Plastic Seoul

Just back from a quick trip over to Seoul, South Korea (only a few KM away from the North - which I hope to be able to visit one day ... heard some funny, interesting and rather depressing stories about the Northern side ... mostly relating to the border frontier - just a line apparently ... will leave them for another day).

Apart from its likeness to Japan, (architecture & alcohol), what amazed me most about Korea was how stunningly perfectly featured (facially) most of the young women are.

Absolutely beautiful looking baby-doll anime-manga-type big eyed faces.

I remarked on this to a Korean colleague. He explained how commonplace plastic surgery was ... 10% of Korean people under 30 have had plastic surgery undertaken!

Typically, as a graduation present, boys are given a car whilst girls are given smaller eyelids.

Here's what Time magazine has to say about it all. I think it's all a bit sad.

It wasn't too many generations ago that South Korean kids had no control over their looks. Their hair, for example, was considered a gift from their parents—never to be cut. But today, kids drop into the plastic surgeon's office after school, and when they get home their folks can barely recognize them.

As in the rest of Asia, South Korea's primary cosmetic obsession is with the eyes. Having bigger eyes is every girl's dream, and it can now be realized through a simple $800 operation, in which a small incision or suture is made above the eye to create an artificial double lid. Teenagers as young as 14 are doing it, and eye jobs have become a favorite high school graduation gift from proud parents.

Park Sang Mi's parents were against plastic surgery until her older sister came home one day with bigger eyes. Park followed suit last year, her parents approved, and she took a part-time job at Baskin Robbins to help them foot the bill. "Now I know nobody will laugh at me for being ugly," Park says gratefully. Park, now 20, doesn't have plans to return to the clinic immediately, but wants liposuction performed on her thighs some day. Meanwhile, she's considering her friends' advice to trash her old photographs.

South Korea is even more competitive than it is conservative. And with so many young people having themselves remade, parents are afraid their children will fall behind, not just academically but aesthetically. "Parents make their kids get plastic surgery," says Dr. Shim Hyung Bo, a plastic surgeon practicing in Seoul, "just like they make them study. They realize looks are important for success." Which means that in today's Korea, getting your eyes done can be easier than getting the keys to dad's car.

Not good eh? I'm just pleased I'm naturally facally-perfect.

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