Korean beauty standards

One thing that I noticed in Korea as soon as I arrived was a total difference in beauty standards from Korea to anywhere else I’ve been in the world. There’s a clear reason why Koreans are renowned for their beauty in the Asian world.

In the west, there isn’t really a set beauty standard, someone either is or isn’t good looking, it depends entirely on the person. You could like red heads, freckles, dimples, body builders, skinny people, or girls who are curvy or you could just like big buts and you cannot lie…(I’m gonna stop there lol)

SNSD's Yoona

So, in Korea, there is the culture to fit in with the crowd and people don’t really have a burning desire to be individual. So everyone wants the perfect face, and yes, there is a set criteria in Korea for the ideal face shape. If you don’t fit into this, then unless you’re some crazy anomaly, then you’re not really going to be considered beautiful.  Everyone wants a V shaped face, slight jaw line, narrow cheek bones, big eyes, double eye lids and a high nose bridge. Korea very much sticks to this idea that you can aspire to. There’s pretty much a list of things that you can either do or look like which make you an attractive person. The list basically consists of the above face shape and: being tall (over 175cm), long legs, pale skin, S-line (hour glass figure), V-line face shape and s small face. Basically looking like a doll is what people aspire to.

In comparison to the west, this level of attention isn’t really something that people think about, at all. Before I came to Korea I never noticed a double eye lid on somebody. But one thing that would horrify most Koreans, if they knew, is the western obsession with tanning, and getting that Mediterranean looking skin. People in the west tan all the time or even use fake tan. In Korea, people freak out about the sun. it’s common to see people walking round with a parasol to stop themselves from tanning. In fact, in Korea they have the opposite of fake tan.
They have skin whitening kits that you can buy in any beauty store. In fact, one thing that is common here, is that if someone naturally has tanned skin, but by no means dark skin by our standards, other people will make fun of them for it. Weather it be in a classroom at school or as an adult. For some reason it doesn’t translate as bullying…yeah Korea is about the most racially insensitive place in the world. Lol. I’ve had to explain to a few of my students what could happen to them if they spoke that way to someone in the west. Haha.

So back to the small face thing. This doesn’t translate at all into western culture, and I didn’t understand it at first. People tell me all the time…actually no, correction, boys and men tell me all the time that I’m handsome because I have “the above list” and I have a small face, and my reaction at first was always like, “what?”. I didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing, and I was pretty certain that my face wasn’t particularly small or big, it was just a face. But when we take photos my students and other people will cover their jaw bone area with the tactful piece symbol to make their face look smaller and V shaped. In fact let me show you some poor quality face pictures...

 Until I saw them I didn’t notice but I actually do have a small face O.o The high and wide cheek bones (that westerner’s usually say “omg his/her cheek bones are beautiful” to) that Asian people have makes their face generally look so much larger when directly compared to my face, but in themselves, they look completely in proportion. In the west there’s nothing wrong with that but in Korea, that’s not good. Tbh, I don’t think that before Korea I ever would have noticed.

Infinite's Myeongsoo

The interesting thing however, is that these rules, apply to both men and women! It’s not like in the west where men have an aesthetic ideal and then women have a different one. The ideal way for a man and woman to be is very similar. I’d say that men in their 30s and over don’t really fall under this kind of social pressure, I think that generation missed it, but men in their 20s and under fall right into it. So that includes, men and boys wearing makeup. It may seem strange to a westerner, in fact,

Before and after make up

in the west that would just be deemed “gay” but here that way of thinking doesn’t signify. But In Korea, aesthetics and impressions are super important. And that includes men. Eg: Korea doesn’t have anti-discrimination laws, or at least none that are enforced. So someone who is more attractive could get a job over someone who is less well groomed, easily. Having that edge in Korea is too important. But note that I’m not talking about “fashion diva” makeup, men who do wear makeup here are really careful about how they use it, because it can‘t be obvious that they‘re using it, that defeats the point of naturally being beautiful.

So it’s actually really common and you’re just as likely to see a bunch of teenage boys fixing each other’s hair as you are to see a bunch of teenage girls. In fact, half of my elementary school boys all comb their hair in class >.>.

One other things worth noting is that height here is really important, as I mentioned earlier. When you buy shoes in korea, they will have an inside heal which you can’t see from the outside, so you actually look taller

than you are. You can even buy thick insouls to make you even taller. It’s also really fashionable to have trousers that are slightly too short to make your legs look longer than they actually are .

But overall, Korean’s dress very well, and very sharp, especially in comparison to the west. One of the reasons I’ve been on such a mission to buy new clothes while in Korea is because I’ve felt embarrassed to wear my English clothes. Foreigners aren’t held up to the same beauty standards as native Koreans but still, I like to look good. And looking good in Korea means something totally different to looking good in England.

If I was go into detail about how the fashion here is different and there are different idea's of what parts of the body are and aren't acceptable to show, this blog would take you a year to read so i'll leave it at that. ^^