5/25 - OFFSITE: Elise Hu and Ailsa Chang Discuss FLAWLESS at Crawford Family Forum
Join us at Crawford Family Forum for the Los Angeles book launch of Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital, a new book by journalist and podcaster Elise Hu (she/her) examining the enduring power of standardized beauty, how that intersects with capitalist imperatives, and where we go from here, when technology is making our exteriors so vital. Using her background in geopolitical reporting and her personal experiences as an Asian American woman, Elise hopes to highlight the voices and insights from the hundreds of Korean women she interviewed and change what empowerment looks and feels like. Ailsa Chang (she/her), award-winning journalist and host of NPR’s All Things Considered, will talk with Elise about the book, K-beauty’s global rise, and how we can change appearance expectations and claim a more inclusive, intersectional, and community-centered ethic around "self-care."
FLAWLESS braids international reporting, cultural commentary, and memoir to explore the global rise of K-beauty culture, the power of appearance standards worldwide, and the simultaneous pleasure and pain of having to upgrade ourselves and keep up with beauty norms. Author Elise Hu used Korea's comparatively intense appearance expectations and practices as a jumping off point to explore the way technological advancement is likely to increase the pressure on all of us to look "better," if we have the money to do it.