Flawless
About This Book
Elise Hu, host-at-large for NPR and host of TED Talks Daily, turns her attention to South Korea's K-beauty boom and the culture that surrounds it. The industry draws global attention with a seductive picture of flawlessness, selling creams shaped like milkshakes or pandas, snail-mucus face masks, and a long list of other products that tempt buyers to indulge. Hu spent four years in Seoul as NPR's bureau chief, a stretch during which the worldwide K-beauty industry quadrupled. It is now valued at about $10 billion and keeps growing as the Hallyu wave carries it to new markets. Self-care shopping can be entertaining, but Hu argues that more troubling questions sit beneath the glossy surface. Technology now makes it simple to measure and refine the body, whether to clear up blemishes, slim the waist, or reshape the jaw. Where should that process stop? What happens to a society in which a flawless face and body are both promoted and presented as attainable? And what do beauty routines actually cost in money, health, and emotional well-being, in a culture that frames endless self-improvement as empowerment? Drawing on historical background, careful reporting, and many hours of interviews with South Korean women, Hu examines how hustle culture has seeped into people's bodies. She considers gender inequality, consumerism, the pressure to look beautiful in an appearance-driven society, and the political, economic, and social power that attractiveness carries around the world. The book closes by sketching a vision of beauty that is more affirming and inclusive than one shaped by industry.
ISBN: 9780593184189
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