2008 Miss Korea

The last two Miss Koreas were so beautiful.  This year's?  Not so much.

-Mary is usually not into looks so much but is quite sad that Korea will be so badly represented at the next Miss Universe contest.

edited to add:  Didn't mean to say that she is not beautiful.  She is!  But I don't think she should have won.

Comments

[April]

I actually met last year's Miss Korea briefly. She came into the newroom and the males couldn't take their eyes off her.

[Carol]

Beauty in the eye of the beholder and all ... she may not be prototypical, but she does have a sweetness about her and an ease in her smile. As long as she treats others with respect, we'll be well-represented. :-)

[Masita]

She is beautiful. Period.

[Mary]

Some netizens (OMG Korean web lingo!) are saying the contest was rigged.

[Kannadian]

You mean...these pageants aren't about talent? *gasp*

Wasn't the runner up disqualified because of previous "adult" photos that were taken of her?

[Carol]

Kannadian - HAHAHAHAHHAHAHhaahaaha! I have mixed feelings about beauty pageants - I know ultimately they are totally f*d up, but at the same time I do hope for the Miss Korea or Miss Illinois or whoever I identify with to do well ... sigh; I'm hopeless.

[Mary]

Carol - me too! Conflicted feelings but I find myself addicted to watching them every year!

[blackbelt]

http://www.asianbite.com/default.asp?Display=1558

She is NOT pretty. She does NOT have a good figure. She looks like she had a nose job and has a cheek implant. That's why she smiles funny!

[Mama Nabi]

(warning: I am vehemently against beauty pageants as a concept and practice so this may come off... well, like how I always come off, I guess)

I feel that this is what bothers me the most - the fact that we are looking at an otherwise a very attractive young girl, granted she took the risk by participating in a pageant, and talking about how she is NOT pretty enough to win a contest that has been skewed over many many years to fit a Eurocentric idea of beauty.

I myself think she is a very pretty girl - and for all I know, she may even be a talented person who is beautiful inside. Hell, I KNOW she is at least 100 times prettier than I am so who am I to judge whether she is pretty or not...

...and if this came off sanctimonious, I take Metrodad's fifth.

[eliaday]

Wait, you mean it's not a scholarship program?

[Bea]

I think she's really beautiful, what bothers me the most is her eyes look VERY western to me, do you guys think she had the sang-ah-pul done? It seems like whenever I see a Korean actress/model on TV or on the internet, they all have the big round eyes, and it's so frustrating, because I know I sure don't have them :P

[alilyinthevalley]

So many Korean male and female celebrities appear to be post operative patients of cosmetic surgery.

I guess I am disturbed by the Korean obsession with elective cosmetic surgery and plastic beauty. It's alarming that so many in one society are willing to place themselves under the knife for a subjective definition of "improvement."

Frankly, I think all that fixing-up comes at too great a price--loss of individuality and identity, besides the physical pain of being cut up and remolded. Yipes!

I wonder if those with the Korean superachieving mentality believe that the outcome of physical perfection is worth the torture.

Lil

[Jae Young]

Actually, part of me appreciates Miss Korea 2008 because she seems to have gone to a different plastic surgeon from 2006 and 2007. It SOUNDS cynical, but I remember Honey Lee, a former Miss Korea and I think prolly 2006, maybe 2005?, said that she had watched a special/documentary on beauty queens abroad and how they got plastic surgery and felt no guilt. So she was like "omg I will get plastic surgery and realize my ~*~destiny~*~"

Maybe she's not as pretty, but at least she's different. I dislike beauty pageants but any venue that promotes a different aesthetic or look in Korea is a good thing, fo sure.

[blackbelt]

In a way, it doesn't matter what I think of beauty pageants. We're talking about a beauty pageant. B E A U T Y pageant. In the Olympics of Beauty, I don't think she's beautiful.

[Masita]

We can be so harsh. Why is she not beautiful? What is the beauty scale here?

[HCG]

For what it's worth, I asked my 2 year old, is she pretty? And he said, "noooooooooooooo" but on the other hand he was trying to get me to put my shoes on and get out the door.

[alilyinthevalley]

Masita,

The Korean beauty scale is pretty damn high. Sorry for the profanity, but this is something that has bothered me for a long time.

I knew that Koreans were into "lookism" in a big way, but I had no idea the extent until I went to Korea in '95. One night, I watched a game show where a contestant was presented with three wacky scenarios and had to choose the one that was true. The contestant was an ordinary young woman one would see on the streets of Seoul, with neither pockmarks nor odd bulges showing. The hosts as well as the celebrity guests kept mentioning how “mote seng yuh suh” (bad looking) she was. They said it in a jolly, pitying way and she kept smiling apologetically in agreement.

Let me reiterate, she was normal looking. I figured out what she was not--tall, rail thin with rounded eyes (either through s'sangkapul or by the more drastic, eyes wide open cutting surgery), made up with a paint brush, and sultrily dressed (in skimpy, filmy clothes and decked out on five inch platform shoes). This was the reigning definition of maidenly beauty back then. I think the standards nowadays are even more astringent.

Lil

[Masita]

Wow Lil, thanks for the reply. It saddens me to think what we as women go through, these unrealistic scales of beauty. What are the children learning? I for once refuse to conform to any beauty ideas. I come from a culture that was violated by the Spaniards and made believe that "good hair," (straight hair), skinny body, and light skin is the ideal beauty. Heck, no wonder there are so many girls out there with these harsh, unrealitic beauty standards.

We need to educate children better. Period. Not easy , but our duty nonetheless.

[AsianAmerican]

alilyinthevalley:
Yes, I think ethnic beauty should be celebrated and embraced : )

[mori]

I read the current and last Miss Korea had cosmetic surgery (eyes, nose). It makes me sad when Asian women change their features to look more "Western".

I remember seeing advertising posters in Japan for cosmetic surgery. There would be an "x" or a "NG" for negative for the before and a positive sign for the after photos of Japanese women who had their eyes or noses done (bigger eyes and built up nose).

We need to quit judging beauty based on solely one ideal. AND people need to quit giving into that farce and embrace who and what they are.