Race and Gender Politics of South Korea’s Cosmetic Surgery Culture = Race and Gender Politics of South Korea’s Cosmetic Surgery Culture

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article is an attempt to look into cultural workings of cosmetic surgery in South Korea. Beginning with some historical contexts, I argue that Koreans’ obsessive investment in appearance has important bearings on the recent shift of the nation into a multiethnic society. In the new racial imaginary, upper- and middle-class Koreans are urged to adopt multicultural whiteness. Persistent popularity of double eyelid and nose procedures, as well as the increasing demand of dangerous bone contouring, implies racial connotations of cosmetic surgery. Appearance in this way tends to function as a new discriminatory apparatus in contemporary Korea while multicultural whiteness has become symbolic capital that consolidates ethno-racial hierarchy. Further, I examine lookism’s deeper cultural meanings related to gender politics in Korea, with a focus on the recent upsurge of misogynist hate speech and feminist reaction.