Seoul: The World Capital of Plastic Surgery

newyorker.com

19 points·allending··7 comments

I'm fascinated by Korean culture! I recommend Colin Marshall's podcast Notebook on Cities and Culture, which recently completed a Korean tour: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/notebook-on-cities-cultu...

Or check out his blog: http://blog.colinmarshall.org

The ads the article quotes make me sad.

- “This is the reason celebrities are confident even without their makeup”

- “Everyone but you has done it”

The before & after pictures plastered everywhere (that increase in frequency as you get close to Gangnam but are still very common) have the same effect for me. Input person who at least has some semblance of an individual physical appearance and output yet another who looks like all the others. When numbers are as high as possibly being 50%+ for women in their 20s, it becomes even scarier. I have numerous 20-something female Korean friends that make me doubt that statistic but I'm sure it's not far off.

I worked for a Korean company for mover 7 years and a few times a year found myself in Gangnam. I was out with a colleague and his sister, she said "oh, everyone (meaning female) has had a little work done." Given, as you suggest, the prominence of the plastic surgery business it isn't surprising.

There may be an upside to this. It could mean that sexual selection will evolve them based on traits other than physical appearance.

How is that an upside?

It means the people who were born ugly, but otherwise perfectly fine, will have a fighting chance.

Imagine Stephen Hawking's eye-to-speech device like cosmetic augmentation.

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