Martin-TS#9

Friday I met with Boram Kang again. She has been finding the cultural discussion aspect of our lessons the most helpful, so after discussion of some pieces she had read, we discussed some things she had seen on TV/through movies earlier that week. This lead on to a discussion of beauty standards and routines across our cultures. While both American and Korean cultures tend to place a large importance of female looks, the pressures have different nuances: American culture allows more individuality in terms of being considered beautiful, while Korean beauty standards focus on a narrower look. We also discussed American influence on beauty in Asian (especially Korean) cultures, most notably with the double eyelid surgery that "almost all girls get." The pressure to be thin is also something both cultures struggle with as well. It seems to be most prevalent for Americna society in visual media like TV, and also in YA novels geared towards pre-teen/teen girls.