Beauty in the eye of the beholder

Junior Yena Kim looks in the mirror and is not satisfied. Unlike some girls that feel too pale or think they look young for their age, Yena compares herself to the standards set for girls in Korea having pale skin, a skinny body, and a baby face.

According to senior Taejoon Kim, Koreans, as well as other Asian races, tend to be insecure about the size of their eyes because of the comments that other people make.

Imagine how it feels to hear people say, “Where are my eyes? I look Asian in that picture” when you yourself are Asian. “I don’t really care about it that much compared to other kids, but I think they feel offended when other people say like ‘oh my gosh my eyes look so small,’” Taejoon said. According to Taejoon, some girls even try to make their eyes look bigger using makeup.

However, Yena is confident in her features and is not offended when people make comments unless they are outright insulting. “Sometimes [people] say that [they] like ‘my small eyes,’ and I don’t get hurt or offended about it. Some people have small eyes and some have big eyes. The fact that I have small eyes doesn’t bother me,” Yena said.

Yena elaborates further on the standards that girls in Korea are held up to. She says it’s different than in America, but the idea is the same because people try to meet a certain standard or achieve a certain look.

“I think it’s pretty much the same. In Korea, people are obsessed with pale skin, and here girls are obsessed with tan skin,” Yena said.

One thing that Taejoon loves about his culture is the style, in both clothing and hair. According to Taejoon, high school boys in Korea care much more about their style than the boys here in America, or at least at JC.

Taejoon thinks that in Korea people care more about style in general, even their hairstyle. “When I would get my hair cut in Korea, I never got disappointed, but [barbers] never satisfy me in the U.S. In Korea [barbers] are better,” Taejoon said.

Something that Taejoon has realized is that oftentimes people assume that Chinese people and Korean people are the same, or assume that since Chinese people do something, Koreans do it too. “[Students] expect all Asian kids are rich and wear expensive stuff, but I don’t really wear that,” Taejoon said.

Katie Sullivan is an In-Focus Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com