The Beauty Complex and

the Cosmetic Surgery Industry

Woo Keong Ja

Abstract
This paper examines the process of how the combination of an appearance-oriented ideology and cosmetic surgery technology re-institutionalizes the importance of womens appearances.
Patriarchal ideology, which controls every aspect of life in Korea,
defines womens appearances as an ability that only women can possess. Also, cosmetic surgery technology promises women power, pleasure, and freedom, but within the boundaries set by their appearance.
The willing submission of women to a violent transformation of
their bodies is done with the intention of experiencing an empowerment, pleasure, and freedom from appearance. Furthermore, technology capital admits and even absorbs womens dissatisfaction and resistance to the importance placed on their appearance. As a result,
womens bodies become an object of consumption, not subject to their
own identity. Also, womens desires become dependent on each other,
and their appearances become unified.
In conclusion, womens behavior as reflected by cosmetic surgery
stems from the political conversation among patriarchal, consumptive
capitalism, and medical technology capitalism.
Keywords: cosmetic surgery, technology capital, patriarchal femininity, womens beauty, consumptive capitalism, unequal discipline

Woo Keong Ja (U, Gyeong-ja) is a lecturer of Department of Sociology at Yonsei University. She obtained her Ph.D. from Yonsei University in 2002 with a dissertation entitled Yeoseong-ui oemo juui-wa seonghyeong uiryo saneop (Womens Obsession
with Appearance and the Cosmetic Surgery Industry). E-mail: woo48@hanmir.com.

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Introduction
Cosmetic surgery, once considered a branch of general medical services in Korea, has recently experienced a sudden expansion in market scale, valued in hundreds and thousands of dollars, and is undergoing a process of industrialization. Specialists note that cosmetic
surgery sales increased by roughly 17 percent from 1999 to 2000,
reaching almost 170 billion won (144 million dollars). If procedures
in non-specialist plastic surgery clinics (such as skin clinics, etc.),
where cosmetic surgery often takes place without being officially
reported, are included in this calculation, the overall scale of surgery
can be estimated at about 2-3 times that number. Taking all these figures into consideration, specialists assess that the cosmetic surgery
market in Korea stands at one trillion won (847 million dollars)
(Chosun Ilbo, 30 July 2001). In parallel, the market for products related to the cosmetic surgery industry has experienced a boom in sales.1
And the main consumers of this increase in the beauty market in
Korea are women.
These statistics raise a number of questions: what are the benefits that women can expect to reap through good looks? And on the
other hand, what are the losses women expect to suffer if they are
not considered good-looking? Furthermore, what are the benefits that
society gains through womens beauty complex? What is the beauty/coarseness standard against which womenas opposed to men
are judged and where does this standard come from? And how can
the phenomenon that women are just as obsessed with their appearance as in the past, or even more so, be explained in light of the
diversification and advancement in womens higher and professional
education that is taking place alongside an overall drive for equality
1. Botox, the wrinkle-eliminating serum, is a case in point; it is sold exclusively by
Daewoong Pharmaceutical Company, and its sales increased from roughly a half
billion won in 1998 to 8 billion won in 2001, and is expected to reach a record of
13-15 billion won in 2002 (Chosun Ilbo, 12 June 2001). In addition, the material
used in breast and nose surgery has also noted a rise in market sales of over 10
billion won.

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of the genders today? Cosmetic surgery seems to have a strong appeal

to modern women who are dissatisfied with their looks. If it is
the case that cosmetic surgery grants any woman the chance to
approach a desired ideal of beauty, then the question is, does surgery
indeed release women from the pain caused by their appearance? Or
does cosmetic surgery merely impose another form of repression on
women?
Cosmetic surgery is not a medical procedure that treats and
maintains general health. Rather, it is an ideological domain in which
womens obsession with appearance (a combination of social dictates
and personal pleasure) and the framework of the sociocultural ideas
regarding obsession with appearance become intricately engaged.
This domain includes a system that has created a particular logic
through which technology capital penetrates sociocultural norms,
which helps to further its interests. Women become active and
engaged participants in this domain. In this way, the beauty complex
becomes organized into a system unto itself. This paper attempts to
trace the todays re-institutionalization of womens obsession with
appearance. By analyzing the essence of the social power granted to
a pretty face and figure, along with its concomitant political, economic, and ideological backgrounds, by looking at how the beauty
myth brought on by the potential realization of equality of the beautiful exterior that was enabled by cosmetic surgery technology is constantly revived and how the cosmetic surgery industry actively intervenes in womens lives, and by examining the attitudes of women
standing in the midst of these forces, I will attempt to analytically
engage with the complexity of modern Korean womens obsession
with appearance.

Structure Driving Dependence on Cosmetic Surgery

Women adopt a discipline of self-grooming from the moment they are
born. Unlike men, the interest in their looks and physical cultivation
is natural for women, and they believe that this is what is expected of

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them. Even adults who have taken charge of the subjectivity over
their own bodies are often unable to escape from these sociocultural
norms, and in many cases these norms are internalized to the extent
that women are unaware of the motivations behind their actions.
On the surface, it seems that the motivation behind most Korean
womens decision to undergo surgery lies in feelings of inferiority
regarding their appearance. A closer look, however, reveals that several other factors are at play. These include the ideological norms
applied to women, the dictates of a profit-guaranteeing economic
logic, a sphere of consumption that both encompasses and creates
human desire, and the development and commercialization of the
seemingly all-powerful and widely expanding frontiers of medical
technology.
Imposed Femininity: The Appearance Obsession as Patriarchal Ideology
What are the origins of womens appearance obsession? According to
Naomi Wolf, the beauty myth has nothing to do with women and
everything to do with the masculine institution and institutional
power (Wolf 1991, 13). Concepts such as motherhood and chastity, which once were of central value, have now been replaced by
good looks. The beauty myth is neither an age-old system of admiration of women, nor was it one adopted by women. It is no more
than a myth, an expression of the power relationships against which
women must struggle while fighting for the resources which men
have taken sole possession of. Beauty is neither universal nor constant (Wolf 1991, 11). Sara Halprin points out that the empowerment
of appearance and the dual nature of women are apparatuses that
limit resistance to the beauty myth. Under the masculine capitalist
system, we can see an inevitable expression of female duality by
women today: paradoxically, while resenting the premiums offered to
those women with superior looks, women secretly envy those looks
and place extreme importance on the body (Halprin 1996, 11, translators preface). Moreover, external appearances have come to be
regarded as the index measuring womens personalities. The concept

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of beauty has come to function as a metaphor for youth, power,

virtue, vice, innocence, and experience (Halprin 1996, 143). Women
follow along in subconscious yearning for good looks and what good
looks stand for. Today, it has become basic mental health knowledge
that women who show indifference to their appearance exhibit early
symptoms of mental illness (Halprin 1996, 152). It is precisely this
approach that puts pressure on women who resist the definition of
external femininity. There is no place for aging women in the beauty
myth. In the past, older women held significant power and position
both in the home and in society, but in todays modern world, sexual
power is irreplaceable. In her book The Fountain of Age, Betty Friedan
notes that older womens coarse image in society today stems from
mens fear of womens potential power. This emphasis on a limited
age range and a certain definition of beauty obstructs a comprehensive understanding of womens lives, and creates an invisible wall of
hostility and enmity among women (Jo 2001, 23).
This phenomenon is connected to the unequal educational
process and internalization of the values rising from this process.
Bartky notes that through the unequal discipline that classifies and
differentiates masculinity from femininity, women voluntarily submit
themselves to power, and internalize, assimilate, and align themselves
with these values (Bartky 1988, 75-81). Womens submission to the
patriarchal system is expressed in their incessant staring at their
reflection in the mirror, censorship of what they eat, and heightened
self-consciousness. Despite feminists untiring exposure of the falsehood of obsession with appearance, the popularity of cosmetic surgery
seems to be increasing by the day. Is there no way that women can
liberate themselves from the yoke of the beauty myth?
The Domains of Production and Labor
The patriarchal norms of beauty control not only womens daily lives
but their social awareness as well, so that womens productive activities cannot escape the power of these beauty norms. The patriarchal
labor structure discriminates against women based on their appear-

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ance, plunging women into a vicious cycle that makes them even
more dependent on their looks. The limitations placed on womens
appearance as a condition of employment, as well as the emphasis
on looks imposed by the service sector, are both major variables that
limit opportunities for women to display their abilities and achieve
economic independence. These factors contribute to the reproduction
of unequal sexual power relations.
The diversification of occupations and occupational positions in
modern society has not contributed to the expansion of the middle
class with a guaranteed stable income. Rather, it has contributed to
workers submission to wage work, and has become the capital strategy that causes many to inevitably accept the discriminatory structure of wages. The discriminatory structure of labor is manifest in the
case of female laborers, who are bestowed with the status of members of the industrial reserve force. At this stage, the most crucial elements are femininity and the norm of feminine beauty. For example,
in 1994, womens associations and the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers Union protested the requests of 44 companies to recommend women graduates of vocational high schools of specific
height and weight for employment (Seo 2000). Following this case,
the regulations regarding appearances as conditions of employment
disappeared, but in practice appearances continued to be counted as
an essential element in the employment process. As a result, teachers
preparing their students for the job market in vocational high schools
have come to focus first and foremost on grooming their students
appearances rather than concentrating on academic directions,
grades, or abilities. The students have found themselves most easily
employed in simpler assistant positions (Yi 1994, 35-37).
The quantitative increase and diversification in the service sector
are closely related to womens obsession with appearance. As the
types of occupation demanding a specific physique as part of official
employment requirements continue to increase, such as doumi and
narrator models,2 women are being evaluated not according to their
2. Doumi and narrator models are women in their twenties who are hired to help sell

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accumulated skills and experience but according to their physical

appearance. Accordingly, the older the women get, the shorter their
period of labor and the more negligible their value becomes. One
study that examines the importance of physical appearance in the
employment of flight attendants clearly demonstrates how the consolidation of the patriarchal employment system takes place by making
physical appearance account for the most important part in the labor
of women working in the service sector (Hong 1999). Even in the
non-service sector, physical appearance is considered the foundation
of womens potential and is considered a crucial tool that contributes
to a companys profit making and productivity.
The shifts in the labor market and patriarchal labor structure
have created a one-dimensional definition of women according to
which women are actors in constant pursuit of superficial values. In
order to achieve higher and more profitable positions in the labor
market, women have no choice but to adjust their bodies to the standard concept of femininity. This is where cosmetic surgery enters the
picture. It offers the possibility of bringing the body closer to the
fixed beauty standard more quickly, conveniently, and in a more natural manner. The capitalist system aims at creating division within
the labor market, fostering the growth of the service sector to effectively increase profits within a gendered social order, while at the
same time effectively serving to splinter womens groups.
The Domains of Consumption and Desire
The meeting between the patriarchal standard of beauty and consumer capitalism results in a phenomenon that locates womens bodies at the summit of consumerism. From the point of view of consumer capitalism, womens physical appearance is presented as the
signifier of desire and is consumed as an item of exchange value.
Womens pursuit of good looks is based on pleasure rather than
particular products. They are usually dressed in provocative clothing, stand
strategically near the products they are selling, and dance in the middle of the
street.

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59

force, and women throw themselves willfully and enthusiastically

into the beauty market. As the most beautiful object of consumerism,
the body is viewed as an asset, as well as a signifier of social status
(Baudrillard 1991, 193). The body, beauty, and eroticism are conducive to increasing sales. This fact decisively directs the historical
process of the liberation of the bodythe commodification of the
body.
The agency that makes consumptive objectification of the body
possible is the ceaseless comparison with others and the generation
of feelings of inferiority. Any discussion of beautiful bodies inevitably
revolves around female models and beauty contestants (Yun 2000,
39). In todays society, where patriarchal ideology meets consumer
capitalism, voguish consumerism continuously promotes a comparative physical imperfection complex, which serves as a most efficient
tool for psychological and emotional control over women (Yi 1997,
25). Yi notes, In the history of the patriarchal system, womens bodies, which were colonized and stripped of any right to self-determination, have come to face the reality of more competitive and public
enslavement at the hands of the consumer market (Yi 1997, 26-27).
The inferiority complex experienced by women over their bodies
in the consumer market is more intense now than ever before. No
longer is it about women simply feeling compelled to merely adorn
themselves with decorations; women now desire to be perfect products. They want to cure themselves from the anxiety and inferiority
that remains even after the superficial, compensatory function that
makeup or fashion provide. Women today seek to consume the beautiful body that is manufactured through cosmetic surgery. That kind
of beauty comes with a seal of approval by different media, and is
one women once dreamed of attaining through the application of
makeup or the following of fashion trends. Women expect that cosmetic surgery will make their ideal a reality. The capital that creates
profit through womens bodies is now invested in the very cosmetic
technologies that manufacture womens bodies. Through cosmetic
surgery, womens bodies re-create the beauty standard more efficiently and productively. The discourses concerning cosmetic surgery

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contribute to an intensification of womens inferior feelings towards

their bodies and stimulate interest in pursuing a transformation of
their features. They promise to transform the ideals of a pretty face
and attractive body into reality, and emphasize that this is a pleasure
that can be possessed only by women.
Cosmetic Surgery in Korea
Cosmetic surgery in Korea began with its import from the West. As a
result, the Western image of ideal beauty came to replace the existing
Korean ideal of beauty, and the industry in Korea became dependent
on medical techniques and surgical operations that were originally
created with Western women in mind. As a non-white race, Korean
womens bodies were branded as inferior and flawed, and the images
of white women as conveyed through mass media in such forums as
the Miss Universe competitions and Hollywood movies presented a
beauty ideal that Korean women felt obliged to pursue. The changes
that took place in the image of the ideal Asian beauty in the 1960s and
1970s concurred with the change in the overall roles of women, from
a limited motherly role to that of a pleasure-seeking and socially
active feminine one. Against this background, cosmetic surgery surfaced as a powerful tool that was able to transform the single-dimensional Korean body into a three-dimensional white one.3
In this way, the growing cosmetic surgery industry was able to
take advantage of the existing beauty industry, bringing many doc-

3. As opposed to surgery in the West, which concentrates mostly on wrinkles, breast

enlargement, and liposuction (Davis 1995), surgery in Korea is comprehensively
conducted on all parts of womens bodies, including the eyes and nose, to say
nothing of breast enlargement and liposuction. This fact is closely related to the
desire for the imported ideal body. Korean cosmetic surgery has created a new
image through the union between the concept of femininity that was traditionally
aestheticized based on Western tradition and the discourse on physiognomy. Even
in todays reality, where the consumerist images of womens appearance are packaged as sexual, provocative, and pleasurable, Korean women express a preference
for the type of face and body that seems obedient and is expected to bring good
fortune to their husbands and children.

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61

tors into contact with profit-seeking activities as a mode of survival.

Economic logic entered the picture when making the decision as to
whether or not surgery is necessary.4 Note the increase in the number of plastic surgeons and cosmetic surgery clinics in Korea. According to statistics from the Korean Medical Association, the number of
certified plastic surgeons increased from 398 in 1992 to 926 in 2000,
marking an increase of 528 doctors over a period of ten years. Plastic
surgery clinics increased from 141 to 411, an increase of 270 clinics.
Between April 2000 and April 2001, the overall percentage of medical
clinics increased by 3.7 percent, of which the increase in plastic
surgery clinics alone was 13.6 percent (from 411 to 467). If one
includes plastic surgery clinics at university hospitals and clinics not
registered with the Korean Medical Association, the number of clinics
in 2001 reached 913, 412 of which are located in Seoul. In particular,
the concentration of clinics in economically strategic neighborhoods
such as Gangnam reflects the extent to which the plastic surgery
industry has become commercialized. Out of 467 clinics in Seoul,
almost half or 227 clinics are located in Seoul, and of these, 199 clinics, or 25 percent, can be found in Gangnam.5 Such an increase in
plastic surgeons and plastic surgery clinics, the expansion of the
industrys capital, as well as their concentration in the Gangnam
area, all signify that market logic thoroughly applies to plastic
surgery. Out of 100 new plastic surgeons entering the market every
year, nearly nine doctors lacking survival skills are weeded out due
to intense competition and excessive operations, and brokers are
employed. This shows the extent of the commercial nature of cosmetic surgery.
Basing themselves on the commercial nature of plastic surgery
that appeals to womens obsession with appearances, plastic surgeons emphasize surgery as the means to help women overcome
pathological feelings of inferiority. Women legitimize their dependency on plastic surgery in the system of illusions guaranteed by the cos-

4. Balsamo calls this the economics of medical diagnoses (Balsamo 1996, 65).
5. See Korean Medical Association (2001).

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metic industry. They combine the idea that women must be beautiful
with the more modernized version that beautiful appearance is
another kind of competitive power, and arrive at the conclusion that
all means are legitimate in the aspiration towards beauty. From this
perspective, plastic surgery simply becomes modern womens determined approach to self-management. With the commercial introduction of plastic surgery, once normal female bodies become diseased
and are skillfully dismantled such that the ideal feminine beauty can
be quantitatively evaluated. A monopolistic empowerment of surgery
and a technical notion of beauty is established through the incessant
adoption of new techniques. In this way, women actually contribute
to the immense growth of the plastic surgery industry and inevitably
become increasingly dependent on it.

The Benefits of Beauty and Womens Choice

Empowerment of the Body
Because society endows physical appearance with great power,
women attempt to acquire it through plastic surgery. This kind of
power is much more advantageous in employment or marriage, and
is permitted because it poses no competitive threat to men. The crisis
in the marriage and employment markets fostered by inequalities in
appearances is the main reason many women are driven into the
arena of competition through appearance.
Patriarchal society asks women, Why is it that you waste all
your energy on your face, body, and clothes? Its no wonder women
lag behind in skill. You should invest all that energy in studying!
Easily said, but the reality of the situation is that good looksnot
skillmake women more competitive in the job market (An 2001,
212). In our male-dominated society, many women accept the male
perspective in a calculated and realistic way, internalize it, and find
themselves wrapped within a self-tightening bridle. In relationships
between the sexes as well, women are evaluated according to their

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63

physical appearance, as a womans value is determined by her body.

The male gaze can decide whether a womans body is worthy or not
of being loved. Because only beautiful women receive better treatment in society, they are compelled to both resist the discourse of
aesthetic empowerment and surrender to it at the same time.
I have to get prettier. I have to, if I want a better life. Appearances
seem to be the most important thing in this country. And thats
why Im determined to get a plastic surgery (woman in her twenties, discussing double-eyelid surgery).

The article has thus far covered the power of appearances in its narrow meaning: the power and ability to obtain the desired commodities and resources. For women, the power of appearance as defined
within the social standard of beauty appears in both the workplace
and the marriage market. The power of appearance, a power widely
recognized by women who want to undergo plastic surgery, is
strengthened once women who have surgery experience a real
increase in power. As one 27-year-old company employee attests,
after having surgery on her chin and nose, followed up a year later
with liposuction on her cheeks, she keenly realized that a beautiful
appearance meant a real increase in social power. After her surgery,
she explained, her life completely changed, and she met a man and
got a job. She noted that had she not undergone plastic surgery, she
doubted that she would have had a chance to display her hardearned academic skills. This is exactly the empowerment of appearance felt by women most keenly in the job and marriage market.
At this point, however, it is essential to expand further on the
conception of the power that women acquire through plastic surgery.
The transformation of womens appearances brings with it not only
officially recognized beauty but encourages active and animated
behavior. The power that ensues from this change must include not
only control over people and objects but also control over daily life.
More particularly, the process of restoring initiative, which occurs in
womens encounter with the world through their bodies, provides

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women with the experience of a liberated subjectivity in accordance

with the following scheme: satisfaction with appearance
selfrespect
change in relationship with the world. From this perspective, it is possible to understand the high rate of plastic surgery even
among housewives, who are free from the burden of marriage or
employment. Even though for them men no longer exercise absolute
power over romantic relationships and employment, the beauty
complex, which influences housewives psychological state, forces
women to examine and censor themselves. Because of the psychology that causes women to compete over appearances with both men
and women, womens appearances become a kind of power that is
exercised not only in the job or marriage market but also in other
domains of society. This is the strength that can lead to the restoration of the joy of life, and which functions as the primary factor that
strengthens womens empowerment over their appearances.
Beautiful Appearance as a Source of Pleasure
By transforming womens appearance, plastic surgery brings women
an enjoyment of the consumption of appearance and invigorates
their lives. The cultivating, decorating, and transforming of womens
appearance is considered a pleasure, as well as a right. Upon examination of successful cases of plastic surgery, we find that not only do
women look positively on plastic surgery, but they experience an
intensification of interest in their appearance. They spend more time
looking in the mirror, start experimenting with makeup, and investing in clothes. They carefully observe, survey, and regulate their
behavior, facial expressions, and body language. For example,
women whose ultimate desire was to undergo double-eyelid surgery
in order to be released from having to spend too much energy on
covering up their eyes, find more time to concentrate on other, previously unnoticed parts of their bodies after surgery. But it is no longer
mass media, family members, or work colleagues that are the active
motivators for plastic surgery. The motivating force is womens
active determination to control their appearance. For this reason,

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women question whether their behavior might be described as plastic surgery addiction.
This addiction . . . seems to happen to those of us that are well
off . . . once you fix one part successfully, you want to hurry up
and fix another, and then another. And its all up to you. Thats the
way it is for me; once I fix my waist, Im thinking of getting work
done on other parts of my body. But if it doesnt work out, I wont
even think of setting foot [in another clinic] again (company worker, 23).

What is described above is happiness and pleasure. For women who

are determined at any cost to correct parts of their bodies with which
they are unhappy as a means of obtaining a sense of ease in their
everyday lives, their corrected bodies now bring them more than
powerthey bring the experience of pleasure.
I spend lots of time in front of the mirror these days. I hated doing
that before I had surgery. . . . Its so exciting! People I meet that
havent seen me in a while all say to me, Wow, you look great!
Whats changed? Applying makeup is much more fun, too. I try on
all the latest colors. Even when Im not being looked at, I feel great.
I love shopping for makeup, even though it costs so much (university student, 21).

This pleasure is precisely the key that gives monopolizing power to

the plastic surgery industry. Women predict that despite the fear,
pain, and harshness of the surgical procedure, if it is successful, all
that suffering will disappear. In this way, women thirsting for an aesthetic transformation of their appearance become completely dependant on plastic surgery and readily subject themselves to it, thus
becoming the prime factor conducive to the constitution of the plastic
surgery industrys power. But in the end, the pleasure that is derived
from plastic surgery begs the question of how much closer plastic
surgery has brought womens bodies to the social standard of beauty,
which is founded entirely on womens internalization of societys

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gaze. And yet, most women think that pleasure comes from fulfilling
a general, universal standard of beauty, not the one generated by a
Korean male gaze. And this understanding contributes to yet more
active consent to surgery.
Release from the Pain Caused by Appearance
The process of socializing appearance results in the creations of feelings of inferiority about appearance and an identity crisis. Women
internalize the gaze that compares their bodies to an ideal, unrealistic
standard. They therefore nurture feelings of inferiority about their
own bodies in direct proportion to a subjective distance from this
standard. Women who turn to plastic surgery explain that they are
motivated to undergo the procedure by a desire to overcome feelings
of inferiority and to recover self-esteem. Clearly, appearance is one of
the important factors that constitute womens identity in Korea.
Womens inferiority complex is not limited to appearance, but
extends to doubt about their personality and resentment towards
their environment, and further results in a pessimistic life view that
affects their family and parents. The appearance problem affects
women, their families, and society in general through the sharing of
similar experiences. These individual feelings of inferiority about
their bodies are based on a more general, sociocultural ideology,
which is enforced from the smallest units of society up, and constitutes a much larger, problematic social structure.
Even beyond the inferiority complex, some women view their
bodies in a pathological way. They associate their bodies with feelings of unbearable pain, describing their bodies as faulty, repulsive, awful to look at, and abnormal. When analyzing their bodies on a gendered basis rather than an aesthetic one, women often try
to discriminate between their own surgery and the cosmetic procedures of others. Women explain that they seek to become normal by
fixing their physical faults. Cosmetic surgery, then, is simply a modern convenience, which, by shaping and thus correcting womens
bodies, can guarantee them a normal life.

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67

The following is the account of a woman who underwent breast

enlargement surgery:
Flat-chested women get laughed at, treated like theyre handicapped. . . . If Id stayed this way, I was sure that Id never find a
husband. It wasnt about being prettyI just wanted to become a
woman (university student, 23).

In this statement, wanting to become a woman is associated with a

normal life that women can enjoy by attaching themselves to the
sociocultural category of femininity. As seen above, the equation
of a flat chest with a handicap is further evidence of how social
approval and prejudice encroach upon womens subjective world.
The bodies of women existing outside these qualifying terms become
objects of disease or in need of repair. The important questions to be
asked are who is passing judgment on normality and abnormality in women, and what is the standard according to which this judgment is being made. In an attempt to possess a normal feminine
body, women are beholden to a standard created by society. They
come to associate their bodies with negativity and inferiority, thus
consenting to and submitting to the logic of gender homogeneity. The
peace of mind that is achieved this way gathers womens voluntary
consent and contributes to the institutionalization of appearance
obsession and dependence on technology.
Womens Active Choices and Subordination to Technology
Thus far, we have exposed the important aspects that draw womens
voluntary participation in plastic surgery: empowerment through
appearance, the experience of pleasure, and liberation from suffering
over appearance. While remaining unaware of the basic links between
these aspects, women utilize means that will be most beneficial to
them. Women are organized not as a group but as individuals, making it impossible to challenge the system. This is because they suffer
losses individually. Does the yielding to the realistic benefits of

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surgery prove the absence of female subjectivity?

Women who desire plastic surgery make their decision to undergo the procedure only at the end of long deliberation. They make
their decisions after a level-headed evaluation of reality and their
social position. Feelings of inferiority about their appearance signify
for women an imminent weeding-out from society, and their decision to undergo surgery is one that comes in defense of the disadvantages in society that are accrued as a result of their perceived inferior
appearance. While men only have to develop their abilities or skills,
women have to put in many times that effort in order to realize the
two ideals of good appearance and professional skills. Women are
aware of this situation, and turn to cosmetic surgery for a solution.
They believe that by undergoing surgery, they will be liberated from
the obsession with self-grooming. But rather than achieving this end,
women find themselves sucked even deeper into the obsession, and
it is within this vicious cycle that they become more and more dependant on technology. While the institutionalization of appearance
obsession and dependence on technology presents women with realistic benefits and thus encourages the voluntary choice to have
surgery, the end result is that women become more and more subordinated to plastic surgery capital. Womens liberation from repressive
ideology and capitalist technology has become more and more distant, and womens freedom and happiness have naturally become
more and more limited.

Institutionalization of Resistance
The institutionalization of the appearance obsession and dependence
on technology is established not only through the mutual consent
between power, pleasure, and liberation, but through a strategy that
absorbs the elements of dissatisfaction into the establishment existing
order. First, the physical pain and side effects that are the result of
violent mutilation of perfectly healthy bodiespain undergone in
order to obtain the body promised by technologyare synthesized

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69

into a system of dependence on technology by the simple lack of

choice imposed by society. In addition, even though satisfaction with
the result of plastic surgery decreases as women get older, this very
dissatisfaction deepens the dependence on plastic surgery. As women
accept their position as consumers of plastic surgery, they believe
that they check and control the commercial tyranny of this industry,
but this belief results in womens voluntary strengthening of the system of appearance obsession and dependence on technology.
Let us first examine the way in which the pain and side effects of
plastic surgery are resolved within the system. From the moment
they lie down on the operating table until their recovery, women
undergoing plastic surgery go through an array of feelings, including
doubt, anxiety, and even sadness. These feelings are indeed a complex mixture of fear of the pain that awaits them, concern over the
result of the procedure, and worry over potential side effects. Also,
these feelings might stem from the individual motivations for choosing the dangerous path of surgery, the social discourse behind the
decision, resentment of the very existence of plastic surgery as an
institution, the pressure that they have to endure as women, and
envy of those women who are born with natural good looks. From
these considerations, a general sense of unfairness about plastic
surgery can develop.
If these women become satisfied with the results of their surgery,
the entire process that led up to their surgery comes to be seen as
having been a positive experience. On the other hand, if results are
unsuccessful, the above-mentioned feelings turn into a sense of
betrayal and despair. It is at this point when the ideology of dependence on technology is exposed and can potentially collapse. But in
the face of the failure of their procedure, such disappointed women
in fact blame themselves and the doctors in charge of their procedure. Indeed, for women who have experienced a failure of surgical
procedure, the public criticism and personal reproach are louder,
rather than any communal consolation, and the womans motivation
to undergo surgery is seen more in a personal context rather than a
social one. This is caused by one aspect of technology, which puts

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women into a framework of uniform mass production while simultaneously individualizing them. In the end, women who vie for increased social status using this homogeneous aesthetic gauge, following the values of the homogeneous look, are not organized into a single group but are isolated, atomized individuals. Under such circumstances, the problems and damage arising from plastic surgery cannot
but be individualized. Nonetheless women who experience failed surgical procedures have no choice but to become even more dependent
on surgery, and continue to resignedly undergo plastic surgery again
and again. These women actually consider themselves lucky to be
able to continuously undergo plastic surgery. Rather than feeling
doubtful about the process, women who have undergone complicated surgical procedures end up appreciating the superiority of medical
technology and their doctors, and become even more wrapped up in
their looks. Through this process, women are synthesized into the
system of appearance obsession and dependence on technology.
Next, let us examine the problem of the time limit of plastic
beauty. Even once women have undergone successful surgery and
have obtained both power and pleasure through their new appearance, their power and pleasure is short-lived. Humans naturally go
through an aging process, and physical power goes hand in hand
with youth. With or without cosmetic surgery, aging is a crucial issue
for women. Many women familiarize themselves with information
regarding the slowing down of the aging process, displaying the
extent to which aging both pushes them to the sidelines and brings
about a significant loss of power.
A 27-year-old company employee attests to the fact that after
undergoing plastic surgery four years ago, she was able to enjoy
greater social benefits. However, with time she began to feel victimized by the continual influx of new, younger employees, and started
to notice that some of her other female colleagues were making an
effort to improve their skills rather than their looks. This is an interesting revelation, because it signals the introduction of a new concept. Doubt about the belief that a pretty face awards a woman with
success opens the door to the concept that women can also possess

The Beauty Complex and the Cosmetic Surgery Industry

71

highly developed skills. But even the women who go this route find
their way back to the operating table. This is a result of both the
deeply felt power of transformation that surgery is able to grant in
the first place, and a situation of limited choice that does not permit
any other course of action on the other. This is how the private lives
of women who have undergone cosmetic surgery are stymied and
destroyed by the false promise offered by a highly developed cosmetic surgery industry, delivered through the conflicting messages
appearing intermittently but clearly at all levels of society.
Finally, let us examine the effect of structural synthesis, which
brings about an active consumer consciousness in women. Women
today look upon the cosmetic surgery industry from a market perspective and situate themselves as consumers in relation to it. They
approach the industry rationally, and invest time in visiting different
clinics before they make their decision, much as they would when
shopping for other commodities. Their greatest source of information
is the Internet, which facilitates the real-time exchange of opinions,
and obviates the physical limitations of space. Cosmetic surgery sites6
are filled with discussions and information by past and future
patients, who touch upon an array of issues including womens concerns about their appearance, the different types of procedures, the
time they take, their expense, as well as the ensuing pain, fear, and
side effects. Coming not from the supply but from the demand sector,
these women, thirsting for precise information, register in these sites
to exercise their power as consumers. While consumer rights over
medical technology are not guaranteed, they choose one of the three
following choices. First, they acquire quasi-professional knowledge of
operating techniques and surgical materials. Second, they engage in
an active comparison of the degree of skill of different hospital doc-

6. Examples of some sites are: http://cafe7.daum.net (the largest of such sites,

whose members numbered at 25,500) (accessed October 2001); http://home.
freechal.com/cosmetic (with 595 members, accessed October 2001); and
http://www.freechal.com/oerkstkswnd (accessed October 2001; site now discontinued).

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tors, operating styles, preferred methods, price, service, and sideeffect care. Lastly, they make an inventory of the problematic hospitals and exclude them from the market. Women interested in plastic
surgery, or who have undergone surgical procedures in the past, take
these actions as strategies to interfere with the monopoly of cosmetic
surgery and counter the tyranny of cosmetic surgery technology.
They believe that in this way they can disrupt the cosmetic industry
inciting women to undergo surgery. However, these strategies are far
from expressions of doubt regarding the industry itselfindeed, they
serve to deepen womens dependence on plastic surgery. In reality,
the belief that the cosmetic industry will develop in an appropriate
direction under the control and observation of women consumers
actually serves to hide the subordination of women to the industry
and provides a means for its even wider circulation.

The Collusion between the Appearance Obsession

and Cosmetic Surgery
What interest does the cosmetic surgery industry have in womens
bodies? Is it simply a question of the maintenance of patriarchal order,
or do its intentions lie with transforming womens bodies in order to
make them easier to handle? Today, womens bodies are subject to
the engaging and competing powers of the masculine gaze, the consumption of appearance, and scientific technology. And womens voluntary and active power of decision lies in the center of this competition. Only that which is no longer repressive, satisfies desire and pleasure, and offers new prospects for the future can exercise power.
Womens bodies then internalize these imperatives. What, then, is the
significance and effect of the institutionalization of the appearance
obsession and dependence on technology that is written on womens
bodies?

The Beauty Complex and the Cosmetic Surgery Industry

73

Womens Bodies as Targets of Consumption

When faced with a decision regarding cosmetic surgery, women are
most concerned with side effects, pain, and price. Yet many women
still participate in the cosmetic surgery market. They agree to undergo physical violence against their otherwise normally functioning,
healthy bodies. And once they have had a taste of the hints of pleasure that are obtained after the violent transformation of their bodies,
they repeatedly seek out more of the same. The offensiveness of the
cosmetic surgery industry through mass media is conducted in such a
way that it continuously presents a constructed, constantly changing,
and ever-elusive ideal image that is always beyond womens reach.
For women who wish to undergo plastic surgery, their sense of selfsatisfaction never lasts long, and is constantly transformed into selfhatred. As carriers of both self-satisfaction and self-hatred, womens
bodies are exploited and degraded to the level of object. The excessive interference and attention given to the body in modern society
creates the ironic situation in which the body is more easily controlled and colonized.
In the meeting between women and their cosmetic surgeons,
women become even further objects of examination rather than
subjects with an intrinsic essence. Doctors are in the position of
rearranging womens bodies as an aesthetic signifier of the ideal
woman. When surgeonswho are, for the most part, malefragment and pathologize womens healthy bodies, and when a woman
internalizes a fragmented body image and accepts its flawed identity, cosmetic surgery is no longer a mere transformation of the body
but the inscription of cultural symbol and a form of cultural signification standards of beauty (Balsamo 1996, 13-58). As long as women
turn an attentive ear to the demands of society and censor their bodies through the social gaze instead of concentrating on the needs of
their respective selves, the cosmetic surgery industry will continue to
re-produce cultural images and adhere to the visual tradition, and
this will be the matrix guaranteeing continued accumulation of profit.

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The Homogenization of Desire, Standardization of Appearance

Womens bodies, which can become targets of transformation at will,
can never escape gendered femininity. Our society, which is epitomized by profit-seeking capital, demands a standard of conformity
under the guise of diversity, and a homogenized genderization provides a central sociocultural structure in this process of conformity.
For this reason, the discourse concerning cosmetic surgery presently
serves to strengthen this kind of genderization.
The homogenization of gender is spontaneously initiated through
enforcement and mutual surveillance of womens femininity, as dictated by the structure of ideas in the patriarchal establishment. As
opposed to masculinity, which is recognized and acknowledged as an
inborn trait, femininity is set up as something that must be decorated, cultivated, and hidden, and women learn that they must feel
ashamed to show their natural, inborn bodies.
No industry benefits from the normalization of the body as much
as the cosmetic surgery industry, but at the same time helps institutionalize this normalization. Surgery applies textbook-like concepts of
equilibrium and order to womens bodies, and through them, works
to further the normalization of a single beauty standard. Thus, any
woman can be beautiful; but that beauty is defined commensurately
with developments in plastic surgery and produces bodies that are
increasingly foreign and beyond womens reach. In contrast to
womens hopes, unified procedures across different categories of cosmetic surgeryeven taking into account the difference between surgeons individual skillseffect the mass production of bodies in a
unified way. The beauty industrys taking advantage of women
obsession with appearance, which in turn constitutes a ground for
the plastic surgery industry, has manifested itself as a system of production of a body that is gazed at. It eliminates individual differences between one woman and another, and maximizes the effectiveness of plastic surgery that pursues homogeneity, thus socializing the
normative system of gender homogeneity.

The Beauty Complex and the Cosmetic Surgery Industry

75

Establishment of Technological Omnipotence

As the number of patients seeking to undergo plastic surgery rapidly
increases, so does the number of surgery clinics. This phenomenon is
linked to the expectation that plastic surgery technology can satisfy
peoples desires through the power of technology as expressed
through womens bodies. One might suppose a future reality in
which, enabled by technology, women would be able to achieve the
look they want with the help of small, quick adjustments, eliminating
the beauty complex. All facets of human beingsnot only external
features, but internal organs, intelligence, and sensibilitywould
become the target of change. The development of genetic engineering
today is planting the belief that imagination can be turned into reality. This scenario is based on the diffusion of values that presuppose
the omnipotence of technology. It preaches that technology will be
highly advanced, with minimized side effects, and in response to the
popularization of surgery, even prices will come down. This domain
was once the realm of only a select group of movie and television
stars, but today double-eyelid surgery has come to be seen as natural
as the application of makeup, while demands for more extensive
procedures, such as breast enlargement and liposuction, are greatly
increasing.
Thanks to the confidence in technology, a popular base capable
of accommodating any and all demands from technological capital
has been formed. It is precisely the increase of the general populations submission to the power of technology that forms the cornerstone of what Neil Postman calls a technopoly.7 The sudden surge
of cosmetic surgery clinics is closely related to the rise in consumer
capital, developed against the background of diverse cosmetic industries. These clinics want women to be frustrated about their appearance. And they do not stop there; they also incite a self-hatred for the

7. Neil Postman, formerly the chair of the Department of Culture and Communication at New York Universitys School of Education, defines technopoly as a new
kind of totalitarian society born of the monopoly of technology.

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body and desire for correction of the body of men, children, and even
the elderly. The popularization of plastic surgery and the remarkable
increase in the cosmetic surgery market attest to the fact that womens
frustration with their bodies has been aggravated and consequently
their dependence on medical technology has been dependened.
Technological capital does not work to specifically maintain the
patriarchal aesthetic standard, but merely takes advantage of it.
Indeed, technological capital is interested mainly in the acquisition
and creation of profit. Its aim to guarantee control over the human
body, beginning with those of women, is backed by the logic of capital concerning the creation and expansion of market interestslike
selling shoes to a monkey by creating a situation such that it cannot
walk without them.

Points of Fissure
Even in the institutionalized paradigm of appearance obsession and
dependence on technology, points of fissure can be detected. First,
one might note the confusion caused by duplicity in the aesthetic
standard. The traditional structure gives power to beautiful women,
thus promoting an obsession with appearance, limiting womens
empowerment. However, the popularization of cosmetic surgery has
brought the a potential to mass-produce artificially manufactured
beauty, and the rise of this beauty threatens to deteriorate into a situation in which women will no longer be divided along the line of a
single beauty ideal.
This loss of control over women again brings about the situation
in which distinctions are made between appearances that are plastic
versus natural. The plastic beauty standard is suppressed, and
womens appearance obsession and desire for plastic surgery are disparaged. The very effort to accommodate the patriarchal standard of
beauty is resolutely punished. Within this discourse, women have
come to feel ashamed and self-accusatory regarding their desire to
undergo plastic surgery, and as a result, are secretive about their

The Beauty Complex and the Cosmetic Surgery Industry

77

operations. So what is the strategic value of openly admitting to having had plastic surgery? Open admission frequently results not in
acquisition of self-respect, but in a depreciation of self-value. However, if the decision to undergo surgery is inevitable, the attempt to
form and circulate a collective discourse among women with similar
experiences can become a strategic attack on the industry. This type
of coming out can call upon the repressed experiences of women
and become the precondition for the creation of such a discourse.
Specifically, experiences such as surgery, failed dieting, the revival of
inferiority complexes with time even after successful surgery, and
other problems arising relating to the appearance obsession (for
example, the anxiety created by worrying about keeping the secret of
having had plastic surgery, or identity crises that arise from their
undiscovered talents) can be taken out of the domain of the individual and be collectivized and organized as a discourse of resistance,
thus offering the first opportunity to form a discourse of resistance.
But while this kind of discourse offers a resistance to the divisiveness
of patriarchy, it is always in danger of falling into the capitalist logic
of the interests of medical technology.
The second point of fissure can be found is the less obvious question of economic inequality. While plastic surgery offers the prospect
of eliminating physical differences and inequalities, it cannot escape
the much-related question of economic inequality and capital. More
specifically, the development and popularization of plastic surgery
technology does not guarantee that the road leading to beauty will be
open to everyone. But the logic of the homogenization of gendered
desire, which serves to eliminate class differences between women,
creates a situation in which women unhesitatingly embrace the standardized logic of medical technology, thus bolstering the popular conviction that technological development goes hand in hand with an
advanced civilization blurs the acute discord between classes. This is
based on the belief that advanced technology brings with it high efficiency, which in turn carries with it high costs, and this again associated with technological progress and superiority.
The development of the cosmetic surgery industry encourages

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the belief in the aesthetic openness and aesthetic equality that would
ensure that everyone has the right to enjoy the benefits of the industry. Reality, however, does not permit equal access to beauty. The
more the linked issues of appearance obsession and dependence on
technology is institutionalized, the more precise and defined becomes
the logic of capital, thus bringing the more inconspicuous problem of
economic inequality to the fore. Even if the discipline of technological capital is internalized, realistic economic limitations form a
boundary that is impossible to overcome. In this way, the homogeneity created by class desire for plastic surgery deepens class alienation.
The fact is that in order to enjoy the benefits of technological capitalwhether in terms of plastic surgery, genetic engineering, or otherwiseone must possess the economic capability to do so. This
defines the most significant point of fissure in the system of internalization of capitalist logic.

Conclusion
This paper has examined the process in which the combination of the
appearance obsession and the technology of cosmetic surgery reinstitutionalizes the obsession with appearance in a modern sense.
Patriarchal ideology, which permeates not only daily life, but also the
processes of production, labor, and consumption, teaches women
that the single attribute defining their worth is physical appearance.
It then promises women power, pleasure, and liberation through this
domain. Within this paradigm, the development of the technology of
cosmetic surgery promises millions of frustrated women to make
their potential a reality and claims that it can deliver equal beauty to
all. As a result, many women come to believe that, through surgery,
or through the simple existence of the possibility of surgery, they too
can achieve the idealistic standard of beauty at any time they please,
and thus eagerly and actively enter the beauty industry market. At
the same time, however, these women come to helplessly accept the
logic of technological capital that makes women consistently examine

The Beauty Complex and the Cosmetic Surgery Industry

79

their bodies in a negative and pathological light, thus causing them to

become victims to feelings of inferiority and becoming as a result all
the more dependant upon the technology of cosmetic surgery.
In this way, the (re-)institutionalization of the appearance obsession and dependence on technology today takes place with womens
active consent, and absorbs womens disapproval or resistance into
the system. Thus, womens bodies become perfectly adjusted to the
interests of technological capital. Women learn to hate their bodies,
and in this emotional state are easily convinced about what to buy
and do. But fissures can be found even in the system that relies on
womens consent. The decision of individual women to undergo plastic surgery can become a protest against the patriarchal dichotomies
of beautiful/coarse or natural/artificial and the attempt to limit
womens strength to their inborn appearance. At the same time, they
come to realize the reality of patriarchal beauty standard that cannot
be overcome even by undergoing plastic surgery and the fact that
they are even more subordinated to that standard. Not only that, but
the re-appearance of economic inequality created by the commercialization of the medical industry endangers the myth of equal beauty
for all put forth by technology.
In conclusion, womens cosmetic surgery issue is not an individual problem. Rather, this issue comes from a political conspiracy
between patriarchal consumer capitalism that promotes an inferiority
complex in women and the interests of medical technology capital
that claim to offer a resolution to the inferiority complex. Despite all
this, women are highly aware of the reality they live in and willingly
choose cosmetic surgery as the best possible choice. Paradoxically,
this voluntariness has led women to accept the kind of submissive
body that is encouraged by technological capital and has become the
primary factor in the institutionalization of the appearance obsession
and dependence on technology.

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