Body image: The skinnier the better?

About a couple of weeks ago, I was just surfing on the internet updating myself on the latest news on Korean singers. Mostly this news is about their music and performances, but there’s also news on things like fashion or funny/beautiful pictures they took from themselves. However, when I ran across this picture, I did not find it funny or nice to look at, at all.

Brave Girls’ So-Ah uploaded this picture on her groups twitter account. Some people commented on how her abs are ‘killer’, while a lot of other people said that she is way too thin. And I cannot help but to agree with the latter.

Now I have nothing against people whose bodies are naturally tiny, but I highly doubt that this girl is naturally this skinny. The lack of body fat made her abs pop up and her arms literally look like skin and bones. She is smiling brightly in these pictures, almost as if she is promoting being underweight. The fact that young girls can look at this picture and believe that this is how a woman’s body should look like, makes me cringe.

A couple of days later, news popped up about SNSD’s Yuri. In a group that consists of 9 members, she has always looked like the most healthy one. You can also say that she was the biggest one, but really, this girl is far from being overweight or anything. When I took a look at these pictures, I kind of felt disappointed.

From a more defined body with curves, she went to an almost fatless and fragile body. Now I won’t call her ugly, or less pretty or anything, but I do think she looks kind of sick in the newer picture. This just got me wondering, did she really think she had to lose all that weight to feel more pretty? Yuri looked fine before, she was never close to being overweight. Something must have pressured her to start losing all that weight.

Is it really okay for our society and media to give more pressure on getting a thinner body? Because in every girls/woman’s magazine you’ll find an article on how to get rid of your belly, how to get your body summer ready or even on how ripped a celebrities body looks like. Instead of focusing on the appearance of our bodies, let’s try to look at the health of our bodies. In my opinion, every girl looks the prettiest when she has that healthy glow around her. Because I believe in when you live healthy, you will also look healthy, not too thick not too thin.