Oh no, I’m going bald!
Losing one’s hair can be something that changes our appearance, how others view and treat us, and likely how we see ourselves. While that may be a universal experience, a report recently on NPR public radio (also on BBC) about hair loss in Korea indicates that it is a much more significant occurrence there. The President of South Korea wants his country’s national health insurance program to cover hair loss treatment for its citizens. President Lee Jae Myung says this isn’t just a cosmetic issue: he has called it “a matter of survival.” How could that be? No one dies from hair loss, right?
According to Professor S. Heijin Lee (U. of Hawaii), interviewed in the NPR piece,
I think the important part to look at is that he characterizes hair loss as quote-unquote “a matter of survival. ” And this really references this idea that Korea is a very lookist society. That’s not a term that we use too much here in the U.S., but in Korea, it’s very commonplace.
The idea of a “lookist” culture is that looks really matter in that society. While one could argue that such a view is universal (good looking folks get privileged), the situation in South Korea is, according to Professor Lee, that discrimination against those not looking a certain way is allowed and implemented widely. She points to the fact that routinely photographs are included on resumes, so that, she says, “your looks are your credentials”. Women in South Korea have long complained about that practice and also in general about how Korean society makes extra demands on women in terms of looks. Another reflection of that is the booming industry in Seoul for plastic surgery (centered in the Gangnam district).
Professor Lee claims that the South Korean President is not just looking out for the welfare of men (the ones usually losing their hair). She argues that it is in fact the government of the country that plays a role in shaping beauty expectations that make baldness a “a matter of survival.” The government doesn’t really want to change the lookist character of Korean society, as “the government benefits from its popular culture industry, which is a purveyor of these beauty standards…K-beauty is, you know, a multibillion-dollar industry.”
K-beauty is the umbrella term for skincare and beauty products, which is a gigantic industry in South Korea. Those products are exported worldwide. Professor Lee points out that it is interesting that the President is not proposing to change any of those areas, “but what he is proposing to do is to cover a very small fragment of a solution”. Of course, beauty products are not alone in terms of popular culture exports from South Korea. K-pop has been a global phenomenon for some times. The tremendously popular movie, KPop Demon Hunters, is a reflection of that.