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Video Script
Does k-pop promote disordered eating?
resources not listed in script: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39263991/
We all know idols are pushed to extremes when it comes to their looks. Idols will literally get hate if they don’t have any cosmetic work done - but also if they get too much. If they look like a normal person like Twice’s Jeonyeong or Illit’s Wonhee (who just turned 18 btw), they will get non-stop hate online from so-called “netizens” (k-pop fans who spend too much time online) and even be threatened with protests calling to remove them from their groups.
Why does this happen? Why do people care so much about a k-pop idol’s looks? And why does it seem that all idols have to be extremely thin?
(intro + disclaimer/trigger warning. While I will be discussing disordered eating in this video, I am not diagnosing anyone with any disorders, and this video is not meant to be taken as medical advice. If you have any questions about your diet or weight, or think you might be struggling with disordered eating, please talk to your doctor.)
Idols have been called out for their sketchy eating habits before. Many idols have said during behind the scenes or in other content that they only eat one meal a day, or eat chicken and rice…and barely anything else. (Jihyo, male idols on dex fridge) while also dancing for hours everyday.
We have learned through idols like IU (the infamous IU diet) that unhealthy eating habits are rampant among idols, even as they tell their fans to eat well.
Dancers are athletes. Some may do harder choreographies than others, but the amount of practice they put in to make a routine look good on stage can classify them as athletes. Various sources claim k-pop idols train anywhere from 6-10, to 15-18 hours per day, 6 days a week, with most of that time being taken up by dance and cardio training. (https://crestar.com.sg/how-k-pop-idols-train-in-dance-lessons-from-the-pros/#:~:text=Majority%20of%20the%20K%2DPop%20performances%20require%20idols,in%20vocal%20training%20alongside%20intense%20cardio%20workouts., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62Wni8oJr8o, https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/heres-breakdown-typical-week-kpop-idol-trainee-look-like/). An average athlete should be eating anywhere from 2000-6000 calories per day depending on their sport and how much they train. (https://familydoctor.org/nutrition-for-athletes/#:~:text=Path%20to%20improved%20health,carbohydrates%2C%20fats%2C%20and%20proteins.) If you’re only eating one meal a day, especially a “diet meal”, it would be nearly impossible to get that many calories in.
So why do idols eat so little?
This comes down to a few different factors.
1: the age-old saying that “the camera adds ten pounds”. In order to look thinner on camera (for performances and appearances), idol trainees are encouraged to follow strict diets, and are monitored with weekly or daily weigh-ins to make sure they are staying under whatever arbitrary number that the company has set for them. (Despite the fact that different bodies are different and not everyone is made to fit into the same mold.) If they don’t, then they risk being kicked out of the trainee program - their hopes and dreams dashed. (https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51476159)
2: Idols (and pretty much every celebrity in South Korea) are expected to “set a standard” for South Korean (and now global) audiences. While it is wildly unfair, the reality of Korean idol-hood is that they are put on a pedestal and looked up to by the general population. If they smoke cigarettes? Protest. If they date? Protest. If they smoke pot once? Protest, jail, social pariah. The Korean social setting is just not as forgiving as most western countries, not to mention that their laws are stricter for a lot of things. But if you are outside of the status quo in any way, you will be shunned.
In “The Glory”, a popular k-drama about bullying, and based on real stories from South Koreans, the main character hatches a plan of revenge on her former tormenters. The drama’s writer Kim Eun-sook was inspired to write “The Glory” when her teen daughter asked her “Mom, would you be more heartbroken if I beat someone nearly to death or if I got beat nearly to death by someone else?” In the article from TIME Magazine titled “How Netflix’s The Glory Drew Inspiration From Real Stories of School Violence in Korea” Kim says that while writing “The Glory” (she) “researched the systemic school violence that has impacted Korean society for decades. “Bullying is a widespread problem in Korea, where suicide has been the number one cause of death for young people since 2007. In the past few decades, it has also become a much-discussed one, as the government works to combat the problem. In 2004, Korea passed a law called The Special Act on School Violence Prevention, following the deaths of several teenagers by suicide after they were bullied. The legislation led to the formation of school committees to monitor bullying, but according to this recent Korea Times article, bullying is still a major problem.” (https://time.com/6261820/the-glory-netflix-true-story/) The article goes on to say “Research suggests bullying occurs across and within all socioeconomic groups, though victims are slightly more likely to come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. There is a more conclusive link between bullying and a country’s wealth inequality.” and that “In Korea, wealth inequality is only slightly better than conditions in the U.S., which is to say relatively high and growing.” In the show, the character of Dong-eun is poor while her main aggressors are rich. While one can obviously have more luck with bringing perpetrators to justice if the victim is rich (capitalism, am I right?) poor victims do not have that kind of pull, and as is shown in “The Glory” they are often accused of making up the situation for attention.
So, if a poor person joins a k-pop training program, and does not adhere to the strict regimen dictated to them, they have a lot more to lose for not fitting in, than does a richer trainee. This ultimately leads to more trainees either being rich to begin with, or giving up everything (including three meals a day) to be an idol. This strict adherence to social norms in Korean society is something that has been protested (4b movement) but still has not changed. (https://theconversation.com/a-woman-is-not-a-baby-making-machine-a-brief-history-of-south-koreas-4b-movement-and-why-its-making-waves-in-america-243355#:~:text=For%20many%204B%20feminists%2C%20these,Stop%20blaming%20women%E2%80%9D.) Other countries (like the us) simply have a more “individualistic” mindset. However, that does not mean they are immune to celebrities being held to a higher standard (see Susan Boyle, Britney Spears and Kate Winslet in the early 2000s).
3: The 3rd factor that plays into an idol’s weight, is cultural differences. In the US, we have been a rich country for much longer than a lot of asian countries, due to our pillaging and colonization of those countries. Therefore, fatness, or even moderate thicc-ness is seen as more of a reflection of that abundance (it’s kind of like how english royalty of old would be revered if they were fatter - because they could afford to be so, while the lower-classes could not). (https://www.medievalists.net/2020/06/fatness-thinness-middle-ages/)
In Asian countries however, the beauty standards have simply leaned the other way (in general - I'm not trying to spread stereotypes, but these differences are observed through studies). In their paper for the National Library of Medicine titled “Weightism in Asia: A Narrative Review and Implications for Practice” psychologists Shubashini Mathialagan and Poh Li Lau “In East Asian countries such as Japan, China, and South Korea, there is a strong cultural emphasis on slimness as the ideal body type, perpetuated by media and the K-beauty industry, which often promote unrealistically thin physiques. This underscores weightism as a socially and culturally constructed phenomenon. Extensive evidence indicates that young Asian women face significant distress and societal pressure, both from their loved ones and the broader community, to conform to the ‘ideal body’ standard of being slender and delicate.” (https://www.jomes.org/journal/view.html?doi=10.7570/jomes24033)
When a society is so used to only seeing one type of body in the media (whether from their own or from another country’s) they get almost brainwashed into thinking that is what the “ideal” body type is.
What is often missing from these discussions, however, is that weight does not equate health.
You cannot tell if someone is healthy just by looking at them.
Let’s look again at one of Korea’s most famous k-pop idols - IU. The IU diet (as it has been called) is “a highly restrictive, low-calorie eating plan that typically limits daily intake to 300-500 calories. IU reportedly followed this diet when she needed to lose weight quickly, and her results were noticeable.” While she reportedly no longer follows this diet, she is still what many would call an “ideal” body type.
I’m not going to go into detail about what this diet entailed, but to give you an idea, the average grown woman should be consuming 1800-2400 calories a day - this diet was ⅕-⅓ of that total.
“The IU diet is so extreme that most people can barely last a few days on it. Since it only allows 300-500 calories a day, your body quickly runs out of energy, making you feel tired, dizzy, and weak. Some people try it for a week or two to lose weight fast, but even that comes with side effects like muscle loss, slow metabolism, and constant hunger.
Trying to stick to this diet for too long can seriously harm your body. The longer you follow it, the more likely you are to face nutrient deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, and other health issues.” (https://vlcc.com/blogs/weight-losskg/iu-diet-plan-meal-results-side-effects)
Eating disorders themselves are a mental illness, and can only be battled usually with intense psychological interventions. Disordered eating, is similar but instead of being caused by a mental illness, it is mostly used to describe a certain set of behaviors. From the National Alliance for Eating Disorders, “the primary difference between disordered eating and eating disorders is whether or not the behaviors cause a significant impairment in the individual’s life.” (https://www.allianceforeatingdisorders.com/disordered-eating-vs-eating-disorders-whats-the-difference/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20831489214&gbraid=0AAAAACQjuTS7MoK5PG9WbMttkgzzQBrG3&gclid=CjwKCAjw1ozEBhAdEiwAn9qbzZ2rzPsJKg12agRdNUDWR6huiRUu7XnhLROrgzjRJVyeeuVS_sZWcxoC6JcQAvD_BwE) According to women's health magazine “If your behaviors interfere with feeding yourself regularly and fully, they might be disordered.” (https://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/a62193170/disordered-eating-vs-eating-disorder/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=mgu_ga_whm_md_pmx_hybd_mix_us_17871928004&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17865212551&gclid=CjwKCAjw1ozEBhAdEiwAn9qbzVbmUQYWij8XFXlYcuiPZnG-LB36IdhG0lHHxvzI0QPqfPDRKFpJDBoC7nAQAvD_BwE)
Again, because I am not their doctor and I don’t know them personally, I cannot definitively say that any idol has an eating disorder. Do a lot of them display habits of disordered eating? Yes, absolutely. Should anyone follow what they say about eating? No, absolutely not.
In 2020, Soloist idol HyunA (yes she isn’t a great example, but it is what I’ve got, ok?) said that she had fainted up to 12 times a month due to her bad eating habits. "I became obsessed with being skinny after grabbing people's attention with my body figure. In the past, I did not eat anything for a week to film a commercial and ate one piece of pizza for two hours after finishing the shooting ... I ended up getting hypotension, with my blood pressure falling by 40 mm Hg." (https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/entertainment/k-pop/20240512/k-pop-stars-extreme-diets-worry-fans-as-they-suffer-from-low-blood-pressure-fainting)
We have also probably all heard the infamous incident from Twice’s Momo, who said she once only survived on ice cubes in order to lose weight for debut and was scared that she would die in her sleep.
Kwon Eun-bi (soloist former i*zone (eyes-one) member) also said on the talk show "Strong Heart League," "As a trainee, I had to lose weight and look pretty so that I can grab the chance to debut. When I had to weigh myself, I went to the toilet beforehand to spit and also tried to sweat, hoping to shed water weight."
These situations are just scary. I mean, their whole job is to dance and sing and entertain - how can they imagine to do that if they aren’t allowed to eat enough to perform said job and are risking their lives just to debut?
For their part, many fans online will also advocate for not focusing on any idols body too much. They will call out creators and other commenters when this happens, and are trying to protect their biases from too much criticism.
This is a good thing, in my opinion, because the criticism doesn’t belong to the idols. It belongs to the companies that coerce young trainees (often minors) into these eating habits. After all, if they want to debut, they have to meet the company’s ideas of beauty.
A lot of people may say, “well, that’s just part of being an idol. They have to give up a lot for this life, so it shows their willingness and ability to stick it out.” These people are only lifting up these horrible standards.
In addition to korean idols, american idols are now being caught up in this. Last fall, VCHA’s KG (who I’ve covered in other videos) filed a lawsuit against JYPE for their treatment of her and her members. She said in that lawsuit that there were cameras in the fridge and cupboards of their shared training home to monitor the members’ eating habits. She also said they were often restricted by management to eat only a small salad each day. These are North American trainees in a much different social and cultural setting than South Korea, but still being held up to South Korean body standards.
In a Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005–2021, weight loss attempts among non-obese people increased from 35.2% in 2005 to 41.3% in 2021. (https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/met.2023.0147). Now, I’m not saying that correlation equals causation, but it is suspicious that those dates also rise with the popularity of k-pop.
In conclusion, we cannot say for sure if k-pop idols have eating disorders, but many of them certainly display disordered eating habits. And the media machine in south korea celebrates and uplifts weight loss among celebrities (just like it does in the west). This is an issue in many places all over the world.
But the thing with k-pop is that we get so much info about these idols' private lives. The constant behind the scenes and extra content we get makes parasociality with k-pop idols so much easier on purpose. The companies do this on purpose so that we spend more money because we feel more connected with the idols. Seeing an artist on stage or in a movie is one thing, but seeing what they eat each day while on tour, and knowing their workout and training schedules is very different. (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/parasocial-relationships-how-impact-social-media-whats-hartsfield-qz6qc#:~:text=On%20social%20media%20specifically%2C%20parasocial,form%20a%20trust%20in%20it.)
A certain body type has always been presented as “ideal” and something everyone should strive towards. Then companies create different products to “help” people achieve that ideal. And who is raking in the money? Certainly not us as the consumers.
But, body ideals change all the time. There was a time even in K-pop when a curvier body (in all the right places of course) was popular. Maybe one day it will change back to that - maybe one day promoting health will be more important than just what an idol looks like.
However, as it stands right now, I think these companies are too controlling and much too interested in the way an idol looks. One reason why I like virtual groups (like Plave) is that we have no idea what the real people behind them look like - and that's a good thing!! This impossible standard that idols are held to then get projected on their fans, especially young girls who are more susceptible to EDs, and we don't need more of that.
I think if anyone is going to protest a company, it should be for these reasons. These extremely strict dieting regimens are not ok. While a group can become very popular because of a company (mostly because of how much money said company has to spend on the group), it’s not because of how little their idols weigh. It’s their concept, their singing and dancing, their group dynamic, that get people to stay with a group and become fans - not their looks. Even though that might be what draws people in initially, it’s not what keeps them coming back. Companies need to focus more on these aspects of kpop idols, rather than their weight.
It's also super creepy how much power these companies have over sometimes literal children. It's like they think “well, if they follow these strict diets then they will do anything we say”. And, as we saw with ex-Madein member Gaeun, that is rarely a good thing.
While we also have to remember that adult idols can sometimes be in charge of their own diets, especially if they are seniors in the industry, this is definitely not the norm. More senior idols can sometimes make their own choices regarding their bodies, and it's really not up to us as fans to dictate that to them. Of course there is nothing wrong if someone wants to change their body for themselves, and does so under the guidance of their doctors. But we can also be worried if concerning behaviors occur, it is ultimately their choice - as long as they aren't being pressured by their company.
There's also the whole “keeping idols looking as a young as possible thing”, which would mean keeping them thin. Once an idol gains muscle or a chest, then it's difficult for people to infantilize them anymore… I kind of want to talk about the infantilizing of idols in a future video, so let me know if that's something you want to see.
Anyways, I hope it's evident from all this that I'm not shitting on idols. They're in a culture and an industry that promotes unhealthy shit because they prioritize looks over health. I applaud them for working so hard all the fucking time. But it's really not sustainable to keep doing things like this. I'm glad there are idols who fight back (SKZ changbin especially comes to mind) and do things as much as they want to do them. Ultimately, it's these companies that are at fault, these companies that do anything to bow to social pressures from fans and control their idols to fit into these unattainable molds so they can make the most money.
But let me know your thoughts! As someone who has not had a disordered relationship with eating, I am coming at this from completely an outside view point. It does concern me when idols suddenly drop a lot of weight, as I'm sure it does you. But if you have any experience with this, and/or have a different opinion please let me know. :)