This week I am going to talk about a topic, that is not being talked about enough and which
influences a lot of young people.
The Korean entertainment industry gained a lot of popularity in the past few years, especially
because of K-pop.
K-pop stands for Korean popular music and gathers many influences, such as pop, hip-hop, dance, jazz, and rock, that are usually performed by groups. The history of K-pop already
started around the 1990s and began to grow the influence of western culture, merged with
contemporary Korean music.
You might have listened to “Gangnam Style” by Psy, which was released in 2012. That was the
actual point, K-pop started to spread worldwide and started to gain more popularity and fans.
I have been a K-pop Stan for five years now, and in this time I had the chance to not only grow and
reflect on how liking K-pop has affected me personally, but I also learned how it impacts others as
well.
The Korean music industry, as a whole, has had an overwhelmingly positive effect on my life, but I
realized, that it also can affect fans negatively because of certain topics.
The Korean Beauty Standards
The ideal Korean woman has to be tall, with a slim hourglass figure and has to have a small and
pretty face, including double eyelids (big eyes), heart-shaped lips, pale glass skin, and a sharp nose.
In order to match Korean beauty standards, it takes quite a bit of work to achieve. That is why a lot
of Korean women, especially young girls, who want to become K-pop idols, are undertaking plastic
surgery.
Most of the companies pressure the idols into undertaking plastic surgery by saying, that if they are
not willing to get plastic surgery, they are not going to debut and are not going to achieve their
dreams.
Plastic surgery is already a “normal” thing to get done in Korea, it is not only affecting female, but
also male people, which is shocking.
Netizens like to discuss and speculate online, about what procedures their favorite K-pop idol has
had and how much they have changed.
Diet Culture
A lot of K-pop trainees and idols are being forced to do insane calorie deficits or have to go on some
diets, where they are only allowed to eat one type of food to keep their body in shape and to lose
weight or to not gain weight. Most of the trainees have to lose a lot of weight before they debut,
which is why they only eat ice cubes or vegetables with a low number of calories, such as
cucumbers or tomatoes. On top, they also have to work out excessively and have to practice all day.
Most K-pop fans can agree, that this is horrible. K-pop idols should not have to starve themselves,
because it is an unhealthy way to lose weight or to live in general.
But some people still use these idols as motivation and as role models. They rave about how they
want a body like those idols, and also start dieting in a very unhealthy way to look like them.
Some trainees get scolded by their company for not losing weight or for not keeping or achieving
the “perfect” weight. This weight is oftentimes not medically sustainable for a long period of time.
They are weight every week to every month and if they do not keep up with the standards, they are
being kicked out of the company.
Fatphobia
Because of those high beauty standards, it is uncommon to see “chubby” or overweight idols in the
K-pop industry and if they appear to be in a K-pop group, these idols are being bullied and body
shamed into losing weight. They are not only being bullied by netizens, but also by their own group
members.
They are being criticized for standing out and for not being perfect and are being compared to other
idols and group members, which can hurt their feelings and can lead to mental health issues
Instead of thinking critically about the unhealthy and unachievable beauty standards, we try to
justify them by saying, that this is simply the standard and that there is nothing we can do about it.
Some K-pop fans even support this body image, by trying the hard diets of their favorite K-pop idol
or by fat shaming and bullying other idols. That has to stop because every person should be able to
decide, if they want to get plastic surgery or if they want to lose weight without pressure and
without being forced to do it.
What do you think about this topic? Feel free to comment on this blog!