It's a classical tactic of the bourgeoisie in my opinion... The comprador, the monopoly capital, and the mass media provokes the misogyny, racism, and violence against the left as always, not letting them find out who the real enemy is.
I am sorry for your friend... 😅 Never have considered the beauty standard so seriously, but true, it is too harsh... Maybe that's why plastic surgery is so prevailing among the early 20s. People don't take plastic surgery as a social norm, but it's true that more than a few of South Koreans experience plastic surgery in their lives.
It's true that the student activists(운동권) were deeply involved in the struggle for bourgeois democracy of 80s, but they never became the majority in my opinion. I view the '87 system(the 6th republic) as a half victory, since Koreans succeeded in protecting the democratic system from the fascist regime, but they didn't manage to go further ahead of it. Still, leftist discourses from 운동권(such as NLPDR, National Liberation-People's Democracy Revolution) is influencing the current leftist/communist movements.