Ju 1

Chong Myeong Ju
Professor Vincent Gilhooley
English Composition2 (J114)
24 November 2016
Plastic Surgery
A few months ago, there was an issue that made the Koreans ashamed, and the issue
was about a Korean woman golfer, Ahn Sunju. She was an outstanding golfer; therefore, she
was sufficient to win the championship at the many Korean major golf tournaments.
However, there was a problem to her, and the problem was that she had no sponsor, even
though she was exposed to the cameras continually by winning. Even there was a rumor that
Ahn Sunju made TV ratings drop whenever she won the championship. One notable point is
that other golfers who had lack of skills than Ahn Sunju, but good looks were getting a lot of
sponsorship. Eventually, Ahn Sunju went to Japan after giving up domestic championship
activities. And now she demonstrates her ability in the other country, getting sponsorship of
five Japanese corporations. This case shows us how pervasive lookism is in our society. So if
we felt unhappy because of our appearance in nowadays societies where lookism is
pervasive, is it strange? Is it wrong to operate to change our look? This is a very natural phenomenon and
we should not criticize plastic surgery. Living in the same age, we are not qualified to criticize.
We cannot criticize people who do plastic surgery because society makes people operate.
Appearance is also ability in our society. There is an article about effect of appearance on employment. The
article says that 'pleasing appearance' is the main determinant of the result of an interview. The interviewers
think a man of good appearance is good at self-management, and good appearance helps to increase the
competitiveness of society (Kim 5). As

a result, nowadays many people have difficulty at the

employment because of their appearance, even though they have a sufficient ability to work.

Ju 2

Appearance affects income as well. Hermermesh Daniel. S who is the economics professor at
the University of Texas has collected data about the correlation between appearance and
income since 1970 for his thesis named Beauty pays: why attractive people are more
successful (Daniel 24). The result of this thesis shows that people who have good looks earn
$230,000 more through their life time than people who doesnt have good looks. Actually
there was a related issue in China in 2014, and it was that staffs with good looks were paid
more salaries than the rest of the staffs in a department store in China. There is another
research about appearance, too. The research about the correlation between the USA
presidents and their heights shows that USA presidents of the 19th century were 2cm taller
than the average, and the presidents of the 21th century were 4cm taller than the average. Also
the taller candidates got 50% more points than the smaller candidates at the popularity vote.
Besides these research results, we cannot deny the social discrimination from the appearance
through many other related studies and our daily life experiences. Therefore, perhaps it is
normal that we have felt unhappy because of appearance, and do plastic surgery to overcome
discrimination based on appearance.
According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, one in five
Korean women has had plastic surgery, compared to just one in twenty in the USA. Also the
number of plastic surgery procedures on men in the USA has increased three times since 2000
(Henry 103). Regardless of age or sex, many people in the world do cosmetic surgery. In Korea, the graduates
in high school think cosmetic surgery is one of the customs that naturally have to do. And it is no exaggeration
to say that the society encourages this situation. When we turn on TV, we can see there are lots of programs
make people want to have more beautiful looking. In Korean there is a program named Let Me In. The
purpose of this program is to enhance the self-esteem to female participants who have ' abnormal '
characteristics in the face or body by plastic surgery. The characters heartbreaking stories and stunning changes
make good viewer ratings, but there was also a controversy that it encourages plastic surgery too much (Ha 2).
However, for some people, cosmetic surgery is altering not only cosmetic but also the entire life itself, so we

Ju 3

cannot rashly say cosmetic surgery is a bad thing.

Lookism is tendency to believe that appearance determine individual success, and

cling to own appearance. The term started to be emerged as a new discriminatory element
followed race, gender, and religion (William 10). It is a discrimination that appears even to
the animals as well as humanity, regardless of particular nation, ethnicities, period, gender,
age, and religion so on. We cannot get rid of lookism in the world. As a result, plastic surgery
appears as a method. It is just a method for adapt to the society, and It can also be said that it is a
result of lookism.

These social trends are regrettable, but we can't criticize anyone who does plastic surgery.
Everything has led to society, and the surgery is simply a method to live. However, surgery is not a good
solution to lookism, because it

is a just one of the methods, not a solution, and just adapting our

appearance to the prescribed standards of the society can harm our own charm. The best way
to overcome social discrimination based on appearance is to find our own charm. Above all,
the most important thing is a positive mind about me. It should be recognized that there is
discrimination from the appearance in our society, because the discrimination is an
undeniable fact as we have seen through many related studies, or our daily life. However, we
should strive to overcome the lookism by looking for our own charm and having a positive
attitude about me. There is a woman who shows a case to overcome the lookism. Lizzy
velasquez never put on weight because of the rare disease, so she has excessively skinny
body and face. One day she found a video about her, and the title of the video was The
ugliest woman in the world. On the comments of that video, there were only a lot of swear
words and curses that criticize her appearance. But she began to lecture her experiences
instead of falling into despair after looking over those malicious comments. At the lecture she
said that appearance does not define our own identity. Goals, success, and achievement define
our own identity.

Ju 4

Works Cited
Kim, Hyeong Gyu. "'pleasing appearance' is the main determinant of the result of an interview.", Jung Ang
Daily Report 15 December. 2016, home ed.: p.5, B2+. Print

Ju 5

Matthews, Henry. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery . Glendale: Balcony, 2000. Print
Safire, William. Lookism . New York Times. Wired May 2003: 131-135. Print
Ha, Min Ju. "Let Me In." program.sbs.co.kr/builer/programMain. Program of SBS, 2014. Web. 12 Feb.2014
Hermermesh, Daniel. S. Beauty pays: why attractive people are more successful. Hanger, 2010. print