The SBS special ‘Bodymentary - Confession About ‘Fat’’, which aired on the 29th, shed light on the influence biased beauty standards have had on the lives of representative female K-pop stars, and recorded a peak viewership rating of 2.8%. (Nielsen, Seoul Metropolitan Area)

‘Bodymentary - Confession About ‘Fat’’, stars Kim Wan-sun, Han Seung-yeon, Jeon Hyo-sung, Soyou, and Hwa-sa appeared and told in-depth stories about the beauty of the body. Their honest confessions hidden behind their flashy appearances brought shock and deep empathy to the viewers.

Consisting of a total of six chapters: ‘Women Who Can‘t Eat’, ‘Height-120’, ‘Shame, Heart’, ‘Minimum Weight’, ‘My Eating Disorder’, ‘Dilemma’, the body mentary begins with the story of Hwa Sa, who went against the idol appearance standards that seemed like an unwritten rule. Hwa Sa, who was once confident with her unique appearance, recalled the signature campaign to leave the group when she first debuted, and said bitterly, “It’s the fate of idols, but I think the standards of beauty were especially tight back then.“

Han Seung Yeon, who considered managing her appearance to be part of her job, smiled bitterly as she looked back on her ‘Mister’ activities. It is said that after months of working out, she became thinner, even drinking less water, in order to wear low-rise pants and short tops that reveal her stomach.

Soyou and Hwasa vividly shared the unexpected obstacles they faced since their childhood when they purely dreamed of becoming singers. During her trainee days when she weighed herself and was evaluated every day, Hwasa secretly ate a piece of black sesame rice cake and felt guilty and vomited. She said that after that, she suffered from anorexia and depression, and thought, “This isn’t right.” Soyou collapsed on the street due to a sudden diet and was taken to the emergency room. She worried that she would gain weight even while receiving IV fluids, and she even suffered from panic disorder later on.

Even under the extreme stress of body management, she couldn’t avoid “height-120” (a harsh standard that states that your weight should be 120 when you subtract your height from your weight). They said that they couldn’t help but obsess over numbers because of this weight calculation method that follows them like an idol’s formula. Jeon Hyo-seong, who repeated binge eating and crash dieting, recalled the time when she was active at 50 kg and confessed, ”I felt like I wasn‘t fulfilling my professional duty.“

This shackle of having to experience ‘shame’ if you couldn’t reach the ‘shame’ of weight has continued for a long time. Kim Wan-sun, who caused a sensation in the pop music industry in the late 1980s and opened the era of ‘video-style singers’, was no exception. She recorded her lowest weight after losing 4-5 kg overnight due to a major car accident, and maintained that weight for 15 years as her slender body received positive responses. She recalled that time, when she went on stage after barely eating a few bites of ice cream, as ‘a time when I was as hungry as I was shining.’

In 2024, evaluations of appearance are still ongoing. Just like ‘Reading Malicious Comments on Hollywood Stars’, they also had time to read malicious comments about their appearances, but their hearts had to be torn countless times before they could calmly accept it. Hwa Sa, who put the pressure of beauty into the song ‘Maria’, said that she vowed to continue to speak out after seeing fans who said that they gained courage from her song.

Kim Wan-sun, Han Seung-yeon, Jeon Hyo-seong, Soyou, and Hwa Sa, who each experienced ordeals while recording their lowest weights, such as anorexia, bulimia, panic disorder, and idiopathic urticaria. What they missed at every moment of their twists and turns in their lives was none other than their ‘real selves’. They said that they participated in this documentary to convey the truth that they realized only after hitting rock bottom.

According to the National Health Insurance Corporation, the number of patients with anorexia in women under the age of 20 has increased by 97.5% in the past five years. At this point, the production team said that they felt the need to have an honest conversation about the standards of beauty that we think of. ‘Bodymentary - Confession on ’Flesh‘&rs ...