Flawless But At What Cost?

Like a heart surgeon, Elise Hu cracks open the chest of Korean beauty standards under a glaring light of pragmatism and personal reflection. Although K-beauty has been widely hailed as a phenomena accepted, even embraced, by the average American, how many of them are aware of its dark roots or cultural implications? How can Americans consume an industry they know little about when it is one of Korea’s top exports, and capitalism reigns supreme? 

“Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital” gives a comprehensive journey into the origins of what many Koreans deem “beautiful”: Hu digs into the political and historical origin, starting with social inequities and government oppression in the 1970s. During this time of South Korea’s industrialization, General Park Chung-hee’s dictatorship controlled the fashion industry. Park determined the proper length of hair down to the length of skirts so citizens could focus on national development, since beauty and fashion were distractions to productivity. Later on, as protests began to move the needle toward democracy, beauty and fashion were seen as less of a threat, and K-beauty began to bloom. Flash forward to today, where K-pop and homogenism are sold in the same package, and selling an image of a group is perhaps more lucrative than selling an actual product.  

Hu breaks down the context of every facial cleansing step, from double cleansing to exfoliation, and ties it to a historical origin. For instance, one beauty process known as “skin bleaching” is a nod to Korea’s Gojoseon period, which ended in 108 B.C.E. Since pale skin meant an individual lived a life out of the sun — hence, labor free — the implicit association was that fair skin was desired. This preference exacerbated an intergenerational carryover of classism and value placed on the upper class. Even today, highly sought-after surgical procedures are only obtainable by the wealthy, leaving the remainder of citizens tragically looking their age. 

Not only do K-beauty standards strongly capitalize on a historical class system, Hu asserts that there is an overt obsession with youth; not surprising given that this is also an American norm, but the South Korean standards of youth are almost … preadolescent. Marketing capitalizes on the ultimate goal of consumers to look more accurately “child-like.” Hu observes that even K-beauty packaging is oversaturated with cartoon animals and all things (for lack of a better word) kawaii. Want glass skin? Use this mask. Feet as smooth as a baby’s bottom? There’s a product for that. We are selling you the fountain of youth in packaging that makes your inner 9-year-old want to scream with pleasure. 

If there is any concern around implicit bias with the unattractive (read: poor) in South Korea, efforts are being made to address the inequities for those who cannot afford cosmetic surgery: Lookism, a term used to describe discrimination based on how someone looks, was made illegal in the country. Additionally, the government offers free cosmetic surgery to refugees to more easily assimilate to their better-looking counterparts. 

Hu concludes that K-beauty standards are entirely socially constructed and have morphed into something that consumers today struggle to put their finger on. What does it mean to “look Korean” when the industry has dictated that cosmetic surgery can give you the perfect Korean nose? Or when the industry recommends double eyelid surgery when about 50% of Southeast Asians are born with a monolid? Now that procedures like surgically pinning mouths to get a permanent resting bitch face or getting fillers to look “cuter” are trending, these enhancements have left Hu shaking her head at the convoluted messages.

What Hu can offer readers is a step back. While Hu discovers the true origin of these beauty narratives, she injects her personal journey to find herself among the frantic static of K-beauty marketing. She reflects on the pandemic as a rare opportunity to silence the infiltrating and aggressive social pressures of K-beauty. Hu recalls the stripping down of our appearances and the chance to see ourselves as our most natural beings: Gray hair, no makeup, no designer clothes, no bras … and we survived.

You can order “Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital” on Bookshop.com through Mochi’s affiliate storefront. (A percentage of your purchase total goes towards supporting our mission.)