Introduction
For an extended period of time including 20th-century women of Eastern Asia played the background and supporting role for men. All the social and political requirements were aimed to show men in the perfect light as well as to make them happy. So should the major aspects of woman beauty perception in Eastern Asia be understood as suppression of feminism?
The current analysis is based on the article Harisu: South Korean Cosmetic Media and the Paradox of Transgendered Neoliberal Embodiment by Patty Jeehyun Ahn and the book Red Lights by Tiantian Zheng. Both sources apply to the perception of a woman, and the role played by a woman in Eastern society, providing a certain amount of historical and social background.
Gender differences analysis
However, the understanding and interpretation of similar aspects differ significantly. Both authors agree on the supportive and humiliating role of women in Eastern society until the end of the 21st-century (Zheng 6, Ahn 255) and a partial breakthrough in the 1990s. However, the relation to the interpretation of female beauty differs drastically. Zhang claims that Chinese women were expected to provide men with all the conditions, so they would fill themselves confident and dominant: “the Chinese state has always served the interest of masculine power” (Zheng 9). Beauty was an obligatory requirement for a woman in society – a woman’s career and well-being depended on the way she presented herself in the eyes of a man and the things she could do to make them feel happy. Zheng interprets the demonstrative and intentional beauty as a humiliation to a woman within the Chinese society. On the other hand, Ahn claims that the phenomenal popularity of transgender South Korean model Harisu is a breakthrough of feminism and neoliberalism in previously conservative society (Ahn 252), despite the fact that Harisu stakes on her intentional sexuality and attractive appearance. Her very pseudonym is translated as “hot issue” (Ahn 248). The other fact supporting feministic trends in Korean society is that Harisu changed her gender shifting from dominant class to subjugated class and changed her official name on the state level as well. The official role of state policy in establishing woman’s position within society is also claimed to be essential by both authors.
Conclusion
The proclamation and demonstration of female beauty can be interpreted in both negative and positive ways, as well as the understanding of features intrinsic to a woman. However, both authors note the significant shift in the attitude towards women that took at the end of the 20th-century in Eastern Asia.
References
Ahn, Patty Jeehyun. “Harisu: South Korean Cosmetic Media and the Paradox of Transgendered Neoliberal Embodiment.” Discourse 31.3 (2009): 248-272. Print.
Zheng, Tiantian. Red Lights. The Lives of Sex Workers in Postsocialist China, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. Print.