Negative Effects on K-Pop Idols

The negative effects of K-pop don’t stop there. The K-pop industry is incredibly toxic for the idols working in it according to a Daily Vox story. K-pop idols spend many tireless years working incredibly hard as trainees until their company debuts them. Idols devote up to 10+ years of their life, training for their debut. According to The Independent, K-pop trainees train for 18+ hours a day, and according to Hankyoreh, a 2021 study shows that 43% of trainees are minors with extremely low chances of debuting. H.O, an idol, verifies that K-pop trainees don’t even get paid.

Even if K-pop trainees debut, there is no chance that their group will be successful, and there is a high chance they will be mistreated and overworked by their companies. Chuu, an ex-LOONA member, was kicked out of her group after she took legal action because her company wasn’t paying her. After being forced to pay for her own transportation and forced out of LOONA’s world tour, it was announced that Chuu was removed from LOONA under unsound claims that she had mistreated staff. 

“It’s strange to see how now, [K-pop idols] that are debuting are younger than me and it’s really strange to see,” Kang said. “It’s also strange to imagine [that] these people have been training their entire lives for this one thing that might not have turned out [to be] successful.”

Trainees are forced to participate in extremely harmful diet culture and starvation that usually continues even past their debut. For example, Momo from TWICE was forced to lose 15 pounds in one week by eating only a cube of ice a day, or she would be kicked out of her company. From a young age, these trainees are overworked and forced to portray incredibly unrealistic beauty standards. Because of this, many trainees are told to get plastic surgery for the smallest imperfections to conform to the impossible Korean beauty standards.

“Because the image is so perfect, it’s harmful to support [it] since it can make people feel bad about themselves,” Foreman said.

One of Korea’s most important beauty standards is having white pale skin. This leads to many naturally tan idols and trainees to use skin whitening products due to Korean society’s extreme colorism. The popular K-pop group, TWICE can be seen promoting skin whitening products, and idols including TWICE’s Tzuyu and NCT’s Haechan, who have naturally tanned skin, have been made fun of for their skin tone. While idols like NCT’s Shotaro as well as BLACKPINK’s Lisa show a noticeable difference with much lighter skin after their debut. It is also often known for K-pop idols to use editing apps like an app entitled “SNOW” to whiten their skin in pictures. This can lead to fans becoming ashamed or insecure about their skin tone.

The pressure of unreachable beauty standards being constantly pushed upon K-pop idols can sometimes be unbearable. Continuously being watched by millions of people around the world can add onto already existing mental health issues, causing many idols taking mental health hiatuses and causing some idols to even commit suicide.

These beauty standards are even stricter and more amplified on foreign idols. While the majority of K-pop idols are Korean, there are also Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Thai idols who often are targets of major backlash and xenophobia from Korean citizens especially. Ningning from aespa, who is Chinese, faced major backlash for showing support to the Chinese team during the Olympics, EVERGLOW’s Yiren, another Chinese idol, was also under heat for doing a Chinese-style greeting instead of a Korean-style greeting. These foreign idols are watched closely by many Korean citizens, and even showing support to their home country causes a spew of hate, ranging from “go back to your country,” comments to harsh comments about their talent, visuals, or weight.