"I want to be c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶i̶v̶e̶,̶ ̶t̶a̶l̶e̶n̶t̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶s̶m̶a̶r̶t̶.̶.̶.BEAUTIFUL"

Hellow, my English class!

Let's start this off with a foreign touch. I mean – who doesn't like foreign stuff, right? (Don't answer...)

I remember the first time I watched a South Korean drama. There was something distinct about the whole thing and I was instantly hooked. Maybe it was the humor that did it, or maybe it was the unique story line or the cool sounding language, or maybe it was...the beauty? Now some might see this weird while others might know where I'm getting at, and to those I say, "I'm talking Kim Hyun Joong." To my embarrassing thirteen-year-old self, this man (yes, man) was beautiful, and he was the reason I continued to watch that drama and many others to come. I was sucked into a vortex (formally known as the South Korean entertainment industry) where everything and everyone was beautiful, and I loved it. Somehow, nothing about that perfectly crafted world appeared to be wrong...


If you know anything about the South Korean entertainment industry, you'll know how heavily "look" oriented it is. Looks precede talents (but you definitely need both). Why? Because looks sell. People will watch/listen/buy/etc. if it involves pretty people. But let's say that a "non-looker" seems talented enough to fetch some gold, what then? Well no panic required! After all, “surgeons” make everything better, don't they?
  
In my obsession days, I will admit to have disliked some celebrities for the way they looked, and I did have battles with fellow fanatics on who looked better than whom. However, we all make mistakes and do things we aren't proud of and the most important thing is to learn from those mistakes (this might, or might not be a smooth getaway to save face). But the main point is, despite our moral teachings, we saw nothing wrong with the whole ordeal. It's normal in Korea so it should be normal for us too, right?  That guy/girl is hotter than the other one so, obviously, they deserve to be more popular, right? The moral answer is so obvious yet it
contradicts the truth.

A sad reality of our world lies in how loose a grip we have on our core human values. Discrimination is morally wrong, but so are stealing and swearing until they become normal, everyday things. In an extremely advanced country like South Korea, discrimination based on looks is very clear-cut and obvious, not only to the nation, but to the entire world to see. Yet how many of us dare to see it?  How many of us dare claim that our society is far from reforming and selling faces for money (if we don't do so already)?
  

The Cap'n huffed and he puffed and he blew hearts away. Beat that.

To me, discrimination based on looks is heavily downplayed in our society – like it isn't worth pondering and campaigning over. Slowly, this underestimated issue is spreading and is over-taking who we are as individuals and as a society. It's scary to note that 56 years after Ambrose Bierce said, “To men a man is but a mind. Who cares what face he carries or what he wears? But woman’s body is the woman” (Saltzberg and Chrisler 142), beauty standards dominated the male species as well. Who else noticed that the entire league of Avengers (plus Loki, of course) is extremely good looking? (I mean, just look at Cap'n 'Merica! Where is our Captain Canadia?) What about the twilight saga? Despite the vomit-inducing performance and story-line (if you're a twilight fan, blame the critics), it stays high grossing. Why? It may have to do with the group of "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" devotees. Forget women, even men are demanded to be more and more sexually appealing on the big screen. If, from observing women, this pattern seems familiar, then you'll have no problem guessing the psychological and economical damages men are up for. On the positive note, we can finally achieve gender equality, right?

But so what if famous people look amazing? Don't they always? Of course, and there's something really wrong with that. Besides them highlighting the "Looks Pay" phenomenon, they set the ever-increasing beauty standards for society. They are the extraordinary puppets of inter-linked industries that define what we should aspire to, then provide us with the tools  (how convenient!) for a price beyond the bills in our wallets. And sadly, we comply, buy, and buy. 

However, beauty standards are a truly complicated thing. I read in a paper once, "An ideal, by definition, can be met by only a minority of those who strive for it. If too many women [and men] are able to meet the beauty standards of a particular time and place, then those standards must change in order to maintain their extraordinary nature" (Saltzberg and Chrisler 143). Does this make pursuing beauty an eternity spell? Will there ever be a time when everybody will just come to love themselves? Well...probably not. See, completely overcoming beauty standards significantly depends on the self-esteem and positive psychology of the entire nation, and those are very tricky things. A person's self-esteem is like a domino structure. It's scary what a small push can do. Now imagine trying to simultaneously protect a million people's domino structures while repelling the powers of the ever-growing, ever-influential, ever-manipulative media and beauty industries. But does this mean we give up on trying to change? Absolutely not. Maybe we can't make everybody love themselves but when did we ever need everybody to make a change?

We need to start destroying the embarrassing paradoxes in our society. How do we have the face to demand freedom for women when we shackle them with definitions and criteria of what to be? How do we celebrate diversity and encourage individualism when we conform and mold people into one standard of beauty? We repeated "inner beauty is everything" until it lost all meaning and left no trail of its existence.  

Nonetheless, inner beauty is everything. It's who we are. It's the only thing about ourselves we choose, we create. And it is what we should always judge others by.

"While beauty ought to be celebrated as a source of joy, inspiration, and indeed a paradigm of Divine Artistry, one must not allow physical beauty to interfere with one’s sense of justice, fairness, and morality" (Physical Beauty and Its Effect). Beauty should, most definitely, not define one's opportunities or the way they should be treated, nor should it give anyone the right to discriminate against another.

And finally, to make sure you leave having gotten something out of this, here's one of my favorite spoken word performances, titled Pretty by Katie Makkai.

Now you tell me about any of your personal experiences regarding something like this. Do you think I was right by placing the blame on media considering that people from society create it? Or do you believe media is under the power and influence of individual, money-vampire corporates? What about plastic surgeries? Is it acceptable to fix up an otherwise normal face to meet the standards of airbrushed billboard models? If not, why is there such a lack of opposition movements in our society? Why are people not bothered?

Thanks for reading! Stay awesome.

 Works Cited

Saltzberg, Elayne A., and Joan C. Chrisler. "Beauty Is the Beast: Psychological Effects of the Pursuit of the Perfect Female Body." Moral Issues in Global Perspective. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2006. 142-50. Print. 

"Physical Beauty and Its Effect Upon Human Psychology: A New Yorker’s Perspective." Blood Is No Argument. Wordpress.com, 20 Feb. 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.