Despite the spate of cosmetic surgery malpractice victims, some Korean people are still paying higher prices for pursuing perfection.

Last year, a 22 years old college student died while undergoing facial contouring surgery at a famous plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam, Seoul .

This hospital has advertised that there have been no accidents for 12 years, but it turned out that there had been a fatal accident three years ago.

While undergoing facial contour surgery, her face swelled up, and her fever soared. She was later taken to a university hospital but unfortunately died in just 9 hours.

The bereaved family claimed that the hospital did not even properly check her primary physical conditions such as breathing, pulse, and temperature  during the surgery. 

For this reason, the doctors could not take immediate action when she experienced a high fever during the operation. 

Meanwhile, the hospital denied negligence, claiming that she had a genetic disorder called malignant hyperthermia.

However, according to a doctor who used to work at the hospital, she was not the only victim who died after a surgery at this hospital .

This doctor testified that a man in his 40s who underwent abdominal liposuction in October 2019 died of aftereffect of the surgery a few days after the surgery.

The deceased man underwent  surgery for 2 hours and 15 minutes under sleep anesthesia and eventually died of peritonitis and sepsis the next day.

According to numerous articles from the past, it is evident that a case like this is not much of a surprise. 

As can be seen, many Koreans today are risking their lives to transform themselves to obtain the look that they desire.

According to The Journal of Contemporary Asian Studies, South Korea is known to be a country that is the “plastic surgery capital of the world.”

With over a 197% increase in the total amount of cosmetic procedures from 1997 to 2011, plastic surgery in South Korea is popular and will continue to spread its popularity.

Many Koreans believe that beauty is not something everybody is born with but could be made afterward. 

Therefore, with hairstyle, plastic surgery, and fashion, Koreans adjust their looks to keep up to date with current social standards.

So many Koreans are obsessed with their looks  because of the lookism culture embedded in their society.

In a competitive society,  Korea’s self-consciousness and competing behavior appear to be a regular tendency. 

Koreans always strive to accomplish more by being swayed by other people’s gazes and to be recognized by others. 

Among many accomplishments, the capability to look like an attractive person, which means big round eyes, a pointed nose, and a v-shaped chin for women, is one of the most recognized achievements.

In such an image-driven consumerism environment, plastic surgery has become a high-demand and lucrative industry.

Among the many reasons,  the media makes people care more about their beauty.

The ideal woman exposed to the media causes women's body dissatisfaction and stimulates the desire for their bodies to be skinny. 

Such a tendency of women causes them to undertake extreme diets, which later leads to not only eating disorder behavior but also could affect psychological factors such as self-esteem, self-worth, and depression.

According to the study by Oh Hyun Sook, the characteristic of self-presentation in social media has a strong relation with body image formation. 

One of the main characteristics of self-presentation is being able to express oneself selectively. 

This selective expression of self-appearance shows that photos posted on social media are more likely to reflect an “idealized” appearance.

Once these photos, which were selected among  countless photos after going through strict self-censorship, are posted on social media, people start viewing the posted images. . 

When other social media users see their “ideal” peers, they begin to compare their peers to themselves, which can lead to physical dissatisfaction.

After constant evaluation of themselves to their peers, many begin to take an interest in plastic surgery.

However, as much as Koreans desire to look pretty and handsome, when the surgery results  go in an unexpected direction, its aftereffects are critical in either similar or much higher degrees.

Seungyeon (Simon) Kim 
Grade 12
Chadwick International School