I was surrounded by beautiful women on the tightly crowded subway. The two to my left combined weighed less than I do, while the one to my right was perusing her smartphone. My fiancé had found a seat on the other end of the subway car, and I was left alone with beauty to my left and hotness to my right. Poor me.

It was at that point that I realized my stop was two stops ago. I had gotten so distracted by the beauty around me that I wasn’t even listening to the announcements. I found my fiancé and exited at the next stop, cursing and smiling as we walked the stairs to take a train the other way.

It’s a widespread myth that Daegu girls are the prettiest on the peninsula, though no one can really say why. Better genes? Doubtful. Better food? Possible? Less pollution? More plausible, although Daegu is the fourth largest city in Dae Han Min Guk. What exactly is it that makes Dae-gurls prettier?

My trusty Moon guidebook on South Korea mentions the topic – hardly the only voice to pay attention to, but certainly a point in the myth’s favor. Needless to say, it was worth finding out for myself just like in ‘Mythbusters’, one of my favorite TV shows. Off I went using Korea’s excellent express bus system – albeit with an expectation that every Dae-gurl was somehow a supermodel just waiting to be discovered.

Most Dae-gurls didn’t seem as obsessed with following every little trend. That some seemed to wear more makeup than Cher made you wonder what was really underneath all those layers of foundation, eyeshadow, blush, powder, concealer, and lipstick. You’ll see the same overdone sort of look in Seoul, of course – girls, if you draw your eyes on with eyeliner, guys can tell.

Vanity seems a part of the Korean genome. At any given time or place, the locals are checking their hair or makeup in almost any reflective surface available, whether silver mirror or cell phone. While waiting for the subway or bus, most were trying to look cute, and few seemed unstylish. It’s almost as if the fashion police were lurking and no one wanted to be that girl hauled away. Whether drinking coffee on the subway or a beer at a trendy club, being attractive seems almost as patriotic as singing the Korean national anthem.

That attractiveness, however, doesn’t come without makeup. During our visit to Daegu, my fiancé and I could not positively identify even one woman fashionably dressed sans makeup. Let the record show we walked around Daegu’s busy Banwoldang and Jungangro areas for a couple hours on a busy Saturday afternoon. This speaks volumes – not only is makeup practically a requirement for leaving your house, not wearing makeup might lead to the question, ‘what’s wrong with you?’. One of my fellow Korean teachers informs me there’s even a Korean word – 쌩얼 (ssaeng-eol) to indicate a ‘fresh-looking face’ – that is, a face without makeup. It’s meant as a compliment – as if your makeup looks very natural.

Dressing sharp, wearing makeup, and looking good isn’t only done in Daegu, of course. Most areas that cater to Seoul’s and Busan’s younger generations seem to have as many make-up and fancy clothing stores. If you don’t believe me, head to Myeongdong or Gangnam in Seoul, or perhaps the Seomyeon or Kyungsung University areas in Busan. Daegu may offer a slightly more segregated environment – in other words, less fashionable people tend not to prowl these streets as much.

While most Daegu women are pretty, they are also as demure as their counterparts around the country. They are still Korean first and foremost; to this foreign observer, tradition continues to outweigh beauty. That they are considered ‘elusive’ only adds to their allure. You’re not as likely to hear a Dae-gurl (or any other Korean girl for that matter) come out and proclaim how great they look to anyone. Korea has also invented a word for those that do: 공주병 (gong-ju-byeong). Literally ‘princess sickness’ or ‘princess disease’, it refers to someone conceited or vain and above everyone else. Lest you think it’s only the girls that get this, 왕자병 (wang-ja-byeong) is the ‘prince sickness’.

It’s true that Daegu is trying to become a medical tourism destination, and that many locals have taken advantage of the plastic surgeons around the area. Want proof? The underground shopping area around Daegu’s Jungangno subway station holds several professional photo studios – many showing photos of locals having had the double eyelid surgery (that’s blepharoplasty to you Pre-Med majors). That perhaps 30 percent of Korean women go under the knife for elective surgery every year keeps quite a few plastic surgeons in business.

The pressure to be beautiful is definitely present in Daegu, just like everywhere else in ultra-competitive Korea. Being beautiful, smart – and to a certain extent, even tall – is seen as the way to succeed in finding a job, a significant other, and so on. While evidence is anecdotal at best, my fiancé and I have joked about how the shortness of the skirt is a sign of her desire to attract guys. Unless you’ve avoided the fashionable districts in Korea, you’ve undoubtedly seen a Korean women in a short skirt and high heels even in the dead of winter – complete with her arms crossed and her boyfriend’s coat.

In the eyes of this writer, Daegu girls are as pretty as women are in most other places around Korea. Too often, beauty in Korea is limited to the surface – if too much emphasis is placed on one’s appearance, there’s less focus offered to what a person really is. Beauty fades – just look at most ajumma you meet – and is far from the only thing worth appreciating.

The myth that Daegu girls are prettier than other girls in the country: busted.

A version of this article is published in Work’n'Play’s February 2011 magazine.

© Chris Backe – 2011

This post was originally published on my blog,Chris in South Korea. If you are reading this on another website and there is no linkback or credit given, you are reading an UNAUTHORIZED FEED.

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