Eun-Jeung LEE

"Beauty is Power" - Lookism in South Korea

"South Korea is a country where plastic surgery industry has been a roaring success. Beauty has become a dominant norm. Why? Some people try to explain this phenomenon in terms of the traditional Confucian culture of self-cultivation. However, this cannot be correct, as in Confucian culture a neat look cannot be equated with beauty. However, the rising dominance of lookism since the 1990s can be better explained through the interaction of pressures emanating from the labour market, of entertainment business, of the business strategies of medical industry and of economic policies of the government."

in: PROKLA - Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft, Nr. 178, 16. März 2015.