1 Same Face, Different Place: Kpop and the Western world shaping beauty ideals in Korea Jordan Genovese Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Ohio “K-Pop idols.... I think they probably influence [us] the greatest.” –Fat Stigma Interviews 1. Introduction and Background If one were to open a Korean magazine, the likelihood seeing a curvy, yet underweight, electronically modified model is highly probable. Not surprising as the booming force that drives the entertainment industry in Korea, known as K-pop, is personified by thin women who undergo plastic surgery to attain a less characteristically Asian, and more American looking body and face. Korean women frequently identify American models that flaunt thin yet curvy, hourglass figures as their ideal appearance: a rarity in naturally occurring female bodies 1 . The majority of studies in print that investigate the media’s impact on body image explore thinness of, more often than not, women in media and how lauded thinness influences the targeted audience. While thinness is idealized in Korea, this particular culture stresses the importance of maintaining an ideal, collective appearance. The number of women that desire to achieve Korea’s body ideal reached new summits over the course of the past decade (Jung 2006). When members of a given culture fall short of an idea, it promotes proliferous body image dissatisfaction (BID). BID drives the desire in Korean women to change their bodies. Among a number of identified compensatory behaviors, plastic surgery in Korea is becoming increasingly popularity due to the desire to achieve an unnatural occurring ideal, as opposed to solely the thin. This paper investigates why a population that achieves a thin ideal with staggeringly low rates of obesity remains indefinitely dissatisfied with their appearance. 1.1 Fat Stigma Interviews The Global Fat Stigma Project is a multi-sited fieldwork effort run by Dr. Eileen Anderson-Fye. The project currently investigates obesity stigma in Belize, Jamaica, Nepal, Brazil, Mexico, the United States, and South Korea. Eun Jin Sun of Case Western Reserve University traveled to South Korea to conduct interviews with twenty-four young Korean men and women (See Appendix 1). She then conducted similar interviews with upwardly mobile Korean American college students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. This paper is of a comparative nature—comparing ethnographic data gathered in these interviews to current relevant literature. 1.2 Korean Women Beauty Ideals In almost all cultures, the expectation for women is to be beautiful (Jung, 2006). However, the specifics of each culture’s ideal body are shaped as they develop their own unique set of qualities they deem admirable. Korean culture has its own set of societal “rules” that define beauty, its own definition of physical attractiveness, and its own set 1 The term “natural” is used here and throughout the paper to describe non-cosmetically modified bodies. Furthermore, in a non-modified body, it is highly unlikely that a woman’s fat would store solely on her breasts and buttocks – giving her the ideal body figure.