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South Korean women are smashing their expensive makeup to stand up against beauty standards

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Many women, myself included, spend hours a day applying makeup. While some do it because they simply enjoy it, others feel compelled to live up to a certain standard of societal beauty.

Could this new South Korean movement signal the end of self torture in the name of beauty?

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According to Faima Baker in this Metro article, South Korean women have posted videos and pictures of their destroyed makeup palettes and lipsticks in an attempt to fight beauty norms. 

This after a South Korean newsreader received backlash for wearing her glasses while broadcasting.

As seen in the the article many women were left unimpressed by the response around the anchor wearing glasses because men have been known to wear glasses while women are expected to wear contact lenses, which can be uncomfortable.

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The trend which is called the "Escape the corset" has resulted in women taking to social media to post pictures and videos of the makeup which they smashed, and then threw away in an effort to protest against an unrealistic perception of beauty.

According to Yahoo News, South Korea has the eighth largest beauty cosmetics market and was valued at over £10 billion (R188 963 729 487,50) in 2017.

An article in the Guardian notes that, the nation "actively promotes its prowess in cosmetic surgery – as much as a third of young women have gone under the knife..."

Earlier this year unrealistic beauty standards in South Korea were also questioned when YouTuber Lina Bea posted a video titled "I am not pretty" on her page.

"Women are forced to wear a corset that makes them wake up an hour or two earlier to get ready. Some are even pressured to wear makeup to the supermarket because of the insecurities about their bare face.

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I hope the future generation live a better life with more freedom and better ideals. You don't have to be pretty or beautiful" Lina says in her video's caption, .

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