Bridge Project 4 (Int. Seminar 2)

Thesis (Revised):

Female beauty culture and the practices of beauty standards in South Korea has become an extremely powerful and recent cultural phenomenon – one that is infinitely more than the sum of it’s parts, seeing prevalence in various aspects of life for many women both within and outside of the country. This is due to the advancement and rise of beauty product engineering from Korean board-certified doctors and scientists who have mastered the art of reshaping the face and body, and are thus sought after by an extremely large female demographic from within both South Korea and, surprisingly, in the United States as well. There is a male statistic included in this phenomenon but, as it is to a much lesser extent, they will be omitted from this research for sake of efficiency. This present day phenomenon has produced some of the most significant results on both an economical and sociological level than ever seen before, becoming a prominent national asset of South Korea’s – this is undeniably linked to the and an undeniably intrinsic facet of the Korean culture itself. This topic answers to years of prior history within the boundaries of the country, but can be even further effectively highlighted through its comparisons and interactions with the same behaviorisms found in American culture. My research seeks to develop and answer questions concerning the past, the present, and the future of this phenomenon; how and why this culture of beauty has grown to such prevalence in South Korea, how these habits of beauty culture continue to be practiced in the present day, how the Korean standard of beauty uniquely affects other cultures and, ultimately, what we as human beings consider physically beautiful from a broad perspective.