Chapter 13 - On Slimming Pills, Growth Hormones, and Plastic Surgery: The Socioeconomic Value of the Body in South Korea

Abstract

Obsession with one’s appearance, specifically height, slimness, and body shape, is a modern social phenomenon in South Korea that has now reached unparalleled proportions. The result is now widespread hormonal growth treatment, demand for slimming pills, and rampant plastic surgery. This chapter addresses the socioeconomic value of anthropometry in Korea. It argues that obsession with the body is a result of the media emerging as a major power in a newly democratized and consumer market-oriented society in combination with secular improvements in Korean anthropometry due to rapid economic development as well as a consequence of the idealization of the Western body in post-colonial Korea. All of this has led to rampant manipulation of the body in modern Korean society, especially of young females who find themselves in highly competitive marriage and job markets. The results have interesting implications for obesity research and anthropometric history, notwithstanding their obvious resemblance to biosocial engineering if not eugenics. The findings also call attention to the dramatically accelerated stress levels common in contemporary Korea resulting from biosocial pressure to attain unrealistic and exaggerated (Western) standards.