You have to be beautiful in South Korea — at all costs and pains

What happened to the phrase "beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder"? Looks like it's extinct — at least in South Korea.

In 2013, The Atlantic reported that roughly one in five South Korean women had undergone some kind of plastic surgery, and the country held the world's highest per-capita rate of cosmetic procedures, per industry estimates. Gallup Korea found about one in three women aged 19 to 29 had gone under the knife — most of them eyelid procedures. (Medical Tourism Resource Guide, NPR)

Even a job resume requires a headshot, and employers pay close attention to how beautiful the applicant is. Just the qualifications and capability will not fetch the woman the job — she also has to be beautiful. Pressures must be skyrocketing.

Parents are often all for it. They want their girls to look beautiful at all costs, because beauty brings real-world benefits. Getting double eyelids, and getting a nose job done, can be as common as visiting a dentist — a high school graduation gift is sometimes a nose job or blepharoplasty.

South Korea's aesthetic ideal has narrowed to one template — wide eyes, a pointed chin, a narrow nose — the same face you'd see on every contestant in that viral 2013 beauty-pageant photo. Different girls, same face.

At all costs and pains, indeed.