Regardless of how netizens often bash Jang Wonyoung for her pepero stick figure, one
unfortunate fact remains that not only entertainment agencies but the public are also obsessed
with figures that are just as skinny as Jang Wonyoung.
However, as the body positivity trend is gaining more recognition over the world, there are
also more and more idols whose physiques are against the industry standards and manage
to garner support from netizens.
Sohee (ALICE)
While idols debuting under a small company often get little attention from the public
because one, no one knows who they are and two, there is nothing much to talk about a
nugu, Sohee from ALICE has recently proven herself to be among the rare faces who could
make headlines thanks to herself alone, and her healthy figure to be more specific.
After ALICE made their comeback with DANCE ON in October 2022, the group started to gain
more momentum compared to the previous promotion and some believed that one of the biggest
reasons leading to their success this time was Sohee’s going viral on the Internet
for her toned physique.
Apparently Sohee is still on the skinny end of the spectrum even according to the strict
industry standard but rather than being a pepero stick who can dance but always look
like on the verge of breaking her bones, Sohee actually looks healthy and there are natural
curves to her body that made netizens admire.
Instead of trying extremely hard to meet up to the paper-thin trend of Kpop and doing
pilates to make her figure appear flexible and soft, Sohee just hits the gym frequently
to build up muscles and has never seemed to be afraid of looking thick.
Netizens also noticed that she has focused on getting legit six-pack abs rather than
stopping at the eleven-line abs like most female idols, which can be explained by how
other girls most probably don’t want to overshadow their femininity with muscles.
Her full hips and busts also left netizens in awe as usually, not only female idols themselves
but their management agencies would aim at a figure of less volume as the sexy concept
is deemed to be too 2000, yet here Sohee is, not afraid of going against the industry pepero
skinny trend which only ends up putting her long-term wellness at sake.
Also thanks to the fire body, Alice started to gain more attention during this comeback
and when talking about her, most people would think of a female idol coming from a small
company yet still managing to put her name on the map thanks to a “hot body perfect”
whose visual was oppositely pure and naive.
On Kbizoom, she was even referred to as one of the rare Kpop stars who was on the “South
American-level” when it came to her “lower body.”
The short snippet showing Alice doing her hip workout also went viral among netizens
and according to them, it was refreshing to see a figure overflowing with healthy vibes
regardless of her young age.
She was also mentioned on KpopStarz for the same reason and on TikTok as well as Youtube,
many videos also mentioned her for having the “best body in Kpop.”
But there is one dark side to her recent rocket in popularity.
While fans are happy for Sohee as they know she has been putting all her sweat and tears
into this, the fact that she only made headlines for having a “South American-level lower
body” was rather insulting.
Instead of praising her for the vocal and dancing capabilities, people seem to only
talk about her figure, objectifying her as a doll whose body was interesting to look
at and directly prompting both Sohee and her agency to deliberately showcase her lower
body on all occasions for some attention.
Such cheap attention baits are clearly seen through the way HUNUS Entertainment always
takes pictures of Sohee from the side to fully show her curves and even on social media,
Sohee herself also snaps photos from that angle to be a something burger among netizens.
Hanni (NewJeans)
Not only managing to be the most successful member of NewJeans when it comes to individual
endorsement contracts of big brands, Hanni is also extremely triumphant in gaining the
public's love regardless of being the very first female idol to debut under a big agency.
Especially during the debut era, many netizens confessed that though they didn’t like idols
born in South East Asian countries, they were completely hooked by the charm of Hanni.
Even when other members of the group were in the center position, netizens’ attention
still naturally got drawn to Hanni for her inherent superstar glow and professional stage
presence.
Having extremely good first impressions to not only domestic but also international fans,
Hanni quickly gains their support for everything she does and to the surprise of many people,
that also includes her having a physique rather far from the strict beauty standard of South
Korea.
Compared to the other four members of NewJeans, Hanni is the shortest as her height is only
161.7cm.
And while she didn’t meet the thigh-gap criteria that netizens have been strictly
applying to female idols, not many people seemed to have problems with it as they believed
Hanni was looking her age.
In fact, some said she should even be complimented for knowing being comfortable in her own skin
rather than chasing such an unhealthy beauty standard just for the sake of pleasing people.
That’s why Hanni’s latest appearance at the airport to attend Milan Fashion Week drew
great attention as people couldn’t get over how she looked so small and cute as a fluffy
ball.
However, with the exponentially rising popularity, Hanni has also been caught in body-shaming
recently.
Just around two weeks ago, she was on the hot topic of Pann for having severe “trapezius
muscles” and in the thread, two raw pictures showing her noticeable shoulder size were
posted.
The OP even praised Hanni in a sarcastic way, saying she appeared “dependable” and when
she asked people to upvote as a means of agreeing with her viewpoint, this thread received up
to 371 upvotes over 150 downvotes.
In the comment section, some said it was weird they hadn’t realized earlier that Hanni’s
proportion was seriously sad and wondered why ADOR didn’t give her botox or something
to manage the trapezius muscles.
Yet, when this thread drew more attention, the majority of opinions believed there was
nothing wrong with Hanni’s body.
In fact, even if there is, it’s still gross-gusting to see Pann girls call out Hannams for judging
women’s figures while they themselves were always judging and mocking every inch of successful
and pretty female idols.
Minji (NewJeans)
I don’t know if you have noticed or not but in Kpop, the physique of Minji is quite
rare as big entertainment agencies only want to stick to the beauty standard for the sake
of gaining public love quickly.
However, Min Hee Jin still decided to push Minji as the center of NewJeans and surprisingly,
Minji has hardly ever been bashed for having an inverted triangle physique, rather broad
shoulders and flat hips.
When Minji appeared in an advertisement for Nike’s fitness collection, netizens were
all left in awe for her physique as they said she looked healthy yet still skinny.
There was an overflowing healthy vibe given off by Minji and down the road, it is hoped
that she can take on more athletic advertisements because her figure can express the spirit
really well.
Most recently when Minji has been announced to be the new official global ambassador of
Chanel in three categories: beauty, watches and fashion.
In the history of the famous fashion house, this is the very first time such a young Kpop
is not only chosen to endorse the brand globally but also in three categories at the same time.
As some believe, besides the iconic visual that perfectly captures the 90s spirit as
well as shares a great resemblance to the legendary beauty Olivia Hussey, the reason
making Chanel fall in love so quickly with Minji was most probably her figure as well.
Similar to how the beauty standard has changed over the years, how an ideal figure should
look also changes and back in the day, a healthy, vibrant figure like Minji’s was every girl’s
dream.
From Marilyn Monroe to Jayne Mansfield, their body was nothing but a standard for contemporary
people and according to the public at the time, beauty and healthiness should be of
equal significance rather than at the expense of each other.
Unfortunately, similar to how Hanni was body-shamed for her figure after NewJeans’ reputation
exploded, Minji has also recently become a target of scathing criticism because some
netizens believed her figure wasn’t good enough to be an idol.
Sojang, an alleged toxic Youtube channel targeting Kpop idols, was the one to ignite the hate
toward Minji’s figure and in the video, they called Minji too masculine to be a girl.
The overflowing masculinity of Minji was said to show even more clearly when her familiar
makeup layout changed, for example this time, and some also said the fact that everyone
seemingly ignored her inverted triangle figure, calling her an iconic beauty while always
bashing Yeri for having the same body type proved how hypocritical netizens were.
Rei (IVE)
While being in the same group as Jang Wonyoung, aka the epitome of Kpop’s pepero skinny
standard, Rei has never been compared to her groupmate nor been bashed for not managing
to look the same like Jang Wonyoung because netizens were happy with the way she looks
right now.
In fact, most only found her adorable like a fluffy ball and as she has just turned 19
this year, her weight helps her look more of her age.
Going against the angular shoulders and an ant-waist standard of Kpop, Rei’s figure
was of an inverted triangle shape where her hips were flat and narrow and shoulders were
sloped due to noticeable trapezius muscles.
However, rather than bashing Rei, netizens as she is in her teenage phase, her diet needs
to be nutritious and the fact that there are more volumes to her body is a completely normal
thing.
Considering the massive popularity of IVE, which means the group also has lots of antifans,
of course Rei has also been the target of body-shaming at least once during her career.
Among them, one biggest time her weight sparked a huge discussion was back in August 2022.
Sojang even made a long video pointing out how much Rei had probably gained and the fact
that her old stage costumes looked too tight on her definitely meant she put on weight
a lot.
Liz also fell victim to this terrible body shaming incident but to the surprise of everyone,
lots of people stood out to protect Rei while the scathing criticism toward Liz lasts until
today.
Many said for Rei, it was only water-gain and since she looked like the type who could
easily bloat when having high-sodium food, the public shouldn't be too harsh on her.
Another reason making people shield her more was also said to be how she hardly ever ruined
the form of her outfits, always looking flattering regardless of the costumes’ theme.
So, do you think these idols will manage to change the Kpop beauty standard when it comes
to an ideal figure for idols?