SBS aired a special documentary titled Bodymentary: Confessions About Weight on December 29th, featuring iconic figures Kim Wan Sun, Han Seung Yeon, Jun Hyo Sung, Soyou and Hwasa. In this candid program, the stars shared their experiences and struggles with societal beauty standards, offering shocking revelations to viewers.
Divided into six chapters—“Women Who Can’t Eat,” “Height Minus 120,” “Shame,” “Lowest Weight,” “My Eating Disorder,” and “Dilemma”—the documentary opened with Hwasa’s story. She recalled the early days of her career when a petition calling for her to leave her group emerged. “It’s part of being an idol, but back then, the expectations were especially strict,” she reflected on the rigid beauty standards of the time.
Han Seung Yeon recalled her Mister promotion days, recounting the extreme measures she took to maintain her appearance. She wore outfits like low-rise pants and cropped tops and even restricted her water intake to stay slim. This grueling period lasted for months, during which she noticed her body becoming increasingly thin.
Soyou and Hwasa shared the unexpected challenges they faced while chasing their dreams of becoming singers. As trainees, they were weighed and judged daily. Hwasa remembered secretly eating a black sesame rice cake but feeling so guilty and sick afterward that it stuck with her. She later developed anorexia and depression, eventually realizing that something was deeply wrong. Soyou also struggled, collapsing on the street from extreme dieting and ending up in the emergency room. She admitted to worrying about gaining weight even while receiving IV fluids, an experience that ultimately led to her developing a panic disorder.
The “height minus 120” formula is a common weight standard in the entertainment industry, and many people feel immense pressure to meet it. Jun Hyo Sung talked about how she struggled with this, saying she once weighed only 50kg during promotions. She confessed that she felt like she wasn’t doing her job well because she wasn’t thin enough.
Even legendary stars like Kim Wan Sun, who became famous in the late 1980s, felt the pressure to be thin. After losing 4–5kg due to a serious car accident, she received positive feedback for her thinner frame and maintained that weight for 15 years. Describing those years as “a time when I shone but was always hungry,” she revealed the toll it took on her well-being.
In 2024, scrutiny over appearances is still common. A segment in the documentary showed stars reading hate comments about their looks, similar to Hollywood’s ‘Celebrities Read Mean Tweets.’ For these women, it took countless emotional battles to come to terms with the negativity. Hwasa, who expressed her struggles through her song Maria, shared how fans who found strength in her music gave her a new sense of purpose.
These women went through serious physical and mental health struggles, from anorexia and binge eating to panic disorder and idiopathic urticaria, all while trying to meet society’s impossible standards. They’ve said that, along the way, they lost touch with who they really were. Only after reaching their lowest points did they feel ready to share their stories and the lessons that came with them through the documentary.
>> Hwasa and Fellow Stars Lay Bare the Cost of Society’s Beauty Obsession in ‘Bodymentary’
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