Plastic surgery and beauty pageants

I'm curious about basil's take on this article.
http://www.koreabang.com/2012/pictures/miss-korea-2012-dubbed-plastic-queen-by-netizens.html

I know this happened like ages ago. So basically, some pageant chick got chewed out by netizens due to her extensive surgery.

Here's one of the comments that I'm sorta replying to but not actually replying to but instead sharing it on Basil:
"Am I the only one who kinda feels sorry for a girl who went through all those procedures to get a face that society finds beautiful and then probably defines her existence by a title of beauty? I mean, yes, her new face is incredibly beautiful, but somehow, this seems a little sad."

I don't feel sorry only for her individually, but for every women who has to go through this. But wanting to become Miss Korea after all these extensive surgeries is a bit getting out of hand. If anything, the last netizen's comment (by wngml2080) is the most agreeable to me out of all the other ones.

But again, I don't like beauty pageants in general. I don't discriminate artificial beauty. To me, it's the effort that counts. And in this case, effective or not (Korea has never won Miss Universe before, gee I wonder why), a part of that effort is being spent on cosmetic surgeries. Getting a bunch of surgeries for some stupid pageant.... To me, it's just not worth it at all.

I don't have a problem with plastic surgery itself. Whether it's severe war scars or birth defects caused by your mom's drug overdose, plastic surgery can fix it all. Also, I never automatically prefer natural beauty over man-made beauty. Man-made/artificial beauty (which is made possible by plastic surgery, or more specifically according to what I will be discussing, cosmetic surgery) is being discriminated due to the fact that it takes a big role on social anxiety, which may or may not include peer pressure, bullying, the spiteful vanity lifestyle of the new generation, the forced competition between women (and also men, but I'll only focus on women in this thread), the shallowness of the business world (that one would disregard work ethics in exchange for a pretty face that would attract customers), etc.

Cosmetic surgery is a great way to manipulate your facial appearance to the way you want it to be. It's just another decision in life. When you play a video game and you wanted to change your guy's appearance, does it automatically influence people to get plastic surgery? I think not. Is it a big deal? I think not. But in real life, it is.

With a couple hundred of NX or so, you can change your Maple face within 1 second. Back in the days, MapleStory characters only had three face choices for each sex and they're pretty much the original representatives of noob faces (tbh, I like those 'noob' male faces better than the majority of the Royal male faces, which looks weird af). But if you get a new VIP/Royal face, you're considered to be a dedicated player and people suddenly wanna party/guild you. There's also the Gangnam of MapleStory, Henesys, which to my knowledge, used to be infested with heneh0es, and still does to this date. Let's hang out at Club Maya with the Heneh0es tonight (owait, Henesys has no night)!

Facial appearance? Forget even that. Should I eat a sandwich or a burrito today (if you'd eat any one of them you wouldn't be hungry anymore)? Should I buy the white or black iPhone (they work the same way, just different colours)? Should I wear the Nike or the Reebok running shoes (you can actually run with both of them)? If you look at cosmetic surgery this way, it's not much different from any other choices regarding the aesthetic things in life. It's just that the examples I've come up with are not permanent and are not that big of a deal (and that is why they are horrible examples, but you get my point). Some people prefer the appearance they're born with, but some people don't, and I would never criticize them for that. But many people do, and I find that sad and even ironic at times under certain circumstances.

I think everyone, including all the women who had been under the knife, should have a chance to participate in these events such as beauty pageants without being completely chewed out nor discriminated. I'm just a bit disturbed that netizens are automatically bringing up topics on social anxiety and associates it with something that's just as shallow (beauty pageants). To me, appreciating natural beauty is no better than appreciating man-made beauty. People find value in natural beauty because of what, breeding? Because they're God's creations? Because they don't look the same? Yeah, that's rich. And do people who possess natural beauty that are considered to be attractive by society automatically has the rights to judge and insult the ones with artificial beauty that were once considered to be unattractive by society? I... don't think so. That's just not right.

The technology of plastic surgery will eventually improve. So the complaints about plastic surgery looking unnatural or "they all look soulless and uncanny" will slowly disappear, one by one. Look at the first modern plastic surgery procedure. It's horrible. If someone did that in 2014 and think it's done with updated technology, people would be laughing their asses off.

Even for centuries to come, the biggest issue will still be regrading social anxiety.

That is all.

Note:
Whenever I see a discussion on this matter, I always see crap like "oh don't get ps you're beautiful the way you are" like it'll do anything lmao. I just suddenly feel the urge to talk about this, to actually discuss this topic. What I'm doing isn't automatically trying to prevent people from getting ps, but letting people know a bit of my views, you know, through actual discussions instead of solely preventing something from happening like a short and useless Facebook status, starting movements that are really just fads powered by a bunch of mindless youths. Oh, Kony 2012! Let's retweet that yeah faith in humanity restored I'm such an awesome person now hurray for humanity let's stand up for each other through stupid stubby tweets yay.

April 7, 2014

15 Comments • Newest first

fradddd

Honestly someone could've just told me it was only makeup and I would've believed it...

Reply April 7, 2014

Luapxal344

That feel. Idk the feel. It's comparable to like when you visit The Louvre in Paris, France and gaze, in person, upon the legendary masterpieces of Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, and the likes. And then you go to a furniture store and see one of the rolled up paper replications of the same paintings with the sticker label on the back "made in __".

Reply April 7, 2014

Billionz

[quote=Spiritual2]theres a place for natural beauties for koreans. Its called being an top level actor not some b level. Koreans hate plastic surgery[/quote]

But ps definitely sells.

Reply April 7, 2014

snailwar3

@Billionz: lol

Reply April 7, 2014

Wanton

i don't have a problem with plastic surgery, i think its awesome for people who really don't like their faces and can afford such a surgery.
I mean, who can tell you what you want to do with your face, right? Its yours and you don't need to please anyone but yourself.
I also think that women with plastic surgery should not be discriminated against, when entering a beauty pageant. As much as I don't like those kinds of contests and as much as i don't care for them, they matter to the contestants. Sure, you're naturally beautiful k congrats but those that have become beautiful through plastic surgery have worked just as hard through body figure and whatever else it takes to win a pageant. I only feel a bit uncomfortable about a 'plastic' contestant winning, because i know that so many people already know that Korea is #1 for plastic surgery. They will see Korea in a negative light since so many people think plastic surgery is bad.
I partially agree, i guess idk tbh i only read like 5 lines lol

Reply April 7, 2014

Billionz

[quote=xVoltage]I think there's a difference between surgically changing the appearance of a person and changing the appearance of a pixel character or choosing the appearance of a product. I'm not against plastic surgery in the case of injury or birth defect, but for me personally, I think there's something a bit disconcerting about that drastic a change in appearance. My main objection against plastic surgery is because of the importance we place on the superficial. Such beauty is only skin-deep. The standard of beauty we subject ourselves to is unrealistic. Kids growing up see people on magazines and TV who are Photoshopped or wear tons of makeup. I think we need to ask ourselves, "What is the price of beauty?" and "What are we willing to pay for this image?" I think there is a positive correlation between the importance we place on outward appearance and the declining self-esteem of our youth (I'm too lazy to provide statistical evidence, sorry). Why do we place such a high importance on appearance? What do we gain or seek to gain from doing so?
In short, I don't think the problem is just with people coughing up tons of dough to have their faces surgically altered, but why we, as a society, tolerate and thus create an environment that fosters such actions.
tldr: Choosing a product's appearance is different than surgically altering your face. I'm kind of against the latter.[/quote]

You THINK? There is A difference? lolwat u even srs brau

The differences are huge. First of all, ps permanently stay on your body until you modify it again so it looks even faker. Second, when you breed your children won't look like you. Third, religious reasons. There are much much more. But that's not the point I'm making here. I don't really consider these highly-valued social standards as the true problems. I'm a pretty free-spirited person (in theory; I'm in fact a joe irl). But social anxiety, however, is on a psychological level, not on a social status/value level. I compared the two in attempt to clarify that. But apparently according to your post, I've failed miserably.

What I'm discussing is mainly about cosmetic surgery, which its purpose is for cosmetic purposes rather than injuries or birth defects. I need to make it clear that I also don't have a problem with COSMETIC surgery itself. As I've said, the main problem lies within social anxiety, and it will always be that.

You know, I had a friend that got double-eyelid surgery. She really liked it and I've noticed that she likes to take a lot of selfies. She made it clear that she didn't do it under the influence of family and friends or peer pressure, but solely to please herself (though that sounds highly suspicious, though I really hope that she really meant that). I honestly didn't realize the big deal about it until I went on the internet and read all the comments, which was kind of a shock at first. I didn't realize that so many people people would be so ironic, misunderstood, narrow-minded, and are all touchy-feely about this subject. Not sure if they're mostly just trolls or if they're actually friggin serious.

Self-confidence can be affected by the influence of society and the people around you. So don't be that one dushbag that volunteering-ly calls your friend ugly.
I have to say that I'm pretty blunt. So either I'd say something nice and really means it or I'd go no comment. I try not to make it too obvious. Sometimes, the truth is simply not okay. But if they insist, then I will proceed to go philosophical on them before giving them my answer, much like the contents of this thread. I just feel that it is my responsibility to do so. I don't feel comfortable when my opinions directly influence someone in an obscure and negative way.