Nothing I’ve written about on this blog has resonated with readers like the stories on facial plastic surgery across Asia. There’s a trend for young women – especially in South Korea – to be as unhappy with their faces as women in the West seem to be about their breasts. With plastic surgery now nearly as commonplace as a trip to the dentists, large numbers of young women (1 in 5 in Seoul) are altering their faces to conform to fashions and norms. This is having many effects; sometimes humourous, sometimes deeply tragic.
Uniface is a product which has a great website, but doesn’t actually exist. It calls attention to this compulsion in a fun and freaky way. Designer Zhuoying Li says:
“Uniface ironically communicates how the media has manipulated women’s desires to have the same extreme facial features. The longer I stay in the U.S., the more important I feel individuality is regarding facial appearance, which is the opposite in China. Uniface is intended to raise the awareness of this beauty issue, and to make women rethink what they are doing to themselves.”
More on plastic surgery and the new Asian ideal:
- ”I wanted to be a perfect beauty” – the story of surgery ‘addict’ Han Mi Ok
- “Twenty women with the same face” - beauty contest blow-up
Sources: Zhouying Li at Parsons Design School, the Uniface Website and on Rocket News
