Week 11: My ID Is Gangnam Beauty: Plastic Surgery, Beauty Standards, and Appearance
A high-school transformation story, and the debates around cosmetic surgery it walks straight into
3 May 2027
My ID Is Gangnam Beauty (내 ID는 강남미인) follows a student who has undergone extensive cosmetic surgery starting a new school, and the social response — both praise and cruelty — that follows her there. It’s a deliberately uncomfortable premise, and it puts the show at the centre of a real, ongoing Korean debate about cosmetic surgery, appearance, and what either is actually for.
Questions#
- Why is appearance such a powerful social topic in contemporary Korea?
- How are beauty standards constructed, and by whom — media, family, peers?
- What role do media and social comparison play in enforcing those standards?
- How has Korean society itself debated cosmetic surgery, rather than simply accepted or rejected it?
What to take from this week#
- beauty standards as constructed and historically specific, not natural or fixed
- appearance as a social and economic asset, not only a personal preference
- cosmetic surgery as an industry and a practice with its own Korean history and debate
- gender, and how differently appearance pressure lands depending on it
- social pressure as something the show depicts from several directions at once, not just one
- media representation’s role in setting a standard that then gets treated as natural
Approaching this week#
Avoid stereotypes such as “all Koreans get plastic surgery.” Cosmetic surgery rates and attitudes vary considerably by age, region, and social group, and are themselves debated within Korea — that debate is the actual subject this week, not a settled national fact.
Teaching team
- May Rhee — convenor