Hu’s study of Korea’s beauty cult is fascinating and disturbing, woven with threads of dark humor and personal experience.
The host of “TED Talks Daily” and host at large for NPR shines a bright light into the shadowy world of manufactured beauty and endless “self-improvement.”
There is a Korean phrase, bbali bbali, which means fast, fast. Hu, a winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award, among others, believes it sums up South Korea’s rush into hypermodernity. When she arrived in Seoul in 2015 to establish a bureau for NPR, she was stunned by the cult of beauty that grips Korean women. The aim of Western cosmetics is often to accentuate natural features, but in South Korea, the goal is skin that seems so perfect it needs nothing else. The beauty industry in Korea relies on intensive research and marketing by the skin care firms, which provide a continuing procession of products. The author also looks at the massive business of cosmetic surgery, which can amend any part of the body. This is less about self-expression and more about an aspiration toward perfection: blemish-free skin, long, shining hair, a narrow nose, anime-size eyes, a delicate jawline, and legs shaped to meet a mathematical formula. It ultimately leads to a sameness of look, but Korean women see it as a necessary investment for social success, and the few who buck the trend face ostracism. Looking at this endless commodification of the female body, Hu asks: “Where do we draw the line on appearance work when the work gets less and less invasive and previously impossible changes become possible?” She also notes that some women, accustomed to the filtered images on Snapchat and Instagram, want to be “improved” to look like their digital images. These trends, exacerbated by social media and Korea’s export marketing machine, are having a global impact, including in the U.S. Hu is unsure about how these issues will play out, but she hopes that there will be a turn away from relentless superficiality. She is a capable guide to the current fraught landscape.
Hu’s study of Korea’s beauty cult is fascinating and disturbing, woven with threads of dark humor and personal experience.Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9780593184189
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
Maher calls out idiocy wherever he sees it, with a comedic delivery that veers between a stiletto and a sledgehammer.
The comedian argues that the arts of moderation and common sense must be reinvigorated.
Some people are born snarky, some become snarky, and some have snarkiness thrust upon them. Judging from this book, Maher—host of HBO’s Real Time program and author of The New New Rules and When You Ride Alone, You Ride With bin Laden—is all three. As a comedian, he has a great deal of leeway to make fun of people in politics, and he often delivers hilarious swipes with a deadpan face. The author describes himself as a traditional liberal, with a disdain for Republicans (especially the MAGA variety) and a belief in free speech and personal freedom. He claims that he has stayed much the same for more than 20 years, while the left, he argues, has marched toward intolerance. He sees an addiction to extremism on both sides of the aisle, which fosters the belief that anyone who disagrees with you must be an enemy to be destroyed. However, Maher has always displayed his own streaks of extremism, and his scorched-earth takedowns eventually become problematic. The author has something nasty to say about everyone, it seems, and the sarcastic tone starts after more than 300 pages. As has been the case throughout his career, Maher is best taken in small doses. The book is worth reading for the author’s often spot-on skewering of inept politicians and celebrities, but it might be advisable to occasionally dip into it rather than read the whole thing in one sitting. Some parts of the text are hilarious, but others are merely insulting. Maher is undeniably talented, but some restraint would have produced a better book.
Maher calls out idiocy wherever he sees it, with a comedic delivery that veers between a stiletto and a sledgehammer.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781668051351
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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