Lookism affects many things in Korea

There is one of the most popular WebToon(Cartoon that you can

access on internet portal with free) named Lookism these days in Korea.
The cartoon criticizes the lookism but at the same time it is full of goodlooking characters. Korean society is similar to this. We say that Lookism
is a bad thing we should get rid of but at the same time we are slaves of
it. Judging people on the basis of how they look itself is so natural
instinct of human. But the drastic effects from Lookism became social
problems in South Korea.
Adolescents are one of the victims of lookism in Korea. At school or
in immature groups most of time, how they look is a big standard of
judging someone. Sometimes this standard becomes one of reasons for
justifying violence of some adolescents. Some kids and students
experience harassments such as bullying or mobbing just because their
appearances are not good looking. Adolescence is the timing of
formation of self-ego (Ji Hyun Min, 2008) They do a lot of social activities
and interpersonal relationships actively for the first time of their lives at
this moment. Therefore harassment experience could effect on their life
for good. Also it became a typical course for many girls in high school to
get plastic surgery after they finish entrance exam for university.
Second victims are graduates and people seeking for their job. If
you are a foreigner, you would be shocked by the fact that Korean
companies request a photograph of applicants on their resume. Many
Korean graduates invest a significant amount of money for their
appearance not only for the paper but also for the interview. Plastic
surgeries or skin care is a way of efforts to make a good first impression
in the interview for them. It could be positive effect if they can be selfconfident with the effort. However, it could be a social problem when the
industry uses that in marketing with using media and encourages people
feel plastic surgery or skin care is necessary to get a job. In addition, it is
not a surprising thing that employers write job advertisements (especially
part-time jobs to face to face with customers) saying descent or clear
appearance is needed in Korea. There is a TV program named Let me in
( 4, me-in means beautiful woman in Korean) which gives a chance
to get free plastic surgery and body care for women who are ugly or have
physical problem with their appearance. One of the participants said I
finally found a job. It is telemarketer who need only voice because no one
wanted to hire me after seeing my face (So Young, 2014)
Discrimination of appearance doesnt happen only in job market,
but also happens in workplace. There was a survey from an online job
market portal in 2011. 87.9% answered Appearance gives
competitiveness to their work-life out of 1769 office workers. And only
0.8% answered Appearance will never affect workers competitiveness

It affects employees relationship in workplace (Chang Hee, Lim. 2007)

Even though appearance doesnt effect on work-life directly, it influences
on their self-confident and relationship. We cannot deny these things
affects promotion and salary positively or negatively. Also bullying and
harassment based on appearance occur in workplace
Judging and stereotyping based on appearance is a human
instinct. It is natural and inevitable. However, drastic and stressful
reactions caused by Lookism can be a social problem. Lookism in
Korean society is too much intensive so it gives stresses to social
members. Those stresses are from discrimination in job market, violence
in school and workplace, consumptive complexes which could be
continued to excessive appearance management and addiction to plastic
surgery. In the end, this stress will be connected to social and economic
losses. We all know these losses are what we have to get rid of.
Nevertheless, media, especially visual media such as TV and Internet
encourages Lookism both consciously and unconsciously. People and
characters on visual media always talk about body silhouettes and
express handsome characters as normal characters. We should be aware
of the monster named Lookism we created and victims of it. The effort to
overcome Lookism could be denounced as hypocrisy or stupidity if mass
media do not go along with this effort.

References
Adolescence is the timing of formation of self-ego, Ji Hyun Min, The Effects of
Media Use on Adolescents Lookism and the Desire to Improve Body Image:
Focusing on TV Entertainment Programming and Personal Media, 2008
I finally found a job. It is telemarketer who need only voice because no one
wanted to hire me after seeing my face Let 4, 2014
, , 87.9%, http://www.redian.org/archive/35190, 2011
Lookism in Korean society is too much intensive so it gives stresses to social
members, Song Suck-rang, A Humanistic Solutions for the Social Problems
Caused by lookism : a phenomenological attempt for the recovering
asymmetrical esthetic sense, 2016
The effort to overcome Lookism could be denounced as hypocrisy or stupidity
if mass media do not go along with this effort, Nam Gyeong Tae, A Study on
Public`s Communication Behavior about the Lookism Issue: Applying Grunig`s
Situational Theory, 2006
OUIS TIETJE AND STEVEN CRESAP, IS LOOKISM UNJUST?, 2005 , p37