Preview

The Danger of the Public Obsession of Physical Appearance in Korea

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
739 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Danger of the Public Obsession of Physical Appearance in Korea
The Danger of the Public Obsession of Physical Appearance in Korea In recent Korea, the most frequent used words are eoljjang(perfect face), V-line (perfect face-line), momjjang (perfect body) and S-line(perfect body-line), which express the public obsession of physical appearance. Particularly to young students, this social obsession of external features has resulted in undesirable outcomes: a waste of time and money, an acquisition of distorted values of beauty and human beings and a serious danger to health. The public obsession of external features forces students into spending too much time and money for their physical appearances. For example, more than 20% of my school students spend most of their spare time on part-time jobs to save money for their future cosmetic surgeries. They don’t want to study at all because they believe only a better appearance can guarantee a better future. Furthermore, one of the commonest hobbies of female students is taking a ‘self-picture’ or preening themselves in front of the mirror. In this way, they waste their precious periods in being absorbed in their outer appearances. In addition, they waste their pocket money in buying extravagant goods which they believe make their outward appearances more attractive. Therefore, most of them do not buy more necessary things like books that help their inner developments. Owing to the orientation to external appearances, the average reading rate of Korean students has been decreasing. As a result, the National Library of Korea pronounced that the average reading time of high school students has been reduced by 15 % during the past five years. The social tendency of overestimation about physical beauty gives distorted values of human beings and beauty to students. Nowadays, this saying that “Bad personality is forgiven but ugly looking is not forgiven.” has been widely quoted in Korean society. That means outer- beauty compensates all kinds of bad traits. In this social
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Elline Lipkin Summary
    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Elline Lipkin Summary

    A vast majority of adolescent girls face pressures to meet society’s expectations of how their body should look. These young women are exposed to the negative stereotypes from a very young age. In an effort to achieve these beauty standards, the girls have a tendency to suffer serious consequences while trying to maintain society’s idea of beauty. Over time, these standards have been altered but has not left cultural consciousness. Overall, Lipkin provides irrefutable examples of the detrimental toll these standards have on the way people live their lives, especially young…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    "The Story of My Body" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and "Never Just Pictures" by Susan Bordo.
    • 1261 Words
    • 4 Pages

    "The Story of My Body" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and "Never Just Pictures" by Susan Bordo.

    Appearance is the first sign of identity and personality that a person shows. The majority of the people are used to judge by appearance instead of personality, but what happens when our personality and appearance are directly connected? Most of us would think that our body and our identity are somehow contradictory, but the reality is another. Our body and identity are both shaped by the media and influenced by some other elements of our society: friends, place, and education. We reflect what we think it is correct in the opinions of others. This idea is expanded and explained in two essays: "The Story of My Body" written by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and "Never Just Pictures" by Susan Bordo.…

    • 1261 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Meets The Eye Analysis
    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What Meets The Eye Analysis

    At first, it may seem shallow to care a whole lot about one’s appearance, but according to Daniel Akst’s essay “What Meets the Eye”, we learn that in many ways, appearances actually serve as a source of inequality. In his expository piece, Akst probes into the importance of appearances in our society today; he explores the role that beauty plays in everyday life and and how it influences society. Akst makes numerous interesting discoveries on the role of appearances in society, but several of his arguments don’t seem to be well-argued.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Bodily Perfection: American Obsession
    • 2626 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Bodily Perfection: American Obsession

    America is a growing and changing nation, but one characteristic has outlasted the years. The obsession for a socially-accepted body, whether it be wearing a corset, being big and voluptuous or, for men, being muscular and lean, has always existed. The culprit, a negative body image, now haunts approximately eight million people across the United States and is beginning to seep into more American minds as the “Perfect” disease spreads (Davis 8). In the past decade, the pressure to have “the perfect body” has dramatically increased in America; every individual in this nation has a different view of what “the perfect body” actually is, and many people who are seeking it are willing to take radical…

    • 2626 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Editing in the Media
    • 3411 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Editing in the Media

    How a person looks is often directly related to how they feel about themselves, and this is linked to the social norm. Self-esteem is defined as confidence through self-worth, and for teenage girls in most Western cultures, self-worth is linked to body image. Body image is developed parallel to a number of sociocultural factors, one of which is the edited and unrealistic media images of so-called “ideal women.” The images shown in the media subconsciously effect young girls and lower their self-esteem because they believe that the edited images show what they ought to look like (Clay). The link between body image and self-worth is evident, as is the link between photo-editing and self-esteem. In 2011, the American Medical Association urged the media and businesses to stop retouching models and editing photographs so heavily. They warned “we must stop exposing…

    • 3411 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Juvenile Should Not Be Trail as Adult
    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Juvenile Should Not Be Trail as Adult

    We sometimes tend to shut some people out of our lives, if his or her physical appearance is not to our liking. Appearance can be deceiving; so we should never trust our first impression, nor should we use our mind to determine the beauty of a…

    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    greek mythology
    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages

    greek mythology

    Susan Sontag insists that sometimes people pay attention only to their outer beauty than the inner beauty. As I mentioned in the essay, I too think that the reason why more and more people are willing to get a non-medical purposed plastic surgery is because they only pay attention to their appearance and care about how other’s may think about their outlooks. The author maintains that it is partially due to the social influence. People nowadays are prone to the public TV shows, commercials and movies that aim to grab the audience’s attention by projecting the what is to be thought “idealized” female and male performers. Her theory of the origin of our obsession with beautiful women explained how most women including me behave in certain ways.…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Body Image In Today's Society
    • 2011 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Body Image In Today's Society

    This paper looks at they way body image affects women’s lives, caused by the media. Women in today’s society always want to change the way they look. This paper looks at different ways the media affects these women. Like through everyday exposure, and so on. Then it talks about the way women perceive themselves can affect their relationships, and sexual relations. It then goes on to talk about how women want to become a size zero like they see all these models are. But they are only a size eight. Well they go on these fad diets that are only short-term weight loss goals, and many of these diets don’t work. Also women spend billions on makeup in their lifetime just to alter the way the look to look “beautiful.” They want to look the way society thinks they need to.…

    • 2011 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Body Dysmorphia
    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Body Dysmorphia

    Discussed in the readings this week, the major claims mentioned were the following. To begin, the authors argued how social constrictions towards bodies control the appearance and hygiene of a gender, especially for females. Additionally, another claim being presented was the concept of beauty and how it has dictated societal expectations throughout time and diverse cultures. Finally, the discussion of how certain mental illnesses, such as eating disorders and body dysmorphia, can manifest and dangerously negotiate beauty ideals by influencing those to obsess over obtaining a perfect self-image.…

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Prefect Body Image
    • 2017 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Prefect Body Image

    Adolescence is the crucial time of a child’s development where he/she is easily influenced by what's trending. During this stage in life, children are still in the process figuring out own unique individuality one of the greatest aspects of this stage is the interest in outer physical appearance. So, what happens when adolescents sit in front of their electric devices for an average of nine hours a day? It so happens that they become influenced by the many advertisements of beauty and body image which eventually sways them to believe the prefect body image is defined as a list of specific credentials. In recent years, body image has trended from being buff is beautiful in the early 2000’s to the modern day bigger butt is better currently in 2017. As adolescents aspire to have the trophy like body shape it opens doors that could positively or negatively affect the child’s development. Eating habits and confidence levels can become negative which can influence an adolescent’s…

    • 2017 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Society's Body Image Ideals
    • 2249 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Society's Body Image Ideals

    There is a saying that beauty is only skin-deep; this skin must be very deep because beauty seems to affect every woman’s life. Why is that men are judged by what they do, what they drive, possess, etc, while women are judged by how they look? We live in a cruel, cold world, where a woman is not a complete package if she does not meet the society’s standard of beauty. For a man, their mind matters, where for a woman, the outer matters so much more. This, unfortunately, is the superficial world we live in. Women have become slaves to this ideal beauty, and it has affected women negatively physically and emotionally. The truth is, the more beautiful a woman a regarded, the better…

    • 2249 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Perfection And Media Analysis
    • 1655 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Perfection And Media Analysis

    Currently in our society, looks mean everything. People care so much about their appearance that they are going above and beyond to achieve the look the media makes us believe is perfect. Women are going to the most credited plastic surgeons and men are going to the gym and taking muscle growth supplements more than ever before. But who is to blame? The celebrities demonstrating perfection, the media exposing their flawless pictures, or our own insecure minds? Not only is this epidemic of trying to be perfect getting worse, but also it is starting to affect people as young as grammar school students. The media has never played such an important role in our society and how we look at ourselves in the mirror by exposing us to their idea of “perfection” and making us want to achieve this flawless physical apperance, but our minds are also at fault at making us believe that we are not perfect.…

    • 1655 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Body Image
    • 1843 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Body Image

    For most people in order to feel good they must look good, however for some people looking good doesn’t cut it they have to be perfect. In our minds every one of us has an idealized body image which comes from “a mixture of ideas and feeling about one’s physical appearance…linked to self esteem and emotional stability” (Maggie 2). Factors that influence ones self- perceptions are the 21st century media, peers, and family basically our main social surroundings.…

    • 1843 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Our Barbies Ourselves Analysis
    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Our Barbies Ourselves Analysis

    To begin with, the standard of beauty seems to be impeding people’s ability to attain and maintain a good life. In embodying the good life lecture by…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Body Image Demographic Research
    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Body Image Demographic Research

    In modern society body image dissatisfaction is common, especially with the emphasis of beauty through aesthetic labor. Overtime the image of what society deems is “beautiful”, has changed dramatically and with these progressive changes in beauty standards arise the negative impacts on health, especially amongst the most influential age group; the youth. To exemplify, through the process of body modification, dieting, over exercising and possibly even starvation, you might obtain the impossible image that Western culture has normalized. Consequently, some of the side effects of these practices, (that affect both genders), include, low self-esteem, and eating disorders. From a socio-cultural perspective, these issues can be analyzed by focusing…

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics