Photo via the Marmot’s Hole
It’s well known that plastic surgery in Korea is a booming industry. Considering population size, the beauty-obsessed nation goes under the knife more than any other.
So it should come as no surprise to learn that contestants in the annual Miss Korea beauty pageant have likely had part of their bodies nipped, tucked and altered. Notably, last year’s winner wasunapologetic for her choice to go under the knife.
Recently, however, images of Korean beauty contestants were released by a Japanese blog and promptly went viral, sparking a frenzy on Reddit and making its way to Gawker, which stated that the women were contestants in the upcoming Miss Korea pageant. Except for the case of one, this is not true.
We looked at the photos and noticed that Miss Korea Los Angeles was not pictured (a select number of Miss Korea winners in the United States compete in the annual pageant in Seoul).
We soon discovered that the 20 women were all contestants in the Miss Korea Daegu contest, not the national pageant. Daegu, located in the southern region of South Korea, is the country’s fourth largest city.
While it’s startling to see how similar the contestants look and perhaps it’s easy to get get caught up in online rants about how Korea is too materialistic and shallow and are besmirching the good name of beauty pageants everywhere, it makes more sense that a handful of contestants in a regional contest will look similar due to going to the same doctor rather than Korean plastic surgeons across the country working with a universal manual on current beauty standards.
** UPDATE **
The “before” picture of the sans-makeup contestants being floated around is NOT of the Miss Daegu contestants. It is a rehearsal photo of the contestants who participated in the Miss Seoul competition on April 25.
Photo via imgur
