With 39 million won, you too can be reborn as a super
beauty.” At least, in theory, it is. obtained this calculation as a result of
additional coverage of the average market price based on the surgery cost
suggested by a plastic surgeon in Gangnam, Seoul. Of course, plastic surgery
costs vary widely. A distinctive feature of plastic surgery is that even a
single nose operation varies by several million won depending on whether it is
Seoul or rural, Gangbuk or Gangnam, a well-known doctor or a puppet practitioner,
and the individual patient’s physical characteristics.
Accordingly, selected the moulding cost based on the lowest
price in general (see the figure below). Soon, 4.5 million won to fix the
features, 9 million won to make the face slimmer, 4 million won to enlarge the
chest, 10 million won to remove fat from the body such as the lower abdomen,
thighs, and buttocks, 2 million won to make the calves slim, 7 million won to
remove wrinkles and smooth skin, and 2.5 million won to remove dimples or navel
as an option or to remove hair on the armpits or ‘bikini line’. It cost 9
million won. When calculated as the maximum value of the average market price,
this cost jumps to the 50 million won level.
The era of national plastic surgery is approaching. In Korea,
‘beauty plastic surgery’ started to become popular in the mid-1980s. In just
over 20 years since then, plastic surgery has gone beyond popularization and is
moving closer to the realm of everyday life.
As stated by Kangwon Lee, a plastic surgeon (Director of the
Department of Plastic Surgery, Gangwon Lee), plastic surgery is now a public
concern that transcends age, gender, and class. Reliable statistics have not
yet been released, but based on several sample surveys, plastic surgery circles
estimate that the proportion of people who have experienced plastic surgery has
exceeded 10% (including reconstructive plastic surgery). In this situation, the
three public TV companies are not yielding to the public opinion criticizing
whether TV is a plastic surgery salesperson, and are broadcasting corners such
as
Five minutes later, the woman received 15 injections in both
cheeks and left her office. The doctor’s words, who came to see him off, hit
her in the back. She said, “I’m her grandma, who is moving toward her 60th
birthday celebration. She got botox injections on her forehead, forehead, and
around her mouth six months ago.”
Botox injections, which have been widely distributed in
Korea since 2-3 years ago, are being praised for being the first to lower the
threshold for plastic surgery. This injection, which has proven efficacy and
safety by being certified by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1989,
uses botulinum bacteria, which is originally released when canned food goes
stale. The principle of this injection is to smooth out wrinkles by selectively
paralyzing the facial expression muscles by injecting a toxin. Botox injections
are gaining popularity among middle-aged and older men and women because of
their strength that they can easily smooth out wrinkles ‘for a short amount of
time to drink a cup of coffee without having to put a knife to the face. It is
expensive (400,000 to 500,000 won per part) and the restriction that the effect
disappears after 3 to 6 months is of no use in front of the desire to be young.
A new generation is chasing a new plastic surgery fashion.
According to a survey conducted by Lee Ji-ham Plastic Surgery & Dermatology
Clinic on 1,000 women in their teens and twenties nationwide in early 1999, 60%
of the respondents said they wanted to have plastic surgery as soon as they
were given the opportunity. The plastic surgery that they most wanted to do was
facial contouring (24%), lower belly liposuction (22%), and double eyelid
surgery (17%). For a new generation who considers ‘Ulgeun’ and ‘Fat’ as the
most insulting nicknames, the absolute beauty standards are ‘the size of a
CD-ROM size face’ and ‘a skinny body like a supermodel’.
However, the so-called ‘facial contouring surgery, which is
known as ‘surgery to make the face smaller, is only to induce an optical
illusion to make the face look slimmer by cutting out part of the cheekbones or
jawbone. Jong-beom Park, director of surgery. However, by cutting these bones
by only 1mm each, the effect of making the face look completely different can
be achieved.
According to Ms Han Seol (Ewha Woman’s University,
Department of Women’s Studies), who wrote her doctoral thesis based on her own
diet experience, women dream of ideal looks not just because of the desire to
be beautiful. This is to acquire one’s own gender identity and gender identity
in a society where gender differences are clear (published in Dongryok). ‘If
you are not beautiful, if you are not thin’, you are not a woman in this
society.
An era in which appearance is an ability, an asset, and a
class. In an era where no one, young or old, can be free from this ideology.
Cultural critic Mi-Hyeon Kim discovers the core code of post-capitalist society
in the universal theory of ‘if you don’t like it, you can fix it. ‘It’s not
mine. The mindset of ‘I can make anything my own’ is remarkably similar to a
mud game played in virtual reality. Technological advances, symbolized by the
Genome Project, are maximizing human resistance to sanctity.
Nevertheless, Kim Mi-Hyeon points out that challenging
plastic surgery is destined to end as a zero-sum game. The paradox of our time
is that the ‘absolute weight’ has collapsed, but the standards of beauty are
constantly being adjusted upward. Plastic surgery beauty is inevitably suffering
from a sense of deficiency again.
