Toxic Beauty Standards, Productivity & Mental Health in K-Pop
Let’s Rant about Toxic Productivity, Toxic Beauty Standards and the Lack of Mental Health Care in the K-Pop Industry
The K-Pop Industry has brought forward the greatest Performers, Dancers, Singers, and Groups to this day. The industry is a Trillion Dollar powerhouse for South Korea and has boosted the Nation’s connection to the World. K-pop has played a huge role in Korea’s Tourism boost, the rise of love for Korean Shows and Movies being appreciated by International fans. K-pop has only been around since the late 1990s, less than 40 years old and it has changed the Music Industry for the better.
However, K-Pop may have many great things, but there are also a lot of dark sides within the K-Pop Industry. Today, we wanna rant about some things we have a problem within the K-Pop Industry. Quick disclaimer, we have only been a K-Pop fan for a little over a year now and we only stan a lot of Boy Groups with Dreamcatcher being my only Girl Group. So, if we miss your group, please know this is why. We’ll get into more groups soon.
Before we begin, feel free to like the blog before we go along with it. Please note, if you want to support or request a Blog and Post Topic, please follow us and Message us on Twitter. We will link all the sources used within the blog post and a Google Doc below.
Bare in mind, this Post contains references to Suicide, Depression and other Mental Health Disorders with references to Trauma. Please continue with caution if this may trigger you in any way. This Blog is supported by affiliates as we’re not in a country that allows Stripe Pay, so Medium can’t support us.
Now, let’s start the blog.
Diets
We know, as a performer, whether that be solo or in a group, Idols are required to look or present a certain way for their audience. Even in the Western Music Industry, many singers exercise and have a healthy diet. But personally, we just hate how far K-Pop Companies will push for an Idol to have a certain look or weight. Leading to the Idol looking tired, sickly or worse, the Idol being physically and mentally affected by the strict diets plus their hard routines in between.
They have to be healthy in order to successfully perform, so we really don’t get what Companies are doing when they essentially deprive their Idols of the food their working and many times, growing bodies need. Idols should not have to rely on their weight, abs or their muscles to be successful or attractive.
Beauty Standards
That leads us into K-Pop Beauty Standards. Before we get into it, disclaimer, they are all stunning. We are simply tired of the backwards and downright insulting methods that they rank K-Pop Idols. If they are a shade darker, have any sort of mole, freckles, or have the wrong eye shape for shit’s sake, they aren’t considered attractive by the Korean Fans. Well, we say, to hell with that shit. Jessi is a fucking baddie, she’s one of the realest and most stunning female Idols in the K-Pop Industry. Hwasa has changed the beauty standard, by making herself the standard. RM’s eyes are fierce and Changbin is absolutely thicc, but we fucking love it.
Not everyone has to be perfect, they are human beings, not mannequins that we can just rank on lists. Please tell me we are not the only ones that wants to scream at K-Fans when Namjoon, J-Hope, Bobby from Ikon, or Jessi aren’t even mentioned on Most Beautiful or Most Handsome Lists. Beauty Standards from Korea and Asia as a whole frustrate us at this point. Even Thai Actors like Earth Pirapat have to work harder and take longer to succeed due to their ‘darker’ skin tone. Whoever is in charge of these lists needs to immediately retire and be cremated, because they are obviously a blind, deaf and impotent bag of bones.
That was probably a lot, but let me know some of your favorite stunning Idols and I’ll look them up, maybe join some new fandoms.
Overworking
Before we delve into Mental Health, I would like to start with Toxic Productivity, or in simpler terms, Overworking. From what we’ve seen of Idols just collapsing after a performance or when the lights go down, they are so tired that they can barely walk.
Companies that encourage overworking have a special space in Hell. I am sure most of you guys watching think the same and feel the pain when your Fave rapper, singer, dancer or group is tired and obviously working too much.
I don’t care if they have to put out that reality series or work on a new song. I’d much prefer if they took a week off, no actually. I want them to take an entire month off. I just want them to visit family, relax, don’t touch a lick of music. Have the free time to catch up on trends and just sleep. God, some of them just need to sleep for a month, shaking my head.
Sometimes, this isn’t the companies’ fault and more so the Idol pushing themselves too much, mentally and physically, all for the sake of their loving fans. Toxic productivity does more harm than good and I wish I could just grab certain Idols and just shake them until they see sense.
Mental Health
Toxic Productivity actually connects to Mental Health. Everyone has mental health actually, it’s basically how you decipher things, live and react in society. We have a blog about Mental Health here for you to read more.
However, almost a Billion people are affected by some sort of Mental Disorder, Anxiety and Depression are the most common. Sadly, many Idols show symptoms of these Mental Illnesses and unfortunately, no amount of fame or money can save them. The K-Pop Industry has lost brilliant Lights, but we hope that they are finally resting easy, seeing the growth and recognition that K-Pop has made.
K-Pop Idols are many times put on harsh diets, and told to look and act a certain way or their real personalities would not be liked. They are put in the spotlight and have to conform to rigorous schedules, while many of them deal with Anxiety, Depression and low self-esteem or Self Hatred, which no amount of fans, money or fame can help fill. Suicide, seemed to be last and most pleasing option of a way out of the Industry and pain. K-pop Companies rarely care that much about Mental Health, much less their Idols’ mental health, not taking into consideration just how much toxic productivity, anxiety and depression can also physically affect a human being.
Thankfully, since the last decade, there’s been a rise in Mental Health Awareness in the K-Pop Industry and Korea as a whole. Many Idols, like Eric Nam and Jay B from Got 7 opened up about Mental Health and BTS are known for making music that addresses mental health. Personally, we think Companies should implement Mental Health days for K-Pop Idols, as well as have some professionals within the company have weekly to monthly mandatory mental health sessions with whoever needs or wants counseling and help.
Let it be a safe and open discussion so that Idols can feel less isolated and have less to carry on their shoulders. We wish that it didn’t have to take the passing of many amazing beings, for it to finally have changes within the Industry. There’s still a long way to go, but we are glad to see some progress at least.
What can we do as Stans?
Kpop fans hold a lot of power. We literally can make or break an Idol’s or Groups career. But I honestly prefer to only use that power for advocacy. You have the power to raise awareness for these topics in the K-Pop Industry.
Your favorite Idol is overworking and the rest of the group is tired but they continue to put out that reality show. Start a hashtag, bring up the topic to other Stans. Discuss it in groups and forums.
Remember Toxic Productivity does more harm than good. Idols need to be reminded that they are human too and not just a form of entertainment to us. It physically pains me to see them dropping after a performance, doing back to back tours and factory producing music.
Raise Awareness in respectful ways like starting a Twitter account and sharing your ideas or events with like minded individuals. Do your research and advocate for Mental Health Days or Mental Health care as a whole for Korea and Kpop Idols.
Support Idols and Companies like K Q Entertainment, that allow their Idols the time & resources needed to mend their mental state. Highlight Speakers on the topic of Mental Health in Kpop, like Dive Studios. Show support to content creators that touch on topics like this.
Share this video with your friends and fellow Stans to help bring more eyes onto these Topics. Make your own content, be it blogs on Tumbler, Tweets on Twitter (yes I am still gonna call it twitter) and Videos on Tik Tok to bring more awareness to this less spoken about necessity in the industry.
If you get a chance to meet your Idols at fan meets, speak to them about your own experiences with mental health, how they helped inspire you. To let your fave Idols know that they are not alone. That they do matter.
So, what do you think? Should Kpop Idols be allowed Mental Health Days and have access to mental health care? Let me know why in the comment section below.
Okay, that’s enough for now. What do you guys think? Did anything here stand out to you, let us know in the comments below. This might have one last part of this series about the K-Pop Industry, because we would like to talk about shipping, and homophobia, racism and cultural appreciation. If you’d like to request a topic, comment below or check the link to request or message me on twitter.
Thank you for reading or listening. Until next time guys. Remember, you Reign Here.
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Notes
- All of the graphics in this blog were created by myself in Canva Pro, or taken from our Pinterest.
- The links for any more sources and videos are here in this google document.
- This Blog post does include affiliates as I’m not in a country that allows Stripe Pay, so Medium can’t support me. You can save money on stationery supplies and K-Pop Merch using the link here!
- Feel free to correct or critique and I’ll edit any errors with links, information and grammar.
