Top Female Idols Who Sustained Long-Term Damages Thanks To Toxic Beauty Standards

In SBS‘s upcoming documentary Bodymentary—Confessions About Weight, some of the pioneering figures from the K-Pop industry will share their struggles to fit into the impossible standards imposed on female idols. Two of these idols who appear in the documentary are SISTAR‘s Soyou and KARA‘s Seungyeon.

Both idols have been trendsetters of their generation, often gaining high praise for their beautiful visuals. But the reality behind the glitz was often too grim. Soyou and Seungyeon both got candid about their personal anecdotes of battling with body image issues and weight loss in their early years in the SBS documentary, and it is heartbreaking, to say the least.

Soyou, who spent her childhood in Jeju’s tangerine fields dreaming of becoming a singer, faced an unexpected obstacle in her way. Her singing ability was overshadowed by the harsh body standards of the industry, which followed an arbitrary “formula” where the difference between an idol’s height (in cm) and weight (in kg) had to be 120.

The SISTAR singer revealed that her agency had set her goal weight as 48 kg. “With a height of 168 cm, the only way to achieve that weight was by not eating,” she recalled. She spent her early years obsessing over these numbers, so much so that at one point, she was worried whether an IV drip at the hospital would make her gain weight.

I found my own body disgusting when I looked at it after gaining weight.

— Soyou

KARA’s Seungyeon was once heavily admired for her slender figure and “doll-like” appearance, especially after the song “Mr.” In fact, Seungyeon was considered one of the gold standards of A K-Pop girl group beauty. But achieving that standard took a permanent toll on Seungyeon’s health.

The singer recalled how she had to stop eating altogether to achieve a flat stomach to wear low-rise pants with short tops for her performances. During one of her intense dieting phases, she even fainted after losing too much weight.

When I gained weight, I was 46 kg. After losing another 4 kg, I passed out.

— Seungyeon

Seungyeon revealed that her body developed chronic illnesses while she obsessively chased the standards of the industry. But now, her perspective has changed, and she has decided to come forward and stop others from making the same mistake.

SBS’s Bodymentary—Confessions About Weight, also features K-Pop’s top female artists, such as Kim Wan Sun, Hyosung, and MAMAMOO‘s Hwasa. They will talk about their personal journeys with K-Pop’s toxic body standards. The documentary is scheduled to air on December 8, KST.