South Korea has been swept up in “alphabetization,” or the grouping of (mostly female) bodies into shapes based on letters from the Roman alphabet.
S-line - “Ample breasts and buttocks when viewed from the side”
X-line - “Long legs and arms connected by a narrow waist.”
V-line - The face of a woman with slim cheeks and a pointed chin follows the
W-, Y-, or V-line are used to describe cleavage
Curvy S, delicate V, and slender X seem to be the most popular. Though most of the letters are aspirational, some are simply descriptive.
U-line connotes the shape of a woman’s back when she wears a low-cut dress.
D-line means a pregnant, or pregnant-looking, stomach.
B-line represents large boobs and a big belly, while theO-line stands for general obesity.
M-line for six-pack abs although men are mostly spared the indignity of having their bodies transformed into flesh hieroglyphs.
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The letters saturate South Korean media. Pop stars discuss their body lines openly. Stylized marks that trace a model’s figure feature in spots for cosmetics, creams, diet powder, exercise equipment, plastic surgery, soda, clothing, lingerie, music, and even beer. Some of these ads insist that whatever product they’re selling will help you obtain the desired contour; others (like the beer ad) just traffic in the allure of the letter to make their product seem cool.
All of which maps quite neatly onto Western narratives about South Korea. The country has the highest plastic surgery rates in the world: We snickered at photographs of its national beauty pageant contestants in 2013 because they all looked so unnaturally similar.
And we gawk as South Korean women seem to go to extreme lengths to reflect European and American beauty ideals: In South Korea, you can get an operation to lengthen and thin your nose, to augment your eyes with double lids, or to shave your jawbone down to Natalie Portman-esque slimness.
I do think that the S- and V-lines resemble the Western “hourglass figure” and “heart-shaped face,” but I’m not convinced that alphabetization takes an obsession with women’s bodies any further than what we’re used to over here.
Americans have butts that look like fruits. South Koreans have boobs that look like the letter W.
Source: Slate
