Her Room
The feminine beauty ideal is "the socially constructed notion that physical attractiveness is one of women's most important assets, and something all women should strive to achieve and maintain". Specifically, in Korea, middle and high-class women compete to have better body shape. In the midterm, I focused on how women force themselves to lose weight even they risk their life for it. This idea pushed me to come up with this idea of glamming myself because the steps of taking a shower, doing a makeup, and putting on a fancy clothes are all the method women use to increase their self-esteem.
For this installation, I put up a showerhead, a vanity mirror, and a clothing rack to mock a real room. The yarn piled around each section represents the time spent in that section. Women in Korea are considered to look a certain way and to be “clean”. The stereotypes that women in Korea face are that they always have to have make up on to look pretty. Hours are spent just putting on make up so they can it the standards of beauty. Some even resorting to plastic surgery to look better. Then finally, choosing the clothes. In Korea, what you wear is very important. Everywhere you go, there are people dressed very fashionably, trying to impress one another. Korea’s “high status” look is what everyone is trying to go for. For both genders, especially women, always try to find the best outfit to go out with just so they can fit the standards of how a person should dress in Korea. Lastly, the most eye-catching piece I included in the installation was the same repetitive picture of a woman putting on make up. I chose to include this to the installation because as women try to glam themselves in their room, they think about the constant stereotypes and standards they have to abide by. The beauty standards of Korea are very harsh and can really affect their self-esteem. Although I created the scene in the room, the organic form of the string disrupts the scene.
For the final, I wanted to amplify the idea of denying the beauty standards. The only thing holding back average-looking women are their belief that looking “average” limits them from fitting into society. When a person has high self-esteem, then that person would not be self-conscious. There are people who suffer from low self-esteem, and these are the ones who choose to stay out of society’s standards, fearing that they will not be able to fit in. They also find it really hard to talk to people with ease and they lack the confidence to face the world. Public speaking, for them, is one dreadful act, with constant eyes running across their face.
In Korea there are skincare and make up stores all over the place, literally one in every street. Some examples of their beauty standards would be big eyes, smaller face, clear skin, slimmer jaw, underweight, and the list goes on. Also there are hundreds of billboards and poster all over the country about plastic surgery ads. The Korean beauty industry takes advantage of this “beauty standard” for women and tries to make a business out of it. It is sickening to see these unrealistic beauty standards having to be constantly told to women.
Although it might seem like a cultural difference to different countries, considering their beauty standards, it is still appalling to see women go through unrealistic standards, just to fit in the “norms” of society. Through this installation, I wanted to convey the fact that the beauty standards of Korea are way to unrealistic, forcing some women to even go under the knife, and that this is what is going on in 2018, South Korea.
For this installation, I put up a showerhead, a vanity mirror, and a clothing rack to mock a real room. The yarn piled around each section represents the time spent in that section. Women in Korea are considered to look a certain way and to be “clean”. The stereotypes that women in Korea face are that they always have to have make up on to look pretty. Hours are spent just putting on make up so they can it the standards of beauty. Some even resorting to plastic surgery to look better. Then finally, choosing the clothes. In Korea, what you wear is very important. Everywhere you go, there are people dressed very fashionably, trying to impress one another. Korea’s “high status” look is what everyone is trying to go for. For both genders, especially women, always try to find the best outfit to go out with just so they can fit the standards of how a person should dress in Korea. Lastly, the most eye-catching piece I included in the installation was the same repetitive picture of a woman putting on make up. I chose to include this to the installation because as women try to glam themselves in their room, they think about the constant stereotypes and standards they have to abide by. The beauty standards of Korea are very harsh and can really affect their self-esteem. Although I created the scene in the room, the organic form of the string disrupts the scene.
For the final, I wanted to amplify the idea of denying the beauty standards. The only thing holding back average-looking women are their belief that looking “average” limits them from fitting into society. When a person has high self-esteem, then that person would not be self-conscious. There are people who suffer from low self-esteem, and these are the ones who choose to stay out of society’s standards, fearing that they will not be able to fit in. They also find it really hard to talk to people with ease and they lack the confidence to face the world. Public speaking, for them, is one dreadful act, with constant eyes running across their face.
In Korea there are skincare and make up stores all over the place, literally one in every street. Some examples of their beauty standards would be big eyes, smaller face, clear skin, slimmer jaw, underweight, and the list goes on. Also there are hundreds of billboards and poster all over the country about plastic surgery ads. The Korean beauty industry takes advantage of this “beauty standard” for women and tries to make a business out of it. It is sickening to see these unrealistic beauty standards having to be constantly told to women.
Although it might seem like a cultural difference to different countries, considering their beauty standards, it is still appalling to see women go through unrealistic standards, just to fit in the “norms” of society. Through this installation, I wanted to convey the fact that the beauty standards of Korea are way to unrealistic, forcing some women to even go under the knife, and that this is what is going on in 2018, South Korea.