Cultural Racism in South Korean Popular Culture: K-Pop Beauty Standards as A Practice of Social Exclusion

The K-Pop industry in South Korea is not only a popular entertainment sector, but also plays an important role in creating and maintaining certain social norms, particularly through uniform visual beauty standards. Beauty standards in K-Pop, such as fair skin, slim bodies, small faces, sharp noses, and double eyelids, serve as a form of invisible racism in South Korean pop culture. This study uses a critical sociological approach by referring to Pierre Bourdieu's theory of symbolic power, which explains how dominant beauty norms are considered natural and ideal tastes, thereby ignoring groups with physical features that do not conform to these standards. In this context, K -Pop beauty standards are not neutral, but rather a mechanism that alienates minority groups in South Korea as well as individuals whose bodies do not conform to these standards. The social impact of this practice includes increased social pressure, acceptance of body stigma, and reinforcement of racial prejudice that affects how people view themselves and form social relationships. Thus, beauty standards in K-Pop can be considered a form of cultural racism that works symbolically and systemically, making pop culture an important place in shaping and maintaining social exclusion in South Korea.