( Source )
For a change, I think I’ll let this one speak for itself.
But if you would like some context though, then see here. And in fairness (no pun intended), apparently model Lee Soo-hyuk (이수혁) on the right always looks like that.
But still, is such a deathly pallor really something to be aspired to?
(For all posts in the Korean Sociological Images series, see here)
Before I forget: thanks to Colette Balmain for passing this on!
Oooh look, reanimated corpses!
Looking like a corpse is not something that I either aspire to or find remotely attractive.
Actually, I think they’re vampires.
I guess I haven’t been paying enough attention to popular culture, or else blood suckers would have been the first thing to come to mind.
And my arms might be as thick as those guy’s legs, and I am by no means a bodybuilder. That can’t be healthy. They look somewhat like famine victims – except they are expensively attired and actually have access to food, but choose not to eat. I wonder what the doctors who do their medical checkups say?
Thanks for putting this up!
But still, is such a deathly pallor really something to be aspired to?
I don’t understand this fervour for skin lightning. Some of these too pale idols look ill, it doesn’t look natural at all and does my head in.
You’re welcome, and my feelings exactly.
On the one hand though, this is nothing new: Im Su-jeong (임수정) on the left for instance, has been endorsing SK-II for at least a couple of years now, and whitening products in general have been around forever here. But still, a “Whitening Celebration Party” is just too much!
if they would actually look like they eat something once in a while, maybe it would be less scary…but this? I don’t see much difference to a skeleton in a museum. seems like it’s not just a whitening party, but an anorexia party as well
On the bright side (there I go again), some of the other guests were a bit chunkier, although they were a minority.
Hm, kind of an offensive statement. I take that back. This is clearly an offensive statement. Many Asians are naturally thin. They may diet, but there’s a difference between watching what they eat and being anorexic. I, myself, have the body type of the two men pictured above, and I can tell you, it is very difficult for me to put on weight. The only way I can put on some bulk is by lifting weights. Your statement is as offensive as if you had said, “They look disgustingly fat.”
oh please, I myself am as skinny looking as it gets.
If it offended you, I apologize, but you cannot seriously tell me that the guys on the right look healthy?? there are healthy looking skinny people and skinny people like them, which by all means can’t be natural because they eat all so much and cannot gain weight. with all the paleness the one on the right looks like he didnt eat for three weeks and I am sure I am not the only one thinking that. I agree other guests looked normal when you look at the pictures from the link james gave, except for the unnatural skin tone, but these two??
Wasn’t really fishing for an apology, but I accept, no matter how dismissive it was.
As for the way the two men look, to me, yes, they absolutely do look healthy, and I say it without hesitation. I would venture to say that there are millions upon millions of people out there who would agree with me. Missy, the commenter below, seems to be one of them. So who’s right? Us or you (and the people who agree with you)? I grew up in the U.S., and my entire life, Western media has been telling me tan skin equals healthy. I’ve never believed it. I’ve seen many beautiful people in my life with extremely pale skin. So whether you like a certain skin tone is completely subjective.
But there’s something else that you wrote which, again, can be considered highly offensive. You say that the skin tone of people (at least Asians) with pale skin look “unnatural.” Yet, many Asians have naturally pale skin, even paler than many Caucasians. Don’t you think it’s offensive to say that these people look “unnatural” in any way? What is the difference between what you said and someone else saying, people with black skin look dirty?
To me, there is no difference. Both are highly offensive.
But, we’ve gotten off topic. The real issue, of course, is not how healthy or unhealthy pale skin looks, but valuing it over all other skin tones. This is certainly an issue throughout much of Asia, including Korea. But in Korea, I’ve heard that there were more tanning salons opening, and more people sunbathing during the summer. I’m not sure how widespread this is, but it seems to be a step in the right direction.
Sorry, left out a part. I meant to say, “Western media has been telling me tan skin equals healthy and pale skin looks sickly.”
and I just don’t agree with you.
first of all you are being equally offensive here automatically assuming I am white and wherefore don’t know what asians look like and am racist for preferring them to look tanned. and no, I still don’t think they look natural and they are attending a WHITENING party after all. why I am being critical about it even though many asians have naturally pale skin (if they never go out in the sun) is because I have asian friends who constantly torture themselves dieting just to look like these celebrities, because this is what koreans have to look like (and this is not my thinking here) and applying tons of whitening creams and make up just to look a bit more deathly pale even though having a perfectly fine skin tone.
so yes, I still think they look unnatural and unhealthy.
Yeah I am always surprised to see how this look can be so sought after in South East Asia, especially in Korea… But I’ve realized that I find some of them really attractive, when they’re standing alone… As this is the norm in South Korea, it never really surprised me… The “non-vampire” girls are labelled as especially tanned, when they just have a regular color.
Thanks for putting the spotlight on such an interesting event (it’s not ironical ^^)
Aaah whitening… well I’m going to tell you a story that might be boring for those not interested in makeup and/or anything related to my personal life ^^
Here in France I’m considered “not tanned” although I tan very easily due to my familial background but I don’t get too much sun in Paris u__u hence I’m between NC25 and NC30 in MAC’s (the cosmetic brand not the computers) range. That being said MAC’s range goes from NC15 palest to NC50 which is great for African or Indian skin carnations. I’ve tried (and really it was out of curiosity) Korean brands and god knows there is a lot of them and none of them was suitable for my skin tone. When (which is rare) they would offer more than just one shade which is the most common option, it would be on the greyish side giving my skin a really nice death glow I should say.
So when you shop around in Korea and see that cosmetics brands don’t even carry a medium (and I’m not saying tan) range in their product selection it’s a bit mind boggling. My Korean friends follow religiously their skin care routines like they would die if they’d go out in the sun without sunscreen SPF 3400 on. Comical aspect aside I wonder where is the line between wanting clear skin which is perfectly compatible with having a medium to tanned skin tone and wanting pale skin.
Ad moreover what’s the point in celebrating something makeup or skin care related, it’s like organizing the hair crimping awards it’s just as pointless to me…
But on a more serious note, I don’t understand the point in this website. I’ve spent the past week reading the main articles and find it exceptionally weak.
Recently I had the pleasure to read a thread on another site by a man who’d recently married a woman in Korea. He was an American, and conspicuously not keen on Korean culture as a whole. The thread was essentially a rather less eloquent version of this site — all “Koreans are dogs” this and “fuck this culture” that. But really, what’s the difference between that and The Grand Narrative? A few links to reputable sources and more restrained language? In the end, it’s all the intellectual equivalent of colonialism.
So this article, for instance, is supposedly a sociological survey of a trend found in Korean pop culture. And I suppose on the face of it, that’s what it is.
Except if we scroll down a little, it’s rather evident that this article tells us as much about James Turnbull himself as it does about what he’s supposed to be perusing. Why exactly is this relevant or appropriate:
“But still, is such a deathly pallor really something to be aspired to?”
…what on earth does this have to do with anything? Why can’t you report on trends without adding your own biases as footnotes? Such intellectual laziness is all over the place on the site — things are wrong “just because”, Korean culture is deemed out of joint purely in reference to its Western equivalent, Western concepts (liberalism, equality, essentially Judeo-Christian outlooks) are taken as superior because… uh… well, again, “just because”, I guess!
Now suppose there suddenly popped up the inverse of this site. A Korean man who moved to Britain and decided to catalogue the curious sociological implications of that country’s media and advertising. So far so acceptable. Now imagine that on this site, every single article was loaded with the tacit assertion that these barbaric Britons were somehow backwards or slavish. Imagine that this man takes entire articles as opportunities to decry the freedom of work British women enjoy, imagine he viewed the entire culture as inferior from a Confucian perspective, imagine every article about Girls Aloud was appendaged with: “yet another example of how British women are allowed a disgust amount of freedom to dress and act how they like.”
And now you tell me how that would be any different at its core from what you do here! The trouble for me is that the articles on this site are quite interesting apart from the sloppy prejudices and loaded words interspersed amongst them, so it seems like an egregious waste of potential. I daresay this criticism has been voiced before, but I just threw this together in 10 minutes because I wonder how anyone can even attempt to form a defense.
Well, if you do ever want people to mount a defense of something you accuse them of, then you’re going to have to provide actual evidence for it first. But for my supposedly irrelevant and inappropriate “bias” you highlight at the end of this post though, then you completely fail to do so. Apparently, despite accusing me of intellectual laziness, my blog is the way it is “just because” you say so.
In the event that you do actually have any concrete criticisms of anything I’ve ever written though, then you’re free to provide those on the appropriate posts, and I’ll respond there accordingly. Until you do however, then my failure to respond here to your mere opinions of my blog remains simply the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Hey, 360, you’re in the wrong place. This is a blog, or a “personal web log.”
“Simply reporting on trends without adding your own biases” sounds like you’re looking for an encyclopedia composed by committee and then edited into pablum.
So that all we racists with personal opinions and heartfelt interpretations who are brave enough to put them on display can have a better model to emulate, what’s the URL of your blog?
360
“So this article, for instance, is supposedly a sociological survey of a trend found in Korean pop culture.”
LOL. That is about as bad a description of one photo with just over 50 words appended as can be done. And a blog post at that.
Perhaps your own analytic tools need some sharpening?
The dude on the right is extremely attractive imho. If you don’t want him I’ll have him. :p
The guys on the left is pretty cute but the model on the right has a really frail-looking bone-struture, his nose is TOO thin and he has no lips. And he’s wearing high heels? WTF LOL
Okay…I needed a moment to laugh.
The guy on the left at least has a warm-looking face and um how do you say that… a good-looking lower half. Pretty thighs…package…LOL. The girl on the right does look unhealthy, but she looks pretty. I think pasty skin can look pretty if it’s smooth.
So um, Missy what I’m trying to say is I guess you can have the one on the right…I’ll take the one on the left…maybe we can trade later.