I'm too obsessed with k-pop.

Dream girl SHINee teaser...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 00:11:46 -0500

Dream girl SHINee teaser photos

Justin Timberlake - Mirrors LOVEEEEE

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 00:10:43 -0500

Justin Timberlake - Mirrors

LOVEEEEE

Goddess and her people translation from :...

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 16:04:29 -0500

Goddess and her people

translation from : steprider’s

This is so adorable :)

<3

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 15:52:47 -0500

omg. How did I never notice this?? Brilliant.

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 12:45:52 -0500

omg. How did I never notice this?? Brilliant.

Key would.

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:45:51 -0500

Key would.

THIS SHOW WAS MY CHILDHOOD When I was 11 I was convinced that...

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:43:54 -0500

THIS SHOW WAS MY CHILDHOOD

When I was 11 I was convinced that Yoko Kurama was the hottest man alive

3/30 pictures of blonde Taeyeon♡

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:42:31 -0500

3/30 pictures of blonde Taeyeon♡

TAE-MAN. SO HOT RIGHT NOW

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:41:30 -0500

TAE-MAN. SO HOT RIGHT NOW

Time is tickin’, T-Time is tickin’ away…

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:38:27 -0500

Time is tickin’, T-Time is tickin’ away…

cutiesss

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:35:22 -0500

cutiesss

sujinibigbang: [MAMA 2012] Which artists do you expect the...

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:31:46 -0500

sujinibigbang:

[MAMA 2012] Which artists do you expect the most?

angrykpopfan: “The Sexy Lie” by Dr. Caroline Heldman...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:11:05 -0500

angrykpopfan:

“The Sexy Lie” by Dr. Caroline Heldman (TEDx)

Great lecture about female sexual objectification and its damaging effects.

I Can't Stop Looking at These South Korean Women Who've Had Plastic Surgery

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:32:29 -0500

I Can't Stop Looking at These South Korean Women Who've Had Plastic Surgery:

lostintrafficlights:

theguywhokillsbadguys:

A friend shared this Jezebel article with me. It shares Jezebel’s Dodai’s perspective on a white English teacher’s perspective teaching in South Korea and observing her Korean charges get plastic surgery.

As one of those ~white feminists~ myself who spent two years in South Korea - admittedly a small portion of time, and from a similarly outsider lens - I understand the impulse to find the South Korean plastic surgery obsession problematic and impose a Western lens on its intensity. But I think Dodai’s secondhand interpretation, a telephone of sorts, and the OP’s interpretation is kind of fucked up.

For starters:

(1) South Korean women themselves were not invited to speak about the topic, to offer their perspective and place this within a context of what a ‘beauty ideal’ means in Korea. There are plenty of South Korean women I know who are available, organized, feminist, would probably be interested in speaking to an outlet with Jezebel’s range, and often speak excellent English (or are native-born English speakers) who could have easily cleared up or at least clarified Dodai’s misconceptions. Many are even on Tumblr and Facebook.

But instead of actually talking to these women, Dodai perpetuates a fucked up Othering by deciding to take the white English teacher’s word for it, and then putting her own spin on it. When this is the Internet, and they are available, and even if their analysis would not be in Western feminist terms, it would certainly be a counterpoint to Dodai’s projection.

Which leads me to my next point.

(2) Dodai, who has never visited South Korea, and has appeared to only consult some before/after pictures on Tumblr blogs with no context whatsoever, is making a huge Western feminist hullabaloo about a phenomenon she is interpreting through a Western lens. One of the biggest mistakes is assuming that the eyelid surgery is to look “more Western”. OH MY GOD THIS BOTHERS ME SO MUCH while of course we cannot discount the role that white discourse has played in the entire world and the hegemony of racialized white privilege, I guarantee you this is NOT the rationale of South Korean women: “Oh I’m doing this to look more white”. South Korean beauty standards may be fucked up and patriarchal and limiting women and all of that sexist jazz, but ASSUMING THAT IT IS BASED ON A WESTERN IDEAL IS ITSELF A CHAUVINIST ASSUMPTION. If anything, from what I have observed, and is open to debate, there is more an idea of what it means to be the most “Korean” - and that involves very light skin. This is obviously a form of racialization based on skin tone but it is not the same thing as what we mean when we talk about “whiteness” in the US.

(3) On the whole, in my honky opinion, I would agree that there is very much just ONE beauty standard in Korea - rather than a multitude - but perhaps that should be taken into consideration with the fact that Korea has a long history of ethnic homogeneity to this day, so comparing a Korean peer with an American peer may not be a contextually great comparison or even fair. It also ignores the role that nationalism plays in things as complex and simultaneously subtle and UNsubtle as the beauty ideal - and Korea is a very nationalistic country.

TL;DR Jezebel fails again.

I would also like to add a few points from a Korean perspective.

1. I’d be the first to admit that our beauty standards are pretty much fucked up and that it harms us. However, treating it as a “oh these south Koreans hah weird” and using words like “cultish” while describing it doesn’t help us at all. It portrays us as a hive mind, a backward orientalist view that has been lodged against us for a very long time. It reeks of racism.

2. I dunno how many times I have to say this but we don’t get plastic surgery to be white. If anything there are legitimate conversations out there that talk about why white standards of beauty are there and that we recognize that we will never look the same as white people. Although it is true that we prefer certain features that may be more commonly associated with white people it does not necessarily mean we want to be white. If anything there are certain features, such as freckles, that white people prefer that we do not. Saying that we want to look white erases these very relevant debates and enforce white beauty hierarchy.

3. It also erases the amount that white beauty hierarchy was forced on us. It erases the fact that most American media portrays white people as this epitome of all things beautiful and that it is because of these imports from the American media that white people are seen as beautiful. It erases the role of American surgeons who gave us double eyelid surgery because they thought it was better for us. It erases all of that past and puts the blame on us.

And so really, Jezebel. Why are you fucking up?

I’m going on an ‘Internet War’ frenzy cause...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:34:20 -0500

I’m going on an ‘Internet War’ frenzy

cause DAMMNNN JONGHYUN IS FINE

Photo

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:31:09 -0500

I JUST WOULD BE IN MIDDLE. mmmmhm

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:30:12 -0500

I JUST WOULD BE IN MIDDLE.

mmmmhm

djbaey: credit: not mine MOTHER OF GODDDDDD WHATTTT their...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:28:52 -0500

djbaey:

credit: not mine

MOTHER OF GODDDDDD WHATTTT

their performances are just getting more and more pornographic… and I like it

noona-neomu-noona: 130108 Tao’s weibo update Tao...

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:17:41 -0500

noona-neomu-noona:

130108 Tao’s weibo update

Tao swag

Tao

water u doing

loooooooooool

kpopxxx: We have no control over who we fall for; that is the...

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 20:43:28 -0500

kpopxxx:

We have no control over who we fall for; that is the most beautiful, yet tragic truth of life.