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Korea Journal

  • P-ISSN0023-3900
  • E-ISSN2733-9343
  • A&HCI, SCOPUS, KCI

The Personal Color Makeover: An Alternative Means to a Better Life in Neoliberal South Korea

The Personal Color Makeover: An Alternative Means to a Better Life in Neoliberal South Korea

Korea Journal / Korea Journal, (P)0023-3900; (E)2733-9343
2023, v.63 no.1, pp.5-35
https://doi.org/10.25024/kj.2023.63.1.5
LEEJueun(Jueun LEE) (Harvard University)
  • 다운로드 수
  • 조회수

초록

Personal color, known as a set of colors that harmonize with a person’s natural physical coloring, rose rapidly as a trend among young Korean women in the 2010s. Based on anthropological fieldwork at personal color consultation studios, this study analyzes personal color as an alternative aesthetic makeover practice to plastic surgery in which the body is deemed the source of originality instead of change. Instead of altering the body, improvement through personal color is supposed to be achieved through a change in color consumption, about which the consultant provides guidance as a choice connoisseur. Through the journey of personal color makeover, the customer is encouraged to transform into a better-looking, efficient color consumer and an estimable authentic self with a strong sense of individuality and self-esteem. Deeply related to producing each individual as an attractive and marketable personal brand, the practice erects itself as an alternative means to increase one’s value and chances in life— an option that is seemingly more body-positive than plastic surgery but entails a more ceaseless endeavor of self-government in all aspects of everyday life for the production of a better self.

keywords
personal color, makeover, beauty, self-improvement, neoliberalism, South Korea

Abstract

Personal color, known as a set of colors that harmonize with a person’s natural physical coloring, rose rapidly as a trend among young Korean women in the 2010s. Based on anthropological fieldwork at personal color consultation studios, this study analyzes personal color as an alternative aesthetic makeover practice to plastic surgery in which the body is deemed the source of originality instead of change. Instead of altering the body, improvement through personal color is supposed to be achieved through a change in color consumption, about which the consultant provides guidance as a choice connoisseur. Through the journey of personal color makeover, the customer is encouraged to transform into a better-looking, efficient color consumer and an estimable authentic self with a strong sense of individuality and self-esteem. Deeply related to producing each individual as an attractive and marketable personal brand, the practice erects itself as an alternative means to increase one’s value and chances in life— an option that is seemingly more body-positive than plastic surgery but entails a more ceaseless endeavor of self-government in all aspects of everyday life for the production of a better self.

keywords
personal color, makeover, beauty, self-improvement, neoliberalism, South Korea
투고일Submission Date
2021-10-12
수정일Revised Date
2022-02-01
게재확정일Accepted Date
2022-02-16

Korea Journal