Beauty in Korea: A Cute Conformity?
Liposuction goes loveable.
By Giacomo Lee, author of Funereal. http://giacomolee.net/
When I first arrived in Seoul in spring of last year, I kept seeing the same curious little advert playing on overhanging TV sets in subway stations and carriages. In the advert we see a very attractive and lean young lady go about life with a devil on her shoulder, a something best described as a crossbreed between the Ghostbusters’ logo-ghost and the Adipose race off of Doctor Who. In its cute baby voice, the critter imbibes our heroine to forget about exercise, order large and snack at work. By the end of the 30 second clip, the demon has been exorcised as our newly revitalized damsel leaves the 365mc Liposuction Clinic. A doctor keeps the blubber from chasing after his beloved, tears in its eyes. The blubber actually blubs, and it’s a little heartbreaking considering how cute the thing is. And then you remember it’s a big mound of walking, talking fat. The unpalatable made not just palatable, but lovable.
While I thought it particularly callous to infantilize a medical procedure designed for a problem that brings with it much physical and mental anguish, I still wasn’t in the least bit surprised. In South Korea everything is cute, with cartoon figures on road block signs, and a predilection in advertising for bobble head photo manipulation. To see a CGI creation being used to draw in the consumer base of the obese and the body conscious is the logical next step, with the latter being far more likely the kind of customer 365 is targeting, judging by the discrepancy of the slim actress used in the commercial.
There’s an extended version of the 365mc advert from 2012 which helps the original’s discrepancy make more sense. The way it’s hidden on the company’s homepage isn’t surprising considering how ubiquitous the shorter edit is on Seoul subways. In the longer version we see two women going about their lives, one real, and one fantasy: the former being a larger woman, and the latter how she (mistakenly) sees herself. Another way to look at it is that perhaps 365 are trying to show the large woman’s inner beauty, which they can help emerge through their liposuction sessions. I’m really not sure though.
I wasn’t in Seoul during 2012, so I’m guessing this was stage one of the advertising campaign, with part two relying on everyone’s knowledge so as to make a speedier metro version of the original, which lengthwise is far more suited to TV. Either way, it’s still disappointing to see the larger woman excised completely. One or two inserted shots would help make 365's message clearer. Now it just seems they’re either suggesting anyone who orders large in a coffee shop better change something about them, even if they’re not exactly the kind of woman who’d need to consider liposuction or surgery.
It wasn’t until the end of summer 2013 when the third stage of the campaign made itself known to Seoul. There I was again on a subway platform, and staring down at me was the same chubby demon. The third in the trilogy had arrived, and this time it’s a far more troubling endeavor.
It’s a prequel in fact, and it looks like the creature’s haunted our heroine since birth. It’s always been there, clinging to her ever skinny thighs at various ages in a seeming attempt to suggest that baby fat and puppy fat never really leave the system.
While kids and teens may not be the target here, seeing the ad so easily around the city may drop the germ of an idea in young minds — that your body has already been defined, and only an op can change you in the future. Remember, cuteness and monsters are meant for the young, and while in the past our fairy tales were encoded messages on the dangers of strangers, this particular tale seems to concentrate on the enemy within, a ‘danger’ women present to themselves that’ll stop them from being the cute model on screen. It’s a story of creature cute versus cute conformity, and it’s you who’s the villain. Who you gonna call?
Giacomo Lee is a London author whose writing has been featured on Boing Boing, io9 & Chincha. Read his novel Funereal through iBooks on Apple iTunes, and Kindle & paperback on Amazon UK, and the Amazon US store. For free review copies, please contact the publisher at Signal 8 Press.
