The first flower-boy character appears as Terry and Anthony, the male protagonists in the Japanese manga ‘Candy Candy’, produced by Kyoko Mizuki in 1976. Another example is Leif Per Garrett, who was hugely loved by teenage girls in the 1970s and 1980s. The word ‘flower-boy’ as a meaning of ‘pretty boy like a flower’ was first used for a product marketing but is now generally used to refer to a men with feminine, handsome look.

Nowadays, there is a growing number of guys who are interested in plastic surgery, cosmetics and skin care, which were considered as the preserve of women in the past. As a result, more guys are becoming a flower-boy as a result of strict self-grooming. ⁵

 

Difference between flower-boy face and conventional handsome face 

 

Figure 1. Average faces of flower boys and handsome Hallyu male celebrities 

 

In 2007, as a part of a study on male face preferred by women, I have combined the faces of Hallyu male celebrities to make an average face of them (Figure 1, right). A survey was conducted to investigate celebrities who are preferred by Korean women in the general population, and the average face was made based on the survey and internet research. Sixteen handsome celebrities in 2007 (including Kang Dong-won, Kwon Sang-woo, Kim Rae-won, Eric Mun, Bae Yong-joon, Jung Ji-Hoon, Song Il-gook, Won Bin, Lee Wan, Jang Dong-gun, Jae Hee, Jo In-sung, Jo Hyun-jae, Ji Sung, Jin-hee Ji and Hyun Bin) were selected and their faces were combined by average morphing into an average handsome male face.

 

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However, younger people were not very enthusiastic about the result because different age group has different preference for age. Therefore, we conducted another survey to investigate male celebrities who were preferred by younger people and often called as a ‘flower boy’ by the media and on the internet. Based on the survey result, another 16 celebrities were selected (Kangta, Kim Kibum, Kim Hyun-joong, Kim Heechul, Park Yoochun, Seven, Kim Jae-joong, Oh Jong-hyuk, Woo Yeon-seo, Jung Yun-ho, Lee Joon-gi, Lee Hong-gi, Jang Keun-suk, Han Geng, Shim Chang-min and Choi Siwon) and their faces were combined by average morphing into an average flower-boy face (Figure 1, Left).

 

-To be continued