Media, Cosmetic Surgery and Aspirational Beauty Aesthetics of the Ageing Body in South Korea
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12349578 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joanna Elfving-Hwang (0000-0001-9751-2077, The University of Western Australia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 238-252 |
| Publication date | 2020-03-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Asian Studies Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1035-7823 • E-ISSN: 1467-8403 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10357823.2020.1736513 |
| OpenAlex | W2964489721 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 27 |
This article examines how thinking about technologies of the body and beauty outside mainstream youth-focussed discourses complicates prevalent media arguments that posit aesthetic preferences in South Korean society as primarily driven by a desire to radically alter or to “Westernise” Korean bodies. This article draws on in-depth qualitative interview data, examining aspirational beauty aesthetics of a sample of 20 urban Korean women between the ages of 64 and 93. The participants were asked to reflect on the visual presence of the ageing bodies of celebrities in contemporary Korean popular culture, and to consider how this corresponded with the interviewees’ own aesthetic preferences and practices in later life. The findings illustrate how images of older celebrities are read and consumed by participants, who, rather than yearning for an unobtainable “fountain of youth”, actively identify with and aspire to beauty ideals that are considered both fashionable and age-specific. An analysis of the participants’ narratives of beauty, celebrity beauty and care of self illustrates the important role that beauty work plays in ageing women’s everyday lives as a tool to maintain social etiquette, design ageing, and maintain age-specific aspirational appearances
Aesthetics · Art · Beauty · Everyday life · Literature · Mainstream · Narrative · Political science · Sociology · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Gender Studies · Media, Gender, and Advertising
Appearance management’s impact on identity and well-aging in late Middle-aged Korean women
Transformative emotional labour, cosmetic surgery, and masculinity
Your Bodies are Our Future
The Duty to Transform
Understanding choice
Hope for the forgotten poor
Body Modification in East Asia
Deracialisation or Body Fashion? Cosmetic Surgery and Body Modification in Japan
Un)happy objects in the South Korean plastic surgery reality television Let Me In (2011–2015) and the Escape the Corset Movement
Empowering middle-aged women? A discourse analysis of gendered ageing in the Chinese television reality show Sisters who Make Waves
Vizualizing Branding
The making of ageing migrant masculinities
Beauty Up
Social Research Methods
Interaction Ritual
Bathing - the Body and Community Care
Young People and New Media
If I had lots of money… I'd have a body makeover
Clothing, age and the body
Pretty past it? Interrogating the post-feminist makeover of ageing, style, and fashion
Celebrity, ageing and the construction of ‘third age’ identities
Media and the ageing body
Aging, Femininity, and the Body
Old, down and out? Appearance, body work and positive ageing among elderly South Korean women
Designing ‘older’ rather than denying ageing
The body natural and the body unnatural
Facing the Mirror
Nothing less than perfect
Introduction
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |