Obssessed with Beauty

When I saw the MTV Bad Girls by Korean girl band Miss A (which is smokin’ HOT), I thought one of the Wonder Girls have jumped ship.
Don’t you reckon Sue Ji from Miss A (first MTV) looks a lot like the Wonder Girls, or if the Wonder Girls are actually quints.

Either they all frequent the same celebrity plastic surgeon, otherwise their hairdo makes them identical.
Korea has been ranked as one of the countries most obsessed with image. Among the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development nations (Singapore is not one of them! UK, USA and many European counties as well as Japan are), Korea has one of the highest rates of plastic surgery in the world
Parents buy their children double eye-lids for their 16th birthday. They justify the need for bigger eyes because they allow more light to go in, thus better visibility in the dark. That’s right, they plan their children to be masked crusaders of the city, working at night, saving the world.
Maybe it IS a valid reason; after all, the wide screen TV advertises that with a standard screen, you can’t see the ball out of screen.

I ought to highlight though. When I was younger, my eyes were small and I thought I was a single lid-er.

Now that I am older, my eyes seem bigger and my lids became double. I did not use the methods of sticking tape or using a ruler to saw a lid out. What I did use are contact lenses. A friend told me with the frequent use of contact lenses, you widen your eyes literally because you always have to open it up to pop the lenses in. Another friend explained the reason for the occurrence of double lid is AGE. As you grow older, the lack of collagen and gravity working against you, it pulls your lids over and down. The first do make a little sense, the second I’m skeptical. Does this mean, soon my lids will close entirely over my eyes?!? The latter was deduced by my manager *cough* bimbo. LOL.

In Korea, it’s common to keep a mirror hanging next to their computer screen in the office. I suppose cubicles can resemble a prison cell with its tight space, thus etched mirrors can give the illusion of greater office space. Kills two birds with one stone.
Not only are they obssessed with beauty, girls can be so vain till 不要命。

So vain till she risks freezing her ass off, literally.

Why are Koreans more obsessed with appearance more so than any other nationality?
A netizen guessed “that in the early 60s, Korea was one of the world’s poorest nations. In a swirling rush of industrialization, by the late 90s Korea had become one of the world’s wealthiest. Such a tectonic shift suddenly leaves Koreans exposed. Suddenly they are asking themselves – How does the world view us? How should a first world nation behave? How do we improve ourselves in the eyes of others? There is this kind of vanity that is attached to Korea’s rapid transformation. As a nation that in a little less than 50 years turned from a reeking dirt hole to a modern day state, this is expected. This vanity is reflected in Koreans today. They want to erase all connections to their past. I would compare Koreans to gangster rappers. Gangster rappers parade around with gold chains, Rolex watches, throw money in the air, etc. to signify that they are no longer part of the ghetto and hard life they supposedly came from. Same is the case with the Koreans. They want to cut all ties to the miserable and hard past they have had. They want to live in the present. In short, they don’t want to go back. However, this is only a theory. It may lie just as greatly in Korea’s Confucian heritage, but I don’t know enough to comment on that.”
In Korea, finding a job is hugely based on appearance. After all, first impression counts. My fat friend took ages to find a job. She remained unemployed for a year. Fat is associated with lazy. However, if I am an employer, I will associate beauty=vanity=low productivity at work because too busy checking out the mirror next to her computer.
Beauty is not everything. After passing the first stage, you will still need to have the character and the skills to back it up.
I do have a best friend back in poly that is cute, petite and pretty. I envied her a little because she is always being invited to the best parties, no short of suitors and she got a managerial position with a great brand upon graduation!
But I also have a friend whose wife is drop dead gorgeous but it’s a horrific marriage because she can’t cook nor clean. She doesn’t even make him feel like her husband!
On the local front, celebrities like Joanne Peh and Felicia Chin have undergone the knife, though not admitting it (yet).

Joanne and Felicia have been speculated to have done their eyes as well as breasts. Although, I have to highlight with fake eyelashes, wide contact lenses and deft eye make-up skills, you can create the illusion of big eyes. Not everyone who looks different in recent pictures have plastic surgery done. To read more about what girls can do to fake appearances, click here.

 As for breasts, somehow cleavages just tend to show in pictures (like mine) even if you’re not so well endowed.

I am but a humble handful. 

 Here’s Dasmond Koh’s juicy revealing article about which female celebrities are all fake waist up (its old news, I know). Take a cue from Kiera Knightley, Sammi Cheung and even Jeanette Aw who didn’t succumb to the knife to remain desirable in that competitive business. Kiera even made it to Sexiest Woman in the World numerous times despite her flat chest!

There is no right or wrong in getting a job done. Like my friend, QQ who recently got a boob filler and is so brave to bare it all (bongqiuqiu.blogspot.com). I actually teared along with her while watching because I could feel her joy and her struggle to prove that she shouldn’t be judged.
Manners aside, she do need it! Breasts DO make you different from a man (Moobs aside). At some point, all that make-up and padded bras will have to come off.

But if you prefer waking up as if you have a made-up face, why not? Double eye-lid surgery to replace eye tape, fake eyelashes and layers of make-up. You can also ink on permanent eye liner, brow pencil, lip pencil and lip stick (Browhaus offers all of the above).

I wake up with my hair messed up, fringe possibly up. Let’s not forget the oily face.

Just be careful for what you wish for…
Extreme cases of Plastic Surgery
Hang Mioku: injected cooking oil into her own face

One of the most famous cases of plastic surgery gone wrong, Hang Mioku, a 48 year-old woman from South Korea, became so addicted to plastic surgery that she was left unrecognisable after her obsession led her to inject cooking oil into her face. She had her first plastic surgery procedure when she was 28. Following operation after operation, her face was eventually left enlarged and disfigured, and the surgeons she visited refused to carry out any more work on her and one suggested that her obsession could be a sign of a psychological disorder. So Hang resorted to injecting cooking oil into her face. It became so grotesquely large that she was called “standing fan” by children in her neighbourhood – due to her large face and small body.

As Hang’s notoriety spread she was featured on Korean TV. Viewers seeing the report took mercy on her and sent in enough donations to enable her to have surgery to reduce the size of her face. During the first procedure surgeons removed 60g of foreign substance from Hang’s face and 200g from her neck. After several other sessions her face was left greatly reduced but still scarred and disfigured.
Jocelyn Wildenstein: a US$4 million monster
Known by the press by the nickname of “The Bride of Wildenstein” –a reference to The Bride of Frankenstein–, Jocelyn Wildenstein has allegedly spent almost US$4,000,000 on cosmetic surgery over the years, ending up as one of the worst and most famous cases of plastic surgery addiction. But how did that happened? It’s actually a very sad story.

Once upon a time, in the late 70’s there was a beautiful woman named Jocelyn Wildenstein. Jocelyn really had it. She was a fresh-faced mother of two and married to an extremely rich art dealer. That is until she caught her husband in bed with a 21 year old Russian model. Now, any normal person would just leave her husband and take all of his money with her, right? Not Jocelyn Wildenstein! Instead she decided to win back her husband’s love and make herself more beautiful by going under the knife.

Her husband still left her.
Pete Burns: famous singer, spent almost all of his life savings on reconstructive surgery
 
Pete Burns, former frontman of the British band Dead or Alive –famous for their single “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”–, has had extensive polyacrylamide injections into his lips, along with cheek implants, several nose re-shapings and many tattoos. He revealed in early 2006 that he had spent almost all of his life savings on eighteen months of reconstructive surgery after a procedure on his lips went horribly wrong. This is why, don’t ever try.
Donatella Versace: a caricature of herself

Since taking over for her brother Gianni Versace, platinum blonde fashion designer Donatella Versace has gone through some drastic changes thanks to plastic surgery, turning herself into a caricature. Although nose jobs are usually done to make a nose smaller, Donatella’s has grown larger over the years. It is also wider and flatter and slightly crooked, indicating that at least one bad nose job took place. In addition to her big nose, Donatella also has large lips, like the trout pouts of the Hollywood divas the designer dresses. Although the fashion icon has always had big lips, the oversized upper lip indicates that fillers, like collagen, have been used liberally. For a 53-year old, Donatella’s skin is very firm, indicating a possible facelift. She probably also uses dermal injectables like Botox to eliminate wrinkles, even when she smiles. Her tight face is a strong contrast to the loose skin on the rest of her body. And yes, Donatella’s weight loss also revealed her breast implants. Anything left?
For more examples, read at http://chrispytinetoo.blogspot.com/2010/12/obssessed-with-beauty.html
I’m not sure if these people used cheap surgeons and thus the results, because they are assumingly rich people! Then again, as the saying go..rich people are only made rich because they’re stingy?
Other than being Number One having the most plastic surgery performed, Korea also wins first place in having the most number of suicides.
Nicknamed Suicide Capital of the World, for every 100,000 Koreans, 21.5 commit suicide, as against the OECD average of 11.1.
The list of Korean celebrities dying is growing. As much as the masses are following in their plastic surgery, many are also copying their ways of death.
Being beautiful is not a mean to an end.
For Korean celebrities, U Nee decided to end her life due to the high expectations and pressure she was in for her second album to succeed.

Choi Jin Sil was a bit of a shock because she has no malicious rumours and was a rising star. It could be because of her divorce, and she has young children as well.
 
Jung Da Bin, there were rumours that her boyfriend might’ve been involved but no one’s sure although she was under pressure of her role in an upcoming drama. However, some fans felt she has handled bigger pressure before.

Lee Eun Ju was receiving quite a criticism for her role in Scarlet Letter. But again, fans are not sure if that was the whole reason. There were many rumours about her dating a very old singer and how breaking up was the reason amongst others.
Everybody needs love.