Plastic No More

South Korea loves plastic surgery and makeup. Some women want to change that. Gender inequality and the global #MeToo movement have fueled “Escape the Corset,” a campaign to cast off the country’s rigid beauty standards

- Alexandra Stevenson

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Ji-yeon knew she wanted plastic surgery when she was seven. For the next 13 years, she destroyed photos of herself until her parents paid for double jaw surgery, a procedure that requires breaking the jaw to realign it.

Then Kim started to question why she devoted so much — $200 a month and two hours a day, she calculated — to her appearance. She cut her hair short. Then she crushed her makeup into pieces.

Kim, 22, is one of a growing group of South Korean women rebelling against their society’s rigid beauty standards — a push they call “Escape the Corset.” Inspired in part by the global #MeToo movement, which has shaken up politics and society in South Korea’s deeply patriarchal culture, the women are challenging long-accepted attitudes about plastic surgery and cosmetics in one of the world’s most beauty-obsessed capitals.

“Misogyny is more extreme in South Korea, and the beauty industry has made it worse,” Kim said.

Beauty is big in South Korea. It has the world’s highest rate of cosmetic surgery per capita, and it keeps rising. It has become a destination for nip-and-tuck tourism. The beauty market — cosmetics and facial care products like masks — generated $13 billion in sales last year, according to Mintel, making it one of the world’s top 10 beauty markets.

While men are an increasing part of the market, the beauty pressure is aimed mostly at women. K-pop stars who often get extensive cosmetic surgery are held up as the standard. YouTube celebrities with millions of followers offer elaborate tutorials on how to apply makeup. Women are bombarded with ads across buses, in subways and on TV.

“Born pretty?” reads one in the Seoul subway. “That’s a big fat lie.”