Park, S., & Hong, S-K. (2021). Performing whiteness: skin beauty as somatechnics in South Korean stardom and celebrity. Celebrity Studies, 12(2), 299-313. DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2021.1912258
This study was presented in Starring Asia in 2019 and published in Celebrity Studies.
Based on observations on star and celebrity images in television dramas, reality TV and K-pop, and in-depth interviews with media and beauty practitioners, this article explains how Korean stars and celebrities employ skin beauty as somatechnics in five ways to: deliver romantic narratives; express a fantasylike persona; attain extraordinariness; embody trans-Asian sensitivity; and negotiate femininity.
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p. 4
Koreans quickly came to prefer photoshopped pictures; they submitted photoshopped portraits when required for occupational or administrative purposes; photo studios automatically photoshopped customer photos after taking them; and Purikura, or photo sticker machines, in which people can take highly beautified photos of themselves, could be easily found on the street. However, this idealised white skin tone is artificial. It is not given but achieved skin beauty.
p. 9
The star’s perfect skin serves as an analogue of his/her stardom. As a star’s skin beauty is not somatechnics performed by the star alone but the aid of many professionals and technologies, such as makeup, lighting, post-production, and even fandom, the more influential stars have greater capacity and opportunities to present themselves with perfect skin in the media.
p. 12
This dichotomy of ‘white:black = innocent:sexy’ is not only perceived neutrally in terms of colour symbolism, but biasedly in terms of gender performativity and male desire. Reluctant to express explicit sexiness or eroticism, the Korean star industry values a ‘cutesexy’ image, especially when it comes to girl idols. To appeal to male desire, girl idols must be attractive in a contradictory way. In this respect, mibaek face can effectively cancel out the explicit naughtiness of a revealing outfit or erotic choreography. It is also common for girl idols to put make-up on their limbs so that they look smooth and white. Thus, although their outfit and choreography emphasise and even fetishise their bare legs, they still can uphold an innocent, fairylike image.
SOJEONG PARK 