How k-dramas villainize eating disorders - video essay 

Oh I would’ve liked to see more analysis on why eating disorders are villianized. My theory is that the films view it as choosing vanity over health, and that “hateful people likely hate themselves even more”. But while they villianize vanity, they also have rigid beauty standards for the protagonist they aren’t willing to give up. So rather than just being happy and healthy, she is either effortlessly pretty or she loses weight for “good” reasons like “health” or “determination” or “revenge”. Because she’s not doing it for attention, it is seen as not vain, therefore she isn’t disordered. Also, there’s the underlying idea that only “truly sick” people need therapy. “Sick” as in “crazy”. Since the protagonist isn’t crazy, she doesn’t need anything more than encouragement. Villains who are irredeemable are sent to therapy. Ultimately this mindset stems from a society that over values slimness and beauty, that also villianizes vanity, and doesn’t understand the nature of disordered eating. Almost all of them have “just eat more lol” as a solution to anorexia, although their unhealthy mindset around weight is viewed with a bit more nuance.

I love My ID is Gangnam Beauty in the way they portrayed Sua. They showed both layers of bulimia; the desirability, the pretty privilege, the better treatment, but then the other side: the desperate, despairing loneliness.

I remember watching weightlifting fairy Kim boo joo when I was suffering from anorexia. I remember that during one scene the doctor told her "You are 1.75m tall and weigh 58kg, which means you are overweight" I was shocked because not only was her BMI about 18 but if she lost even 3 kilos she would literally be underweight! It hurt me a lot too and made me think that I was fat when I wasn't, I was literally underweight…

weight lifting fairy unintentionally touched on the gross standards in terms of diet and weight classes in competitive sport. As someone that did very competitive sports at points in my life I do know the reality of high level sport and competition culture. It lead many people, guys and girls, to have body dysmorphia and disorded eating habits. It's too bad the writers and producers didn't care enough to not condone that culture and those standards set for athletes. (This has to do with sports that base pools about weight classes and stress importance on muscle mass ie. boxing, mma, rugby).

I would like K dramas to address alcoholism, the leads esp female leads drink like there's no tomorrow and not the least bit affected by it healthwise and even when they're affected, they continue to drink and nothing bad happens to them 🤷‍♀️

Omg, why is there so much weigh loss product placement in the k-dramas? Really good video, thank you for making it!

I had the exact opinion with the Oh My Venus. I was appalled at watching that drama because I felt the male lead is an example of a toxic guy women should stay away from.

Im absolutely stunned that soo ah taking diet pills was ad placement Thats absolutely sinister. Shes basically participating in self harm when she consumes them.

I watched Oh My Venus, having no idea what it was about and honestly? Till this day is the one show I don't recommend people to watch and I regret wasting my time on it. It's shocking that everyone behaved like she was obese and that scene in the end where she tells her husband she's pregnant and he basically cares about her looks made me so upset that I couldn't even be like "ohhh, happy ending"

In My id is a Gangnam Beauty Female lead and her best friends always drinks some juice(?) specifically made to get skinnier. I HATED THAT PRODUCT PLACEMENT BECAUSE IN THIS DRAMA THEY SHOULD'VE NOT DO IT AT ALL SPECIFICALLY

Sooah is so fucking relatable. Reducing a person to their appearance has horrible consequences, I really think she was a well written villainess that shows a level of awareness of how Korean beauty standards can create a “Marylin and Jackie” kind of misogyny that realizes itself in both men and women.

I think I've spent a lot of time looking through Western and Eastern popular media, and unfortunately as an Asian I have to say that Asians still have a pretty toxic relationship with weight. Not that it's so much better in the West, but I've definitely seen more widespread acceptance and normalization of different body types in Western entertainers and more awareness of what should and shouldn't be said when it comes to weight. A lot of Eastern popular media will proudly promote harmful eating habits and unrealistic expectations without realising or, quite frankly, caring about the harm that they are doing.

Eating disorders have come such a long way, and I'm so glad that people are starting to view weight as a complex topic, worthy of our empathy, and still there is such a long way to go, it stresses me out that being fat is considered something to make fun of, especially because the parents that call their kids names or constantly remind them that they are not skinny never have any consequences (as someone who still lives with parents like that, it's terrible), like the mom in Boys Over Flowers. Also, I had never considered the product placement of weird weight loss products in kdramas that try to talk about that very same topic. Amazing video!

I'm ashamed to admit that because of the bathroom scene in My ID is Gangnam Beauty, I learned how to throw up and ended up having bulimia for 5 years. I'm doing well now and 1 year clean :))

Ikr, I was so pissed off when Tomorrow pulled the story of how his sister used to suddenly binge due to stress and was bullied for gaining it all and just turned into a condescending session. They could've just hinted her working on it and taken advantage of the nature of the story lines in drama, and given it an open ending. Letting us assume that she's slowly working on it The only thing I liked is them showing the bigger woman didnt care about the stupid comments at all and was happy in her own body

The same goes with IU's character in Dream high drama. She was fat and because she wanted the love of her classmate, she looses weight in a short time and suddenly he falls in love with her. And there's this constantly thing about talking about not eating and skipping meals as something you rather do if you want your crush's attention.

I'm so glad you brought up the weight loss pill product placement in My ID is Gangnam Beauty. The original webtoon obviously didn't have that, and I can't imagine the horror the author must have experienced to find out this product placement was a thing in the adaptation of this work. It's ridiculous. They should have just shown some generic diet pills to get their point across instead of advertising.

"that she probably cannot even digest" - YES! You are the first person to get this particular thing right! I was bulimic (well, anorexia binge-purge type) for many years and eventually I found that I couldn't digest food even if I wanted to. Like even if I tried to eat something small and light, it would sit heavy in my stomach and I'd vomit against my will (like when you're sick with food poisoning or something) and it would up up completely undigested, sometimes more than 24 hours after I'd eaten it. I had to be an inpatient and start with Ensure drinks and then very liquidy clear soups etc and gradually build my diet up to being able eat normal foods again.

I lived in Korea for a few years and it was shocking to me how normalized disorderd eating was.. 1 meal a day.. skipping meals/eating 500 kcal during the week and then BAM chicken and beer, lots of alcohol and `bad food´ on the weekends, then again diet pills etc. and low calorie foods for a few days... I know this also happens in other countries but there you might encounter genuine concern for your wellbeinng whereas in Korea you will be told that you lack mental stength, that you don´t try hard enough..

As someone who had an eating disorder , I am glad that you made this video and that people are talking about it . I had an eating disorder for almost 3 years because my family and classmates used to bully me for my weight , this lead to my eating disorder and low self-esteem but I am recovering slowly . I know how it feels when you get compliment for losing weight you wanna lose more even though your underweight , you fish for those compliments and want more.

The suddenly-better-with-3-days-in hospital/therapy reminds me of the WESTERN trope in movies and books where the main character always make a friend who is much worse than they are, then their friends died from their ED and main character immediately completely recovers

I didnt even realize it was a real product placement. Disgusting

I haven't even watched the video but I just want to say thank you for not showing any throwing up scenes, I have emetophobia and I really appreciate you being considerate. Most people don't understand so I get jumpscared, thank you!

I want to say its not just K-dramas that portray EDs horrible but tv in general. Having an ed isn't linear infact most of the time its considered a symptom of a more cripling mental illness like, depression, schizophrenia, bpd etc. And in alot of the times people don't have and ed because they want to b loose weight sometimes people just have terrible eating patternsthey need to fix to be normal ( not saying thats not common). Also on tv i noticed they seem to forget about physical problems that come with it like heart palpitations, trouble breathing and chest pains even having trouble walking

Also another aspect to point out (at least from what I've seen so far?) is how this is only aimed towards/about women while making the male protagonist seem like a life saver when he's a rude bully who doesn't have any respect.

For weightlifiting fairy is pretty accurate in both the « dirty-bulking » obsession with over eating and the gymnast binge cycles

Probably has a lot to do with how hyper capitalist S. Korea is. S. Korea has a unique, condensed history of its fast track towards becoming a first world supergiant economy. This has come with many setbacks; their bodies have become so commodified. And unfortunately the body standards on men and women being super tiny/super fit due to diet culture is the result of it. Everyone is racing to be the most beautiful and marketable that they destroy their bodies. Myself included (I'm Chinese), but I also acknowledge how important it is to combat these pervasive systems. You would never catch me dead defending body shaming or eating disorders. There is too much hatred in that way of thinking, we should try to be better than that.

To everyone who has EDs, anorexia, orthodoxia, bulimia etc... i hope you will recover and you will becoming your best self ❤ you deserve to be healthy, love yourself and be happy

Tomorrow is such a pain! It approaches every s++cide attempt well, but when it comes to resolution they all just say "tomorrow it'll be better", "you shouldn't treat urself like that", etc. I was watching the drama in some borderline mood, and it didn't make me feel better at all because all they showed is tone deaf phrases that every other uneducated person tells. The writers are just incompetent to talk about those issues. Compare that to the recent "daily Dose of Sunshine" - it deals with mental illnesses brilliantly!

You'll be villainized for being "vain" if you have try to lose weight. But you are also expected to meet absurdly high standards of beauty. Lose-lose. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Honestly I really do like how Tomorrow handled the topic, but since they only have one episode per person, I guess they had to wrap it up somehow, which is sad because the rest of the episode was really good! AMAZING video btw!!!

I also feel like there was a common theme on the main lead seemingly eating huge amounts of food yet being stick thin and this being a good quality, which is highly unlikely and impossible unless youre tzuyang lol

What is interesting is that bulimics are consistently shown to be skinny and pretty, but that's not real, I have bulimia, and it causes me to be so bloated; my legs, arms, stomach, and face are much more bloated than ever...

I feel like in tomorrow kdrama,the eating disorder that his sister was added because it wants to highlight it can be in different situation and more encouraging when people around you are supportive and loving towards you .The girl that has ed currently didn't have anyone around her to talk about or vent as his siter has heartwarming family around her.Yep that is my opinion.I do respect yours too.

honestly, what ive noticed with kdramas is that they only show them chewing the food and not swallowing it. Ive only started to notice that in weightlifting fairy. And in true beauty, they'll just get a few small bites and show them preparing more the food than eating it and talking more than eating the food. I remember French eating culture being lowkey glorified (or at least by my mom and sister) because of how amazed we are that they talk more and eat less over a meal that they're supposed to have being one of their "secrets" of staying skinny.

Amazing video nice to see some video essays analyzing kdrama and their tropes for an English speaking audience 👏👏👏

I avoided this video cause I was scared of getting triggered but I'm so happy I watched this. Watching K-drama definitely affected my mental health even though I was just watching it to destress. I was so mad but I didn't even understand why.

Great analyses!Thanks for your efforts👍

If eating disorders where solved as easy as in tomorrow then no-one would die from it

The drama Angel’s last mission: love also talks about EDs, and it even shows the scar! Not many people talk about it though

I actually didn't notice the weight lost product plug ins.. really iffy this video was really well made!!

great video essay!

I always thought it was weird how Korean games, webtoons, and Tv shows all randomly threw in shit about working out and eating less etc when it was completely unrelated. And how OBSESSED the characters were with not eating

This was a great video 😮 very interesting topic

So glad I stumbled upon your channel

love your channel

Oh my God, this was excellent - I always hated these stories, but could never articulate what exactly was wrong. Among everything else, it's the double standards! Excuse me while I go share this everywhere---

I loved the story line of the "mean" girl in Weightlifting Fairy. I related to her a lot and loved the final moment where she just lets the baton(idk what it's called) drop.

I might have to rewatch Oh My Venus because I didn't see it that way. It's been 8 years since I watched it, but it's always good to watch it from a new perspective.

I think for kdramas to start depicting ED's realistically, they'd have to first stop forcing them on their stars. These stars (men included) are literally starving for years. The reason "healthy" food is depicted as being a starvation diet is because that's exactly what it is and what the industry idealizes. Honestly, I think the "foodie" dramas are more insidious because of how they depict the characters' relationships with food despite the fact that there were most definitely spit-takes for every bite. One of my absolute favorite dramas was My Lovely Sam Soon, but I've been super nervous about revisiting it because I remember that the main lead was depicted as overweight. She definitely wasn't, she's just a "korean midsize" (meaning she undoubtedly would still wear a size small in American clothing brands). I remember really enjoying the story and the romance, and I don't want to rewatch it and be faced with more double standards about food and weight and the morality these dramas often assign to those two things.

Really interesting video. My heart breaks for anyone with thyroid disease watching Oh My Venus. The message to push yourself to the edge to lose weight that you have BECAUSE OF YOUR DISEASE plus the insinuation that the disease is your fault? Something very wrong there. Also, I'd love to know wtf happened to my dog for her to get hypothyroidism in that case!

as someone with severe emetophobia, I cannot thank you enough for the content warnings!

As someone who is very health conscious, here is a tip for those trying to lose weight. Do NOT starve yourself. Cutting off calories will only make your body want to hang onto fat even more. Will you lose weight? Yes, but your body will also try to gain back the weight at any chance because it's preparing for your next time "calories are scarce." Also, if you really are hungry, eat! The trick is to stop eating when you're full. Whenever ever you are hungry, try to focus on eating slower, smaller portion sizes, and eating healthier foods.

I watched the first three dramas years ago and I did not understand that they both had eating disorders (main lead and side character). Especially in WFKBJ, I think Bok joo's disordered eating is written to seem as normal which is why I did not catch that when I watched it.

Thank you so much for your work. I love the k-dramas' mood but damn, i cannot watch it anymore because of the ridiculousness of standards they depict. Your channel sets them right.

Thank you for raising this topic. Not everyone may agree, but this issue MUST be changed in Korea and other countries. Or it should be focused with the mental health of person in mind.

awesome essay

Also when you're doing intense exercising, you want to make sure you eat a bunch of good carbs about 1 to 2 hours before you workout. Carbs are the fuel your body needs to fuel your workout! After you're done working out, you want to eat a snack loaded with proteins! Proteins are what your body needs rebuild your muscles after you're done working out!

Very interesting video!

As someone who used to practice gymnastics. It is very true how eating disorders are pushed on the girls even the weighing. In Margarita Mamuns documentary she talks about it and its very sad

This video helped me so much. I'm in recovery from an ed and i've seen all these kdramas (my id, kim bok joo and oh my venus before it and tomorrow after my ed) and this video made me think a lot about my experience watching them. When I saw my id, kim bok joo and oh my venus i confess that the portrait of eds and the discussions about weight and behavior around food didn't affect me at all. ( I was too young I guess and, for example, just now I realized how problematic is Oh My Venus). But damnnn i tried watching Tomorrow and it was a disaster: i couldn't barely finish watching the episode 7 because it looked like, to me, sooo wrong the way they deal with the ed, it made me pissed and i haven't realized WHY until now - until i saw this video and watch somebody talking about it, verbalizing what i couldn't This video is so rich and bring several important discussions and i dunno i just wanted to sincerely thanks about the content

Also in angel's last mission love. The side character had bullimia and she was also at potrayed more like a bad character but changed like sua at the end.

As i only have experience with these two i will only comment on these: My mom has that condition from Oh my venus (i am not sure how to write it) And it is completely normal to exercise a lot and do extremely restrictivr diet and loose weight quickly and binge after, iam not sure how i vould explain but in some way it is realistic. From the 2 drama i can tell you that recovery from eds at least for me, it was like a switch from 2-3 days, i just snapped and ate all i wanted and stopped my bad habits. I know for most people it is not like that at all but a really lucky case, i just wanted to share my personal experience with anorexia (wich was mild)

I do talk about this from time to time,and even bring up the topic of Weightlifting Fairy not looking anything close to how a female protagonist for such role should look,but I guess there`s a lot of nostalgia for these dramas. Although,diet culture is still a thing in the West,I feel like it`s addressed much more frequently and with a bigger and more detailed scope in general. This alone would lead to future generations` better understanding of eating disorders and warning signs. Comparatively,weight alone is treated still as something very shallow and a way to fit in,while negation of serious consequences is treated as normal. But with how harsh standards have been and are,the only way I can honestly see issues of this type being discussed in a drama,is if a western project with such themes becomes mega popular there. I think the form`s been decided too harshly and narrowly to really be discussed and popularized domestically.

I really enjoyed your video! Great job:)) Are you planning similiar analysis about depression? I think that it would be also an interesting topic:)

Thanks for sharing this wonderful analysis video. TBH, Oh my venus, is one of my fav drama during my early stage of started watching kdrama. I never had this perspective for this drama. All i thought was, this is the first drama which promotes exercise for weight loss rather than surgery. I really thought it's green flag. Never thought about the other side. Thinking about it now, yes the main lead never loved the actress the way she was. He got attracted to her after she lost weights, he was always hesitant even though he liked her personality. I was just blown away by so ji sub and shin min ah's beauty. WRT, Gangam beauty, it's one of my favorite series even now. They had a good arc for the antogonist. For the lead actress, i felt it very relatable to me. Someone who is insecured about herself every minute. She always self sabotage herself. She thought, she would be happy if she reduce her weight but she wasn't, she thought she would be happy, if she do plastic surgery but she wasn't. She slowly starts to accept, she deserves love and open ups to the lead. Even cha eun woo, always gave her space and time to make her comfortable and always made sure, she will be loved whatever she do. Whenever she has to stand for herself, he always stood by her side and supported. Burger scene also, she was insecured how she looked in front of cha eun woo, and he gave her space and time for her to come out. Yeah, I'd also agree even she was shown getting some healthy treatment.

A drama i did appreciate the ED story of was Heejin in my lovely sam soon. It was a little overdramatized but the scene where heejin starts to eat the food samsoon left her always makes me cry.

watching my id is gangnam beauty actually started my ed because i saw how it worked and how i almost could relate to sua how beauty automatically meant to be skinny im finally healing but even always watching kpop idols like wonyoung trigger it sometimes..its not even their fault its just i watch and take in the wrong info sometimes

I love how they potrayed Sua, as I am currently alao taking a break from university for eating disorder treatment

This video was really well made ! I didn't my ED triggered. I grew up with anime and drama later on life and it made me hate my body even when I wasn't overweight like now. Standards in Japan and Korea are so bad for women...

Someone already mentioned angel's last mission, but Heartstrings also has the antagonist being bulimic. 8n the end she becomes nive and "recovers", bit then it's pushed onto her sister (her condition is caused by her mom micromanaging her life, including diet). Yeah, antagonist with eds have been a thing in kdramas for a very long time

I’m 5’8 and 155lbs rn. I starved myself for a year (surviving on one cup of Greek yogurt, Coffee, water, and multivitamins a day and an occasional binge meal) when I was younger and got down to 129lbs. I lost my period and I wasn’t even “underweight” for my height. My skin was grey and I developed teeth problems and hair problems. I didn’t have a period for two years. I wanted to be thin at any cost. I blacked out at college. Turns out I almost died from a lack of minerals like potassium/sodium. I could have had a heart attack. I might be fat by Korean standards and chubby by American standards but I can run 5 miles on a treadmill, my hair is thick and shiny, and I have energy to do things I love.

Nice video.

I had no idea that oh my Venus was about this it was on my will watch list since it came out and I never got around to starting it

13:00 lmao when two friends hold the manager down so that the other can slap him

I actually really liked weightlifting fairy because it showed two different portrayals of eating disorders. The social pressure placed on athletes is so sad. The antagonist in the hospital scene was her being relieved she didn't have to torture herself anymore after her mom was mote concerned about her vs her being a gymnast.

I like how you said it s a long journey I have an eating disorder called A.R.F.I.D. and noobody knows this one at least not in my country and my therapist used to say that I m looking for excuses(by the way she was a really kind woman just had no idea about eating disorders) so I try to change but all alone it s pretty hard and I feel like I never make any progress

I'm just waiting for a show (especially american) to actually say that eating healthy food in even large proportions is fine, not eating the bad food in large proportions and eating a tiny salad and most of the problems will go away. I think thats what weight loss is evolving into these days. Eating the best type of food for the human body and never getting guilt because you eat good food anyway. Just speaking from personal experience.

i was never able to finish Venus or Weightlifting fairy, i couldn't stand it...

I do love Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Jo, still. And it's worlds better than most k-dramas, though I agree with your points 😊

This is why My ID is Gangnam Beauty is one of my fav kdramas

this is just so sad. the whole diet culture in south korea is so very toxic too. well, not just in south korea, of course. I wish that can change, even if very slowly.

You should watch Hello, My twenties or Age of Youth. One of the characters at the first has eating disorders. At first shows how outside of the house she doesn´t eat but inside eat a lot. She cares her appearence too much. Even when at the end of the season two shows when she is with her boyfriend eat too much and later she tried to do excersie weighing herself on the scale every so often. It's very subtle. And she one of the famale lead, no a villain, just sometimes a bratz. But I think many woman in Korea can identify with her.

Ok, I kind of love that the villain in Tomorrow gets a diarrhea curse that made me smile

I always had a problem with Weightlifting fairy bcs, as a weightlifter myself i couldnt see Bok Jo as an overweight girl, i couldnt even see her as the strongest of them. It scares me that people actually think that a professional weightlifter could look like that (the best, wtf)

hi I wanted to tell you that in Angel's last mission:love we also see the scar and it talks about ED sometimes

It SO dangerous when shows portray bulimia as being an effective but unhealthy method. In reality, it doesn’t work. Your body absorbs calories too quickly. You can’t stop a mentally ill person by telling them they’re unhealthy. You have to use their logic against them if you truly want to save them. I developed bulimia from watching shows like this and others in my life. I stopped immediately after I found out it does nothing but destroy your teeth and your stomach. Not once did I question myself when I thought it was working. I know anecdotal evidence isn’t evidence but I’m really, very passionate about better depictions of this in media that show how damaging it is to your body. That not only is it unhealthy, but it’s ineffective. The easiest sustainable way to lose weight is the healthy way.

It is absolutely uncomfortable and disgusting to watch kdramas portray disorders, sexism, and fatphobia as romantic.

Gymnasts being forced to be skinny? Ive never heard of that before... you want to eat and workout so you have energy to to a routine with power. How will you do that without food?

Those interested in the medical stuff: Hypothyroidism: meaning your thyroid is underactive in short it regulates your energy expenditure. and it can be not working well enough (hypothyroidism) or too much (hyperthyroidism) (btw, the hormones produced there use Iodine, thats why some table salst are idolized because its very important to get it) the most common form is hashimoto thyreoditis (where auto-antibodies attacked the thyroid cells and destroyed them, thus making them unable to produce the hormones needed), these hormones (T4 and T3) are therefore low. that can cause symptoms such as always cold, tired, hard to loose weight, hair/skin/nail problems and a slow heart rate (By comparison hyperthyroidism is where too much of these hormones is produced, thus high heart rate, always feeling hot, not gaining weight, etc) and neither is the „fault“ of a person. its just kinda bad luck. (similar to type 1 diabetes, the one children get, or even allergies. its often your immune system that acts up and destroys things its not supposed to destroy) (oh and the treatment for hypothyroidism is usually giving the hormones via pills, probably what she got there… and that should help with these problems already)

Beautifully presented, new subscriber here..!! If you haven't yet, can you touch on the casual almost comedic mention of suicide for every minor inconvenience in kdramas, also using it as the only alternative for a bad situation until someone shows up to magically change their mind.. Because I think that what we see is subconsciously fed into us and it may be one of the reasons of hightened suicide rates in South Korea.

For me, there were cute moments in Weightlifting Fairy with the romance, although it was a little strained on her part, but I couldn't fully get into it or enjoy it because of how ridiculous the idea was of Bok Joo really being this tiny girl with almost no muscle. It was just so unrealistic and I couldn't take the story seriously because of it, especially since it's loosely based off of a real person and her body is absolutely nothing like the actress that plays her.

Sometimes when I watch chinese dramas (the modern ones not old ) they bring up weight dieting and stuff casually emphasising that being over 45 kg is bad and stuff I personally didn’t experience much insecurities abt my weight so I shouldn’t be the judge here but I still find it very uncomfortable

I don't know though, I had a less severe eating disorder and ended up losing weight without health complications and after some time I gradually started to get myself to stop caring about how much and what I eat to instead eat as much as I want to, without medical intervention or psychiatric help. So I kind of related a bit with Kangnam Beauty's female lead.

about weightlifting fairy.. I'll admit that some of the diet advice the coaches give her isnt completely accurate but forcing her to eat makes sense considering she's a weightlifter.. I've been in situations like that myself where I've had to eat even though I was full to be able to put on muscle.. and in the context of the show she was trying to move to a higher weight class so she needed to put on weight fast.. it can be quite difficult to put on weight since she has a lot of muscle and her metabolism will be higher from that muscle mass and all her exercise.. so her eating habits aren't really "questionable".. as for the ex girlfriend yes she does display dangerous habits but the whole point of her character was to comment on the danger of these habits and how they can be life threatening... also i never thought that the male lead calling her chubbs was particularly a problem.. it didn't seem to come from a bad place and bok joo's feelings didn't seem to be genuinely hurt.. rather she seemed to recognise the nickname as just teasing.. i don't think this show intended to promote ideal eating habits from the beginning since all the characters are atheletes and their habits and diets *will* be shaped by the sport they play and how they train...

i agree completely, I also find it interesting the point of the ed is usually brought across with bulimia- I feel like it simplifies what an eating disorder is into something very physical and surface level. While almost always making it in regards to vanity rather than any other outside issues. I find it a bit disturbing that the eating disorder is used in a benifical way such as losing weight- until it goes 'too far' and there are then major health issues which are shown to be easily overcomeable. In my ID is gangnam beauty where it shows the main character having issues eating in front of her boyfriend I feel again is also only going somewhat surface level and I would have liked to see maybe the boyfriend helping work through the issues with her- or better- her going to a therapist to get into the deeper psychological reasonings. I like though that they did include the idea of not being able to properly eat in front of her boyfriend because it's the beginnings into an uncovery of the different impacts of an ed and not reducing it to one symptom only. Very interesting video- thank you! :))

I absolutely disagree with oh my venus. This show is really depiction of society and how we assume weight gain equals to eating a lot and not taking of yourself, rather than so many things causing it. Also love the main lead guy, he is absolutely right, he notices what's wrong with her almost immediately and he also tells her and himself that sexy is on the inside, which is correct. He himself deals with pain, chronics illness like cancer and psychological pain that comes from illness. This show was powerful and made me cry along side them. Also discuses before and after of weight loss for both actresses. I am in the medical field and the strict eating of certain foods and healing with more holistic ways of auto immune diseases like hypothyroidism should be normalized and is normal. Just because you want to indulge and have food fantasies doesn't mean you should indulge, self discipline is important. Another important thing discussed in this show that you missed is how they talk about sleeping on the couch instead of in the bedroom and basically her bad habits which may have lead to her hypothyroidism. It can be caused by lifestyle and he is kinda right when he says she kinda her a hand in the cause. Autoimmune diseases can be triggered by our lifestyle. Anyways so many good things to talk about with this drama from weight loss to weight gain to chronic pain to someone training for boxing championships. It's one of my all time faves. This show was more than weight loss. It was about health and ways it can go wrong. For once it wasn't just about the typical talked about issues of bulimia and aneroxia. Oh my Venus rules

Oh my venus was testing my patience every episode and the ending just pmo so much the male lead is a freak

'Oh My Venus' is one of my favourite KDramas. I am fat myself but have been doing martial arts a lot when I was younger. I think you are misunderstanding them as characters as well as how they are with each other in a relationship. Their initial relationship was him being a martial arts coach turning into a personal trainer for her due to her health and personal issues and desires. He saw potential in her and cared enough about her life to want to help her. This was not him forcing a life on her. She wanted to get healthier herself. Her goals were her own but she lacked guidance and persistence due to other factors in her life. And she really just likes all kinds of tasty food (can relate lol). He does what a personal trainer does and realised she wasn't talking out of her ass when he sees her slimmed down face for the first time. While that is partially superficial which I do not like, it's not entirely superficial because in that moment he also realises that all kinds of things she talked about before which he just could't see being true now suddenly ringing true to him which changed his whole image in his head about her. So it was understandable why he suddenly felt a lot more for her even though it was júst her face that had lost weight, something you left out. He fell in love with her while she still was fat. And now he wanted to help her even more but as a personal trainer you are naturally curious what the end result will be and look like. So the latter on top of being in love with her fueled for a whole lot of curiosity and excitement. Not saying that focussing on that is great for someone who is supposedly in love with you but seeing his background and who he is as a person, it is at least understandable and not necessarily toxic or anything. As for the baby thing, I think the directors/writers actually took a good shot here. The vision for it seemed to be that she is still herself and he doesn't love her less for it. His response was not in disappointment of her as you can see. It's more in stress of all their hard work having gone down the drain in such a short amount of time hahaha which I found really funny because as a fat person who has gone up and down, can relate lol. It was meant to be a funny haha moment. Anyway, great that you're doing an analysis but I hope both you as well as everyone else knows that this is your own perspective. Would be nice if you put that as a disclaimer. We all perceive things differently due to how life has formed us along with the experiences we have. I get your perspective, I personally cannot relate to it though. That doesn't mean it's wrong or right. It's just different due to most likely different life experiences and such. As for the topic of eating disorders, some characters in your named KDramas definitely had them and I am glad actually that characters like these are shown in KDramas. It needs awareness. Korean culture is tóó concerned about looking perfect. Both for men and women. It leads to SO MANY people dealing with all kinds of mental and physical health issues. There's a reason why I abruptly distanced myself from my overindulgence in Korean culture and entertainment years ago. I wasn't fat back then. I was just appalled with these nonsensical standards that have such high negative consequences and for what? Really for what? Is looking pretty to others worth ruining yourself over? It is not. And this is also why so many people started standing up against these unnecessary standards. Now people live more as their authentic selves. This even showed in skin colours (a lot of people used pale foundation colours even when it didn't colour match them), nowadays Korean people even tan to rebel against the ridiculousness. I remember when Hyuna made songs about how people called her dark-skinned and I as a brown person kept wondering ??? Who what where? Dark-skinned? She was 80 shades lighter than I am and I am considered medium to light brown lol. This ridiculousness also showed in how people talked about weight. If you weren't between the magical numbers of 40 and 55, you were fat according to many. Korean women shamed themselves when they fell outside of those ranges. I remember women of my height (178cm) wanting to be 40kg???? I would be non-existent if I were 40kg. Freaking Paper Mario esque. But nowadays (I saw a rise in this when globalisation started to rapidly increase due to the international rise of KPOP) I see more Korean people thinking "Fuck it." and I take my hat off for them. That's brave because still a large majority will talk down on you when they see you being supposedly 'fat'. But their braveness and courage will help in changing society's mentality for the better. A lot of respect towards them for carrying a large burden for the sake of being able to live the way they want to.

I have a thyroid issue and you can't fix it in a few months, it takes years. It's so dangerous to tell people that there's a magic way to lose weight when you have a thyroid or any other hormone issues. Your body is already doing its best to keep you alive, and chronic illness is no simple matter.