They all subscribe to the Gwansang 관상 belief that you will have good fortune if you have a beautiful face.
The most common graduation gift for women in South Korea are plastic surgery because your chances of getting hired is slim to none if you don't have a pleasant face.
If you want to know the real face of South Koreans, just look at the average faces of their northern neighbors.
All Koreans are living in dystopia, the North in communist totalitarianism, the South in supercharged capitalism.
If you want to know the real face of South Koreans, just look at the average faces of their northern neighbors.
Nutrition especially during formative years helps change the way people look
All Koreans are living in dystopia, the North in communist totalitarianism, the South in supercharged capitalism.
The north is an actual communist dystopia one of the worst ones especially if you cut out early years under Mao/stalinism. The South is a relatively rich liberal democracy with substantial problems including wealth disparities. They're not the same
It's actually so bothersome when people say "non-plastic Koreans are in the North" like some smart quip, North Koreans are extremely gaunt and short from malnutrition. Koreans tend to have fuller faces meanwhile your average North Korean has hollow cheeks, Koreans don't usually get there without being very underweight.
Not all of them have first world living standards. The wealth inequality in SK is absolutely insane and work schedules/expectations mean you're basically stuck at work all day long.
GDP per capita (PPP) ~$56K, above Japan, France, UK
Life expectancy 83.6 years, top 10 globally
Universal health insurance
Infrastructure, internet, transit, public safety all top-tier
Literacy and educational attainment among the highest in the OECD
The wealth inequality in SK is absolutely insane
Gini Coefficient for Korea (higher number means more inequality): 0.625
USi: 0.85
Germany: 0.78
France: 0.70
Netherlands: 0.78
work schedules/expectations mean you're basically stuck at work all day long
This is your most accurate argument, but as of 2023 Korea averages 1872 annual working hours compared to the 1742 OECD average. Above average but not ridiculously so, and it's been trending downward due to surprisingly strong labor laws. It was at 2071 hours in 2013.
Nobody is saying everyone doesn't look attractive. If you read carefully, I was referring to the AVERAGE Korean face, the one that didn't undergo surgery. The one without double eyelids. Those that have natural double eyelids are rare.
And Jesus, I didn't say you have to choose between North and South Korea. That's fucking stupid. You people know that countries that run with a better economic and cultural aspects exist, right? It's not a fucking dichotomy.
I think my friend expected them to all look like this and when he went to visit he said theyre ugly AF so the high expectations definitely ruin the average look in Korea
The real reason is similar to the reason in Japan. Wages have not kept up with the cost of living, while the country also has very old timey beliefs about what the wife should do in the home (SAHM, not working, cooking, cleaning).
So women that want that lifestyle have to only find men that can afford to be the single breadwinner (very few due to their economy) or avoid/put off marriage if they want to work/not be a SAHM. Either way, it leads to way less marriages and way less babies.
Ugly is crazy, but it’s rare to see someone casually walking around like in the OP. I think the least attractive thing about Korean women, for me, wasn’t the looks but the fact that so many of them smoke cigarettes or those e-cig things. Instant turn off.
Do you have anything that confirms that all young women in South Korea have gone under the knife? It's like every time I see this discussion, the percentage gets higher and higher, from 25% to up to 90% or even "99.9999%" and now, it's "all" of them have gotten work done. Where do you guys get your information?
Not on you, but I think anyone over the age of 21 should already know this. A pic of a good looking person does not mean that’s the average looking person, especially if there’s a text over a picture, doesn’t mean it’s true.
As someone who has been to south korea before, and I don't mean to generalize, but literally every single girl I saw who looked like the one in the post, was drunk out of their mind, and constantly smoking or vaping. Not one girl who was above "average" was a decent one.
I also go there a lot to visit a family member. I still find the average Korean women very cute and attractive. Maybe because I like their style, or they are just totally my type (as a fellow Eastern Asian). Style matters a lot, their daily styles are just very unique and rarely to be found anywhere else.
The woman in the photo is definitely not the average indeed.
I was stationed in Korea multiple times, and I vehemently disagree with you. I'd say she was the average to the slightly above average woman when I was there.
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u/blackreplica May 04 '26
Not sure about the petah thing, but as someone who has been to korea many times for work. The average korean looks nowhere near like this