K-pop is widely known for its catchy music, colorful scenes, and beautiful idols. Behind the scenes, however, the industry is far less glamorous. The price of being a successful idol is huge: trainees practice for 10+ hours a day for the chance of fame. To appeal to their fans, they’re monitored 24/7 and have limited contact with the outside world. Doesn’t sound great, right? Well, it gets worse. Women in Korean pop are awfully treated, subjected to exploitation for a company’s profit through objectification and legal slavery.
One huge deciding factor, cruel as it may be, for the success of female K-pop idols is their physical appearance - it has even been said that looks are more important than talent. Anyone who takes a glance at a Korean girl group will immediately notice their collective beauty. These kinds of looks hardly come naturally, and it’s become a given for wannabe stars to undergo heavy cosmetic surgery to better appeal to the public. Not only are their facial features near perfect, they all seem to have hourglass figures, very flattering on their petite bodies. This, again, is unusually come across voluntarily. Major K-pop companies have come under heavy criticism of late for their excessive use of control over their young stars, who might not be allowed to have more than one meal a day. This “K-pop diet” is far more common for women, who are told that they must look a certain way to be socially acceptable.
This leads into another huge issue with this industry: oversexualization of female celebrities. Here a double standard comes in: women are expected to stay “pure”, single, and discreet in their sex lives, but dance provocatively and act sexy. Sexual assault and abuse is also quite prevalent, though allegations have long been ignored.
Overall, female stars are subjected to much more vicious standards than males. They’re often paid less than their male peers, regardless of fame, and confined to a much narrower acceptable field of appearance and behavior. It’s a given that anybody defying these expectations is subject to much criticism, digital harassment, and even cyberbullying.
The combination of these double standards and the stresses that come with fame almost always come with mental health challenges. Mental health has long been a stigmatized topic in the K-pop industry, as idols have always been presented as perfect. This image can only be kept up for so long though, and many an idol has succumbed to depression, anxiety, and various other issues, ending up committing suicide after they feel they cannot deal with any more. Once it goes this far, there’s no turning back.
The issues in the K-pop industry are large and many. Over the years, the built-in toxicity has become increasingly obvious, but major companies show no signs, let alone promises, of change - the enormous profits they collect aren’t easy to turn away from. So how do we fix this? It’ll surely be a long process - change is hard to come by. We first have to realize the humanity of idols in this industry. They’re not machines or robots - they’re people and deserve to be treated as such.
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