so pretty it’s a virtue

SO PRETTY IT’S A VIRTUE

On the Economic Aspects of Plastic Surgery in China, Japan, and South

Korea

Katrin Marquez, ASLC Capstone Project 2014

IN THE NEWS

• Why is plastic surgery so popular in East Asian countries?

• Is plastic surgery as popular as the media makes it seem?

WHY PLASTIC SURGERY?

Self-orientalization

Economics

Beauty Practices

Competition

Globalization

Media

Importance

International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2009

“The Chinese and Korean patients tell me that they want to have faces like Americans. The idea of beauty is more westernized recently. That means the Asian people want to have a

little less Asian, more westernized appearance. They don’t like big cheekbones or small eyes.

They want to have big, bright eyes with slender, nice facial bones.”

-Plastic Surgeon Dr. Kim Byung-gun

SELF-ORIENTALIZING

Self-orientalizatio

n

Economics

Beauty Practices

Competition

Globalization

Media

Importance

Problem With Theory:• Denies agency of those choosing to have

plastic surgery• it overlooks the fact that some “Western”

beauty standards have existed within East Asian cultures even before contact with the West

• it ignores that cultures are not static and, as such, ideals of physical appearance are continually shifting

• My theory: Because of increased economic growth and competitiveness, plastic surgery has increased in popularity because it is both luxury good and signaling mechanism, but it remains informed by specific national ideologies..

ALTERNATE THEORY

Self-orientalization

Economics

Beauty Practices

Competition

Globalization

Media

Importance

ALTERNATE THEORY

Self-orientalization

Economics

Beauty Practices

Competition

Globalization

Media

Importance

• Data is largely unreliable• China, Japan and South Korea have

different attitudes toward plastic surgery and other beauty practices

BEAUTY PRACTICES

Self-orientalization

Economics

Beauty Practices

Competition

Globalization

Media

Importance

• Beauty as a marker of success and affluence

• Investment of money and time performance of success or anticipated success

• Highly competitive job markets

COMPETITIVENESS

Self-orientalization

Economics

Beauty Practices

Competition

Globalization

Media

Importance

“[A]esthetic results of surgery are not an ends in themselves but rather a

means ...to attain better socioeconomic status.”

- Eugenia Kaw in "Medicalization of Racial Features: Asian American Women and

Cosmetic Surgery."

• Shifting beauty standards• 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul• National identity in globalized context

GLOBALIZATION

Self-orientalization

Economics

Beauty Practices

Competition

Globalization

Media

Importance

• Films and television have routinized even the most drastic beauty practices by usually depicting only the positive effects of said practices

• The media of specific countries usually reflect larger ideologies The Japanese exception

MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS

Self-orientalization

Economics

Beauty Practices

Competition

Globalization

Media

Importance

MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS

Self-orientalization

Economics

Beauty Practices

Competition

Globalization

Media

Importance

EMBODIED IDEOLOGY

Self-orientalization

Economics

Beauty Practices

Competition

Globalization

Media

Importance

Appearance as ideologyStructuralism and agency