows regarding cosmetic surgery are amongst some of the most widely viewed programs in South Korea. For example, the reality makeover show Let Me In (2011-) is one of the most popular programs in South Korea. The premise of this show is that each contestant pleads their case for surgery in front of a panel of hosts and if chosen, he/she receives free cosmetic surgery and a makeover by a prestigious team of well-known surgeons and stylists. At the end of each episode, the surgically reborn contestant is revealed to the audience and judges, to which he/she receives much applause and appraisal. Subsequently, the purported ‘magic’ behind the contestant’s transformation is revealed, as the surgeons provide step-by-step technical explanations of each procedure completed.

The following clip is a brief excerpt from an episode of Let Me In. The clip begins where the newly transformed contestant, Yeeun (who appears to be in her twenties and a university student), is revealed to the judges and audience members for the first time—much to their great disbelief.

What is particularly interesting to observe about the above clip is the overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic feedback from the judges and audience members. In fact, the judges shower Yeeun with compliments on her new ‘improved’ appearance and even react with slight jealousy. And when Yeeun is asked what her thoughts are on her new appearance, she responds by saying that she feels like a K-pop artist, to which everyone happily laughs and call her “cute”. Also, when asked where she would like to go first with her new appearance, Yeeun responds in stating that she would like to go somewhere where there are many people around. Hence, Yeeun’s self-assured and lighthearted responses indicate a ‘newfound confidence’, which is emphasized as being obtainable through altering one’s body— namely, through cosmetic surgery. It is also worth noting that the highly contrastive ‘Before and After’ photos of the contestant are repeatedly displayed throughout the clip. In addition, when Yeeun is presented with her ‘Before’ photo, she displays a strong sense of detachment and even repulsion from her previous face. In fact, she jokingly requests that they quickly make the photo disappear from her sight. The above clip thus demonstrates how the Korean cosmetic surgery industry accentuates the positive aspects of cosmetic surgery, while downplaying the negative aspects (such as the painful recoveries)— even in spite of the fact that cosmetic surgery is widely acknowledged as a painful process. In fact, throughout the clip, neither the contestant nor the judges make any mention of the likely painful recovery process. Moreover, the fact that Yeeun is a young female university student further promotes the normalization of cosmetic surgery consumption amongst young people, and young women in particular. Indeed, it is crucial to keep gender in mind when analyzing the Korean cosmetic surgery industry in the context of a consumer capitalist system. 

This next clip is an excerpt from a different episode of the same reality show, Let Me In. The notion that in order for women to succeed in Korean society, their physical appearance must align with the ‘ideal’ feminine standard of beauty is emphasized even more in this particular episode. In fact, the blatant manner in which the episode emphasizes the importance of ‘feminine’ features and rejects those deemed ‘masculine’ seems almost too blatant at times. In fact, the clip begins by dramatically marking precisely which the physical features of the contestant, 25-year-old So Young, are seen as being overly masculine and insufficiently feminine. It lists (in translation): rugged impression and glaring eyes, severely protruded mouth, ugly tattoos covering the body, unusual piercings, and last but not least— spoken without hesitation. Furthermore, it even uses the phrases: “from son to daughter” and “being reborn into a woman.” The episode also transitions from ‘Before’ to ‘After’ almost seamlessly, and skips right ahead to 45 days later. This also demonstrates the way in which the industry and popular media play up the positive aspects of cosmetic surgery and downplay the negative aspects. And just as in the previous episode, the moment where her ‘new and improved self’ is revealed, the contestant is met with overwhelming enthusiasm and applause.  Another notable aspect is the way in which the episode romanticizes and emotionalizes the involvement and support of the contestant’s parents. At the end, the episode features a ‘heartfelt moment’ in which the contestant graciously thanks her parents for allowing her to receive this cosmetic surgery transformation. This element of parental approval further demonstrates how the industry plays up the role of parents in being able to contribute to their child’s success and happiness through the consumption of cosmetic surgery.   

Lastly, the Korean cosmetic surgery industry largely benefits from digital technology through its extensive penetration of social media platforms and social networking sites. In particular, Daum, one of the most popular online portals in Korea, contains 6793 ‘internet cafes’ that actively promote cosmetic surgery (Davies and Han 148). Daum also hosts around 47,781 blogs and 3274 social networking sites (predominantly Twitter, Me Today, Yozeum and Facebook) on cosmetic surgery (Davies and Han 148). However, while the Korean cosmetic surgery industry certainly benefits indirectly from online portals such as Daum, what is more important to consider is how it benefits directly from digital technology, in taking full initiative of these online platforms to aggressively target consumers. For example, many cosmetic surgery clinics take advantage of a digital marketing tactic that Davies and Han deem the “Click-Through Function” (Davies and Han 150). The “Click-Through Function” can be demonstrated as such: upon reading an online news article, a user may notice several advertisements along the margins. In clicking on one of these advertisements, he/she is directed to another advertisement page in which there are even more links for the user to click through. To illustrate, an online media platform may feature an article on a particular celebrity that has recently gotten a cosmetic surgery procedure done. While reading the article, the user may notice a number of ads for cosmetic surgery clinics along the margins that feature ‘Before and After’ photographs. Clicking on one of these ads then takes the user to the website of the clinic, in which more transformation photographs are displayed. Thus, many cosmetic surgery clinics market effectively their brand through the tactical use of the “Click-Through Function.” Furthermore, more and more social networking websites are starting to collect analytic data from users based on their web-browsing history in order to display related ads. Thus, perhaps what was mere curiosity may render a user exposed to an even greater multitude of cosmetic surgery ads. Finally, YouTube has recently become an important and commonly used social media platform for the Korean cosmetic surgery industry. In fact, even a large number of the cosmetic surgery reality shows that appear on Korean television are uploaded online to YouTube and further diffused, precisely demonstrated by the attached clip above. Moreover, much of the available content related to Korean cosmetic surgery is supplied by the clinics themselves and is used for promotional purposes. These videos generally tend to feature at least one of these three aspects: the surgeon explaining his/her skills (though they are predominantly male), the affirmation of a satisfied customer, or a montage of highly contrasted ‘Before and After’ photos. 

The below clip was uploaded by JW Plastic Surgery Korea, one of the leading cosmetic surgery clinics in the country. In this clip, a male customer confirms his satisfaction with the results of his surgery and thus promotes the skills of the surgeons at the clinic. In fact, towards the end of the clip, the customer actually mentions the specific names of the surgeons who performed surgery on him. 

It is interesting to note that this clip displays English subtitles below— a common feature found in other videos of this kind. The use of English subtitles in these videos thus suggests that they are intended not only for the Korean market, but also for the international market. Another related observation that is quite interesting to remark is that on the YouTube channel page of the renowned ID Plastic Surgery Hospital Korea, several of the recent videos are titled in as well as feature subtitles in Japanese, Thai, and even Indonesian. Correspondingly, it is also worth noting that the websites of many of the leading Korean cosmetic surgery clinics feature four languages: Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English (Davies and Han 154). These observations further suggest the global reach of the Korean cosmetic surgery industry, which thus brings us to the next section where I will explore how the Korean cosmetic surgery gets commodified and exported as a globalized brand— particularly in China.

Sources

Davies, Gloria, and Gil-Soo Han. "Korean cosmetic surgery and digital publicity: Beauty by Korean design." Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy Nov. 2011: 146-56. Academic OneFile. Web. 

Holliday, Ruth, and Joanna Elfving-Hwang. "Gender, Globalization and Aesthetic Surgery in South Korea." Body & Society 18.2 (2012): 58-81. SAGE Journals. Web. 

Kim, Taeyon. "Neo-Confucian Body Techniques: Women's Bodies in Korea's Consumer Society." Body & Society 9.2 (2003): 97-113. SAGE Journals. Web.