Korean Netizens Take A Look At Evolving Beauty Standards With Each Girl Group Generation

Beauty standards are consistently evolving. With each passing generation in K-Pop, the type of face and body that is considered “beautiful” is highly reliant on trends. A netizen’s recent compilation of the various girl groups per generation led many to realize how the standards are not only getting increasingly stricter, but how girl groups are also shrinking in bodily size.

1. 2nd Generation

The most popular girl groups all had gorgeous legs. Back then, beautiful legs were considered the highest standard of beauty for bodies. As long as you had long, slender, but toned legs, you didn’t need abs.

Wonder Girls’ Sohee was highly praised for her legs. Of course, Girls’ Generation took this beauty trend to the next level and focused an entire song choreography on their legs with “Genie.”

2NE1’s Park Bom was also famous for her legs. Everyone wanted legs like hers, so much so that the “Park Bom Diet” became well-known throughout the country.

KARA chose to focus on their midriff instead, as their song “Mister” highlighted their hips and waist.

As the 3rd generation rolled around, rather than focusing on a singular body part like in the 2nd generation, girl groups had a good body balance overall.

They had to be slim all around, such as with TWICE.

As Red Velvet peaked in the summer with “Red Flavor,” they wore cropped tops and shorts on stage.

Overall, girl group outfits got shorter and revealed more skin to suit the fashion trends, putting the pressure on them to look even skinnier.

The term “gakseonmi,” used to describe toned and slender legs, began to disappear and the public began to focus on the entire body rather than just the legs. BLACKPINK are all known to be rather petite.

Standards got even stricter in the 4th generation. By the time aespa debuted, people were buzzing about proportions and head size.

Whether one had hips or not was also highly debated, even though this had more to do with bone structure rather than weight.

IVE’s overall slim figures popularized the skinny aesthetic for a period of time. Rather than having only one or two super slim members like in the earlier generations, girl groups had to match their members overall in terms of size. This toxic standard led to much debate and criticism.

It seems like things are looking up as many now feel that strong and healthy-looking bodies are ideal. LE SSERAFIM’s trademark toned and slim bodies are gaining popularity as the new ideal.

After taking a look at the compilation, netizens couldn’t help but worry for the strict beauty standards idols are subjected to.

• They’re skinny. They are, but for me, when I see my niece, who’s still a baby, talk about dieting, I realize that the influence is really big.
• Being healthily skinny is just a fantasy.
• Being skinny was originally something that only girls favored. Even the female idols that swept the female-dominate community sites 10s of years ago all only had straight legs without curves and that was the type of body that other girls loved and looked up to. It’s not fair to just blame the media. Of course, gender aside, most celebrities in the media are slim but only the super skinny bodies are always favored online by other girls. And to match this standard, celebrities are literally shaving their bones.
• I really hope that a girl group with healthy bodies will have a mega hit.
• Idols in particular, even male idols, are forced to strict standards about their weight.
• The true problem is how they get praised after losing weight.
• Aren’t their muscles showing just because they’re skinny?

With the increasingly strict standards of beauty, it is important for the public to note that health is always better than forcing oneself to fit a particular body type. Although celebrities may feel the pressure due to their jobs, as a non-celebrity, one should always prioritise your own mental and physical health.