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I find these subtle, yet extremely intense neuroses we see so often in Western cultures fascinating. The patient remarks on one TikTok video in particular that seemingly tormented him. I had never once thought a few inches height difference in a couple was odd or even worth remarking upon and yet there seems to be this vast, largely untapped sensitivity in men being short. Similar things for sexual activity (incels) and breast size (breast augmentations are by far the top cosmetic surgery). They all seem to be little things people joke about sometimes but which have disproportionately negative effects on the butt of the jokes' psyches. I wonder if this is unique to Western/materialistic cultures or more widespread. Whichever, I am sure the scale of social media makes these neuroses worse.

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> I wonder if this is unique to Western/materialistic cultures or more widespread.

Not at all, you just don't seem like someone who has much exposure to the world outside of "western cultures". Which is unfortunate, because the rest of your comment has a lot of pretty interesting points to ponder.

As others have mentioned in replies, plastic surgery in South Korea is so commonplace and integral to everyday life, it will blow a lot of people's minds. Plastic surgeries are common high school graduation gifts there (double eyelid surgery seems to be one of the most popular ones).

For a personal example, sister of one of my friends was graduating from a nursing school there, and ended up getting a surgery or two closer to the end of her program, despite resisting it for the longest time. Why? Because photos are required on resumes for pretty much any position there. And she felt like she was at a strong disadvantage compared to her classmates (who all had at least a couple of plastic surgeries done) when it came to job applications, and iirc her suspicion was strongly supported by her experiences.

The Western equivalent is probably braces. They’re not medically necessary in the vast majority of cases and usually more invasive and painful than either nose or eyelid surgery. Yet most people don’t seem to consider them in the same category at all.

I guess to an outsider they don’t seem invasive. I didn’t realize they were invasive like surgeries

braces could be invasive, but i think only for very badly formed teeth.

And i also think braces makes for better teeth health, since straight teeth is less likely to accumulate plaque and cause gum issues in the future. It's not purely cosmetic.

Teeth whitening, on the other hand, is purely cosmetic and i suspect, entirely unnecessary. I dunno how dangerous it is either, but it can't be healthy to bleach your teeth!

This is a pretty bad counter-example considering S. Korea is by far the most Westernized place in Asia.

It's apparently common for Koreans to make operations to widen their eyes to look more like anime characters.

In Japan, it used to be a necessity for women to use extremely tight shoes in order to contain feet growth, as women with large feet were less desired or something.

In Brazil, the most common surgery for women is probably bum enlargement rather than breast.

In some parts of Myanmar, women need to have very long necks decorated with coils... I would guess they obsess over their appearance at least as much as any modern western woman does.

People are people everywhere and will obsess over things that are important to them, no matter how bizarre it may look to someone from a different culture.

> In Japan, it used to be a necessity for women to use extremely tight shoes in order to contain feet growth

You've confused Japan with China.

> You've confused Japan with China.

I think not: https://heianjapanweb.wordpress.com/2016/10/17/blog-post-tit...

How about a source that isn't just random spam on the internet?

Or even random spam that claims to have some evidence of the practice occurring in Japan?

> It's apparently common for Koreans to make operations to widen their eyes to look more like anime characters.

I don’t think that’s the exact reason, and they’d probably get mad at you if you said they wanted to look like something Japanese.

Korea and China are developing an independent “anime-like aesthetic” based on MMOs and anime-like American PC games these days; eg Blue Archive and Genshin are a lot more technically advanced than what Japan’s famously poorly paid source of actual anime can produce.

Limb-lengthening was popular in China until it got banned.

Plastic surgery is quite common in Iran too.

Korea is famous for plastic surgery.

Very true; yet they are also famously materialistic and capitalistic (see the many film commentaries on capitalism out of South Korea). I wonder if these surgeries are by Western or Korean beauty standards. That is, are people largely trying to obtain Western features through surgery.

> are people largely trying to obtain Western features through surgery.

In my personal opinion, it depends.

For some, like double eyelid surgery, absolutely yes. For others, like the V-line jaw surgery (aka mandibuloplasty, but the colloquial name is pretty self-descriptive), I would say no.

And some are just universal and are done by people of all kinds of cultures/races, like face-lift surgeries (aka rhytidectomy) or nose-jobs (aka rhinoplasty).

As well as big parts of South America.

Putin wears lifts, Kim Jong Un is famously self-conscious, etc. - so, no I don't think these insecurities are in any way unique to with Western cultures. And every culture is materialistic.

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