Hey guys! A few things before you post your comment:

1- Please do NOT send any hate towards these idols. I am keeping the comment section open so that you can share your RESPECTFUL thoughts and/or experiences with how this culture affected you. These idols are human beings, treat them like ones.

2- If any of you are curious, I highly suggest you give these accounts a visit, just so you can see how many more idols this is affecting (other than the ones I have mentioned). If this is triggering for you, I don't think I have to tell you not to watch and engage with it:
https://www.youtube.com/@amfgvideos2517
https://www.tiktok.com/@raquely222111?_r=1&_t=ZS-98Rag1E7NNH

3- I have a Google Form up of your K-pop fan theories. If anyone is interested, here is the link: https://forms.gle/CTLXVh74WE6Yx7XY8

4- If you are feeling genouruse and if you have the means, I would appreciate any help through my Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/memirants

and lastly, if you want to vent to someone about this specific topic, you will find my email in my channel description, and I will be glad to lend you and ear.

Hurts my heart to see H2H Ye-On called "fat". She's hardly a year older than my own child, and she's absolutely NORMAL sized (even on the thin side of normal) - she just still has a CHILD'S face. God, I hate these people. 💔

In South Korea, people obsess over anything look related, mainly women. It’s become so desensitized and essentially normalized to the point where dieting may as well just be a part of the culture at this point. People in South Korea literally start off conversations with “You lost/gained weight” instead of “Hello” or “How are you doing.”💀💀💀

As a korean,there is a new upcoming trend of being so thin that your bones are visible,the girls got this idea from idols itself.Its really distrubing

Hi, I'm old. Second generation k-pop old.
This was a problem 15 years ago already and yet modern idols look even skinnier than they did back then. Look at 2ne1's Minzy or CL. They were at least allowed to have some muscle tone in their legs.

the physical after effects (bone health, dental health, fertility issues...)  of ED's can be extremely detrimental, especially for young people. I wish people understood the harm they're causing by  constantly commenting on idol's bodies, even if they are not directly responsible for setting this standard

Hi! I work with a modeling agent, and he was explaining why this happens. He told me that Korean beauty standards overlap a lot with those of the fashion industry, which honestly surprised me. The difference, according to him, is that the fashion industry recognizes these traits as exceptional. It knows the average person doesn't look like that, so it markets the people who do instead of presenting those features as the norm, for example, a small head is considered desirable in fashion because smaller faces tend to photograph better, especially on tall models. That's why runway models often have proportions that almost look like they came straight out of a manhwa. The extreme thinness of many K-pop idols is also part of what the industry calls "aesthetic capital." Fashion works because everyone understands these people are exceptions. K-pop, on the other hand, is selling an ideal. It can't simply say, "This person is average, but they're a great singer and dancer." The industry constantly pushes increasingly extreme visual standards, whether that's thinness, cosmetic procedures, or even being completely hairless. I saw someone mention that here, and that's exactly the point: from a marketing perspective, they're expected to look less like ordinary people and more like idealized, almost cartoon-like characters.

I stopped watching any Korean entertainment show  including vlogs from idols because of how the conversations about dieting and losing weight always comes up. I cannot even imagine how this affects younger fans

Ive been in the kpop fandoms for more than a decade and i’ve started to see a shift among the new gen kpop fans where they’re normalizing bodyshaming the idols by making comparisons and using manosphere/pro ana terms. It’s concerning how empathy is nowhere to be found among the younger kpop fans.

I appreciate how you handled this and your tone being respectful and focusing on the victimhood of idols amidst it all

Also, when people see an idol with a normal body, i.e. not extremely thin, they go and comment "she looks so healthy!" Fully knowing that's a complete backhanded compliment. Saying that could trigger an ED easily, and they know exactly what they're doing.

Even I hated my body and started comparing it to K-pop idols. I'm only 16 years old. It's good that I stopped comparing myself

Honestly, god bless Changbin for staying true to himself. He looks fantastic

Im currently studying to be a Clinical dietician and am interning at an eating recovery center, the amount of EDs and behavior I've seen is baffling and the fact that fans deny it is even more outrageous to me

I agree that the public only adds to the problem. I've noticed people nowadays focus so much on the idols' image, leaving behind their other qualities (their singing, dancing, their charisma or personality), as if being pretty is all they are worthy for.

Also, I wonder why do we care so much about being thin (me included)

Do not forget Water dehydration too! Going 24 hours without water is dangerous, going 3 or 4 days can take your life. We were wearing 2 to 4 layers of plastic sweat suits, and take water pills, just to make weight for a games or a matches! We were even training in 120 degree heat in rubber suits, to the point that we ended up having to treat people for possible heat stroke, people were fainting from the heat stress!

Unfortunately it starts from the fans. They are the first to judge the gjrls for their look and wejght and the companies are scared of changing standards for loss of profits

I saw Asa from Babymonster at the airport and she was so frail and looked sick I could not believe she is 19 or 20 years, she looked 10, I was shocked

the comparison to ballet is kind of crazy because ballet also grooms little girls to have eds and has a serious ed problem. kpop's body problem was even more visible before imo. idols have gotten the message NOW that you can't go around explaining how to have an ed to your audience and most of them don't. in 3rd gen and before they literally used to use ed tactics as fun dieting tips in their promos which is how we found out about so many idols' extremely disordered diets like "iu diet", "suzy diet", jimin eating only chicken legs or something for a year, etc. momo literally went on live and talked about how she ate nothing but ice for a week. and the vast majority of idols talked about it only as something hard but necesssary you have to do to become an idol, like learning how to dance. not as a warning to their fans to not starve themselves. otherwise i completely agree with you i just think it's been extremely visible the entire time and there was a short interlude of like 3-4 years where every single idol wasn't stick skinny before skinny was back in fashion again

Korea is insane I will never romanticize this country