After reading recent stories about Dasom’s and Momo’s “dieting”
stories, I felt compelled to share my opinion about K-pop diets.
Most, if not all, female idols are considered underweight according
to the BMI calculator. Their profiles usually put their weight between 40 to 50
kg, which would be fine if they were, say, close to my relatively short height
of 157 cm. But a lot of these girls are pretty tall, and to imagine that they
were my weight or even lighter freaks me out. I would probably be considered “too
fat” if I ever tried to enter the Korean entertainment industry. I usually
hover around 47 kg, putting me at a healthy BMI of about 19.1, but even if I
drop to 45 kg (which is about average for female idols), I’d still be
borderline underweight.
It really peeves me how the K-pop industry expects these girls
to starve themselves, eat like 200 calories a day or less, work out for at
least five hours and try not to collapse, and then be applauded for “working
hard”. I was honestly a bit sad after
seeing Kang Mina lose so much weight over the past two years – she looks pretty
either way, but her chubby cheeks were part of her charm! Like, when show hosts
get impressed that girls have 17-inch waists or whatever, I just shake my head.
I’m pretty sure people with 17-inch waists look like this:
 |
| 16/17-inch waists: only achievable via corset? |
And not so much like this:
 |
| Naeun's waist is apparently 19 inches, but compared to the previous pic, there appears to be more than a 3-inch difference. |
I’ll admit, my perception of “working hard” is kinda skewed
from all the K-pop I’ve been exposed to, and sometimes I find myself cutting
down my sleep to 5-6 hours just so I can feel more accomplished, but I almost NEVER
skip meals. I love food too much to do that. If anything, I just exercise 2-4
times a week and hope to lose some fat on my stomach. I LOVE abs on girls, but
I’d rather be a bit heavier with lots of muscle than be unhealthily skinny.
Momo’s story was the worst though. Losing 7 kg in one week?
That equates to losing 1 kg per day! She really didn’t have to lose THAT much
weight, especially if she was already underweight to begin with. Do Korean
audiences really want to see stick-thin girls who may collapse at any moment
from exhaustion? And if Jungyeon’s weight limit really was just 44 kg, that’s
pretty screwed up considering how tall she already is. A few runway models have
actually died from being too underweight, so I’m surprised there haven’t been
any stories of trainees and idols dying from starvation or exhaustion… just
trainees and idols dying from suicide, but that’s for another time. Anyways, if
you want to make yourself angry, read this article: https://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/22381975.html#comments#comments
I’m not necessarily saying skinny or underweight is
unhealthy and should be avoided at all costs. Some people, like Sunmi, are naturally
skinny, and although her arms do look a bit scary, she otherwise looks pretty
healthy. This blog post is simply meant
to warn people about the potentially damaging effects of Korean societal
expectations on girls’ body images. If you really want to lose weight, make
sure to use healthy methods to achieve your desired body type, and don’t be
unrealistic about how much weight you can lose in a week or month or whatever.
You can “work hard” without working yourself to death, and progress WILL
happen. But trust me, all of you reading this, no matter what size you are, are
beautiful. Just know that. J
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