Korean Pop Idol Beauty: The good, the bad, and the ugly

SNSD aka Girls Generation

Hero Jaejoong of JYJ

Dae Guk Nam Ah aka The Boys of Super Space

The Korean Pop Music Industry (aka kpop) is not just know for the talent of its singers, amount of work put into performances, or revolutionary music videos, no. By far the most notable trait of the kpop industry is the perfection in appearance. One of the most famous girl groups of all time is SNSD or Girls Generation. Two of their nine members are pictured here: Yoona and Seohyun.        

SNSD embodies the beauty standards of Korea and other parts of asia which, very unlike America, is ONE face, and ONE set of features that are considered beautiful and desirable. These features include: an oval shaped face (as opposed to a square/angular jawline), large eyes with double eyelids, pale flawless skin, and, of course, a tiny tiny body. This however is mostly for girls, for guys the exact specifications are less existent, and tanner skin is more acceptable because it can be "sexy."

monolid vs. double eyelid

The Good: Of course, it's impossible to not appreciate the beauty of the idols, especially if you're a fan of a particular band or person. For the bands, attractiveness tends to help create the ginormous fan following that means you're a success, in fact it is quite crucial. The most famous bands always have incredibly good looks.

The Bad: The bad aspect of this is the fact that not only does Korea have these beauty standards, but they have plenty of people that are flawless examples of them. Countless korean teens and women get plastic surgery because they want to look like these idols. In fact, my sister wrote an entire paper on the plastic surgery industry in South Korea, it's HUGE.

The Ugly: Not just normal people are doing it: the way a lot of kpop idols achieve this perfection is through plastic surgery. The most common changes are getting double eyelids and changing their jawline, they all shoot for the perfect "egg shaped" face (and just in case you're brain isn't in top functioning capacity, that's an upside-down egg, not a shape with a fat chin). The two members of Girls Generation that are showed up top are a couple of the girls that fans are pretty sure did not get surgery.

In summary, the kpop industry shoots for perfection in an incredibly determined manner, and always manages to achieve it, but not always in the best ways or with the best influences.

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