K-pop ladies are getting dangerously thin
SEOUL: Health practitioners in South Korea have sounded the alarm that top ladies of K-pop are getting dangerously thin.
Last month, JinE of girl group Oh My Girl had to go on a hiatus after coming down with anorexia.
According to the group’s management agency WM Entertainment, she is currently resting in her hometown of Pohang and now weighs a little over 40 kg.
The petite singer, standing at 159 cm tall, formerly weighed 30something kg.
Symptoms of anorexia include not eating coupled with a poor body image, according to Baik In-kyung, a professor of food and nutrition at Kookmin University.
The influence of the mass media “cannot be ignored” when it comes to anorexic patients in Korea, according to psychiatrist Kim Hwan-ki.
“The media glamorises the unrealistic bodies of a few,” Kim wrote in a column, leading to patients’ “obsession over unrealistically thin bodies” and “a strange sense of pride in being unhealthily underweight.”
Lee Hyo-min, 22, (not her real name), a member of a Seoul-
The media glamorises the unrealistic bodies of a few, leading to patients’ obsession over unrealistically thin bodies and a strange sense of pride in being unhealthily underweight.
based college dance group said she has no fancy tricks up her sleeve when it comes to dieting. She simply “starves” herself.
“I drink water and iced Americano,” the aspiring dancer said. “If I get really hungry, I have one bite of pizza or something that the group has ordered.”
Other K-pop singers have confessed to post- dieting health problems.
In February, Sojung of girl group Ladies’ Code mentioned on JTBC’s variety show “Girl Spirit” that after she started dieting, she did not have her period for nearly one year.
“My hormone levels were (similar to) those of a menopausal woman,” said the 163- cm tall singer, who debuted after being a finalist on season one of “The Voice of Korea” in 2012.
Seeing herself on television for the first time was “shocking,” she said, and prompted her to shed 11 kg, with her weight dropping from 49 kg to 38 kg.
Singer Park Bo-ram admitted on a May episode of “King of Mask Singer” that her vocal range became drastically limited after she had shed 32 kg.
In 2014, Tiffany of Girls’ Generation said on the talk show “Radio Star” that with a weight of 48 kg and a height of 162 cm, she was the heaviest of the (Girls’ Generation) members.
Her bandmates constantly teased her for looking like a “pig.”
A chart that has been circulating on Korean websites juxtaposes two types of weight for a certain height — the “standard” weight versus the “pretty” weight. According to this chart, whose source is unidentified, for a woman who is 165 cm tall, the “standard” weight is 59.8 kg; the “pretty” weight is some nine kg lighter, at 50.4 kg — but most celebrities claim to be much lighter than what was recommended.
As of 2013, some 17.5 per cent of Korean women aged 19 to 24 are underweight, according to a report released earlier this year by the National Research Institute of Health. Another NIH report found that between 2005 and 2015, 34.7 per cent of non- obese female middle and high school students considered themselves “fat.”
Despite the negative health impact, it is hard for celebrities to avoid extreme dieting, said makeup artist Park So-jung, primarily because of how different their facial features and bodies look onscreen.
“Losing weight makes your eyes and nose pop out (and) become more distinct,” said Park. “There’s a reason they say it’s the equivalent to getting plastic surgery.”
Kim Hwan-ki, psychiatrist