Anonymous asked incompetent-fangirl: are you guys still around? i wanted to ask for your input on the outrage over zico's ideal type?
Hello! Â We are! Â We've both gotten very busy over the last several months, and no one seemed to miss us, so we just took a break, haha.
Before I start, I just want to say that I don't buy into most of the rhetoric surrounding mainstream discussions of "obesity". Â When I talk about "obese" bodies- especially my own- I use words like "fat" and "flabby" as descriptors of a body that has more adipose tissue than "average" (which isn't as average as the media and medical community would have us believe). Â When I talk about fat and flab, please understand that these are in no way insults, but physical descriptors used to make my point clear. Â I personally have a problem with the way we talk about fatness as if "fat" is a dirty word instead of a body tissue, and this is how I combat that. Â I understand if you don't feel the same way, and I hope I haven't offended anyone with my choice of vocabulary.
Competent Fangirl and I actually had a long discussion about the Zico comments. Â There were three different translations of the incident going around at the time, and we weren't sure which one to believe (one made it sound like he hated anyone who didn't have a thigh gap, another made it sound like he hated anyone who did have one, and another made the comment sound more neutral). Â Ever since the whole Thailand thing, we're pretty careful about commenting on things that may be poorly translated.
Anyhow, to my understanding, the correct translation (and I'm paraphrasing) was that the thing he 'hates most' is when girls with thigh gaps wear hot pants. Â He likes it when their thighs touch. Â However, he went on to clarify that, while he likes it when their thighs rub together when they walk, he doesn't like it when they're flabby.
As a flabby-thighed woman, my initial reaction is "eww". Â It's a pretty crappy thing to shame women with thigh gaps and love handles when he could have just praised his ideal body type and left out the body shaming. Â There's nothing wrong with finding some body types more attractive than others, but there's no need to shame people who don't fit those body types.
That said, I'm trying (as best as I can as a US-raised white person) to understand the cultural context of these comments. Â In many cultures, including the US, there are certain incorrect stigmas that come with fatness, which are only magnified in cultures where obesity is less common than it is here, such as South Korea.
The illustration that sticks out in my mind about South Korean attitudes towards obesity is Pilsuk (played by IU)'s story in the original Dream High (I rewatched it recently, so it's fresh in my mind). Â Pilsuk gets into Kirin (in the story, a performing arts school that turns out tons of idols) based on her talent, but is deemed unfit to debut because she is fat. Â Early in the series, we see her stuffing her mouth with entire loaves of bread and eating several pints of ice cream in one sitting, which is a common fallacy about obesity- while taking in more calories than you burn off will likely result in weight gain, it's far from the only factor involved in weight gain. Â
To use another example of this attitude, the Piggy Dolls' debut video "Trend" was all about the social pressures surround weight in South Korea, and one of the first times we see the band members, they're downing huge slices of pizza. Â Images like these paint a picture of obesity being a direct result of gluttony, which can be true, but there are usually a lot of other factors involved. Â This kind of false correlation leads to eating disorders involving starvation and purging- both of which are much more damaging to the body than carrying a few extra pounds.
In Pilsuk's story, when she decides she wants to lose weight, she gets advice from one of the teachers at school, and it's a mixed bag. Â The teacher points out one truism about healthy eating- the big breakfast/medium-sized lunch/small dinner is actually sound advice that most people- including smaller people- should consider implementing in their eating lifestyles. Â However, she goes on to talk about exercise- while exercise is good for you and the exercises she suggests are fine, she flat out says that fat people are fat because they are lazy. Â This is absolutely untrue. Â There are plenty of thin people who are lazy, and plenty of fat people who are active- the two don't necessarily correlate. Â When my dad- who has always been classified as overweight- went into the army, everyone told him he'd lose weight. Â He went on to be one of the only people his superiors had ever seen gain weight while he was there, especially considering the fact that he was not only a soldier, but boxed and played football as well.
To look at it from another perspective, the US isn't particularly kind to fat people, but we're also kind of used to fatness since we have such a high obesity rate. Â Take those same attitudes about fatness that we have in the US, and apply them to a country where obesity is much less common (and therefore not as well understood), and its citizens are likely to have an uninformed perspective on obesity. Â Now include the Confucian-influenced society of South Korea, which places a high value on self-control, and the idea that obesity being a direct result of gluttony and laziness makes fatness look like an actual sin.
This doesn't excuse people from making remarks like Zico made, because the internet exists and information is readily available (though I do wonder how much of it is available in the Korean language- any Korean speakers want to fill me in?). Â So while I don't approve of or dismiss his comments at all, and I absolutely think that the outrage over his body-shaming is appropriate, there are cultural elements at work here that are worth examining (and I hope my white, American bias hasn't misinterpreted it too badly).
