Look for the answers in the article below.
From: http://www.dentistryiq.com/index/display/news-display/1360227141.html
It's not enough to look beautiful in South Korea
More also changing faces to look younger, creating extra business for cosmetic surgeons
Kim Ji Hyun, For The Straits Times
The Straits Times (Singapore)
February 16, 2011
SEOUL: Actress Han Ji Min, 29, is a member of the 'Bagel Girls'.
It is not the name of the latest girl pop group, but refers to a small circle of actresses like her who are blessed with the face of a baby, but the body of a glamorous woman.
South Korean netizens coined the term 'ba-gl' - shortened from baby-faced and glamorous - last year to epitomise their ideal of perfect beauty.
Such is the South Korean obsession that looking merely beautiful is pretty passe. A woman must also look young or much younger than her age these days.
This is so not only among female celebrities, but also ordinary women who are in their mid-30s and deemed 'middle-aged'. Ditto for the men.
Experts say patients' desire to turn back the age clock is creating new trends in the 5 trillion won (S $5.7 billion) a year cosmetic surgery industry, which performed more than 360,000 operations last year.
'In the 1990s, it used to be about altering a particular feature, such as the nose or the mouth or, most commonly, the eyes,' said Dr Yoon Gyu Shik, head of EVERM Dental Clinic. 'But now, it is more about how your face looks in general, and how young.'
Cosmetic jaw surgery is one of the procedures surgeons say can help decrease a person's age. For example, by pushing back the upper and lower jaws, a surgeon can make his patient's face appear shorter and smaller - and therefore younger.
After the surgery, however, the patient needs to go to the dentist to get the teeth adjusted or for related follow-ups.
This spells extra business for dentists. And with more celebrities opting for jaw surgery, creating publicity as they go about improving their looks, dentists such as Dr Yoon are not complaining.
One such celebrity is Lim Hyuk Pil. The 39-year-old comedian became famous partly because of his long jaw, which accentuated his comical features.
But he went under the knife recently to fix it because he wanted to look 'young and normal'.
Ordinary South Koreans, too, have no qualms about resorting to such measures for the sake of youth and beauty.
Take housewife Kim Hee Won, 37, who rued the loss of her youthful looks after her son was born.
She opted for both jaw and double-eyelid surgery. As the former entailed a reconstruction of her jaw, it took a couple of weeks before the pain and swelling subsided, she said.
But she is happy with the results.
'Making your jaws narrower is really the best way to look younger, even though it is one of the most painful procedures around,' said Ms Kim, whose son is now five.
These days, she sports a new hairstyle with bangs, and fills her wardrobe with clothes that young stars wear.
'People don't believe me when I tell them I am 37 years old,' she said.
Early this month, SBS station aired a popular contest in which judges choose a winner from among people who look younger than their age.
Mr Lee Gye Nam, who is 70 but looks at least a decade younger, was the eventual winner. He said he started working out after he became paralysed from the waist down because of an unknown illness. He has almost recovered.
Although the contest has been around for several years, the Feb 4 show topped viewers' ratings because of the avid interest in 'looking young'.
Mr Lee's name also became the most searched-for on Naver, the nation's top search engine.
'It seems like every year, the contestants get younger,' said Dr Park Young Jin of Samsung Plastic Surgery, one of the judges in the SBS programme.
The desire to look young has also spawned interesting new beauty businesses, including 'face yoga institutes', where instructors teach facial exercises designed to retain youthfulness.
The trend, however, has its downside as more and more employees and job- seekers believe that looks count more than skills or capability.
Almost half of 600 salaried workers surveyed by Job Korea last November said their biggest complex or worry at work was their appearance.
Another survey of 1,700 employees across the nation last month, also by Job Korea, found that almost 90 per cent said looks were one of the most important factors for securing a job.
'People must remember that surgery is only a part of looking young and beautiful,' said Dr Park of Samsung clinic. 'It is also about exercising and maintaining a positive mindset.'
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Just as we thought Korea's obsession with looks is bad enough, it's sinking deeper with the focus now on youthfulness.
Now that everyone on the street looks pretty (by whatever means), here comes a new criteria to distinguish between the good and the better. Sounds kinda like university degree eh?
Regarding the survey which showed that 90% felt that looks is an important factor in securing jobs, I wonder if looks-discrimination is indeed happening in the workplace, or it's just purely psychological. If they solely judge your ability on looks, and decide whether to do business with someone based on appearance, then that's really a sad sad society.
Unlike race or gender discrimination, looks discrimination can be simply rectified. Not that it's much of a good news however. Everyone wants to look good, but not everyone is born with the genes to give good looks. To make it more complex, there is no clear criteria to define what 'good looks' is. Thus there are people who are never satisfied no matter how many times they go under the knife. There are no concrete proof to show that they are already good-looking enough. Cosmetic surgeons are probably facing this problem too, when trying to convince their customers that they don't need any more surgery. I guess most just go ahead with it anyway.
So how do you define youthful-looks? This is probably easier. You can ask people to guess your age, and subtract it from your actual age. The bigger the difference the better. Just hope you don't see a negative number.
Does youthfulness serve as an alternative to beauty, or is it an additional criteria on top of beauty? Will those whose looks cannot get any better (doesn't sound very right to be but...) choose to make themselves look youthful instead? Or must beauty be a prerequisite before seeking youthfulness? To make it blunt, "youthful but ugly" - does it work? It seems like beauty still holds the upper hand.
If cosmetic surgeons and beauty services are earning big bucks from it, what's stopping them?
Ok I feel like making a hasty generalization - Japanese women's faces look a mask with all the thick makeup, while Korean women's faces look like plastic with all the surgeries. Hahahaa...
Maybe in the future we can see this in Korean dramas - main leads looking like high school students, their parents looking like teenagers, and their grandparents looking like career man/woman. What a 'youthified' society!
Ok I realised the article didn't mention about the 'young' woman in the picture. She is the runner-up in the competition, forty-two years old. Believe it or not.
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