Probably both a driving force and reflection of the increasing amount of male objectification in the Korean media since last year, then you may have noticed that female authors and commenters on K-pop blogs have become increasingly vocal in their admiration of male celebrities’ bodies these days. And with the provisos that such objectification can be problematic, and more of one sex by no means nullifying the negative effects of that of another, then all power to them, but it does increasingly tempt me to indulge myself a little too!
Hence I was considering presenting some pictures for Lee Hyori’s (이효리) recent photoshoot for Elle Korea here earlier today, but paused when I thought about how to describe her in them: after all, heaven forbid that a male blogger shift from simply using banalities like “she is sexy” when expressing admiration for a woman’s body, to discussing her body parts in the same manner that female bloggers now can and do of a man’s. Or is that just me?
Either way, the sky didn’t fall in the last time I posted a picture of a woman simply because I liked it, and so ultimately I probably would have done so this time too. Well before getting to that stage however, I happened to quickly click between the picture from Elle Korea itself above and that from MSN Korea below, and something much more interesting literally jumped out at me:
In case you’ve missed it, this GIF I’ve created shows how that switch looked:
Yes, not only did MSN Korea feel the need to enlarge her breasts, apparently they also thought that she was too fat too. Anybody else find the change simply more patronizing than sexy however?
Either way, it certainly makes yesterday’s video on Korean women’s perceived need for cosmetic surgery and weight reduction all the more poignant!
(For all posts in the Korean Photoshop Disasters series, see here)
The Grand Narrative 
Good lord, she hardly needs the enhancement… But it makes a pretty funny gif. Looks like she’s thrusting…
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Ha! After all that, strange I didn’t notice that aspect of it!
Looking more closely now though, it appears that her face has been altered too…by which stage the photoshopper(?) must finally have been at a loss for something else to work on.
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When do we get to the point that they just stop using real women period in ads?
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Wow, that is just unnecessary technical labor on the part of the photoshopper.
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And why did they reduce her butt? She’s one of the few Korean stars who is in any way thick, and I’d think that would be a benefit…
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It’s a discussion probably best confined to the next time we meet up for a drink really, but what the hell: I wouldn’t personally say Korean stars are lacking in that department, and I assure you I’ve looked just as much as the next guy (actually probably rather more, but let’s not go there!).
As for the general population though, of course everyone’s different, and then Korean women are the thinnest in the OECD too. But still, I think the notion that few Korean women have nice butts is too much of a generalization, and in hindsight one I’ve personally almost entirely heard from Americans too. Perhaps, like Whatsonthemenu noticed for BMI categories being different for Americans and Koreans in the last post, American men’s preferences tend to be rather large these days?
Or is that all just me? Either way, don’t take anyone of the above too seriously of course! ;)
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LOL…
Take you seriously? We’ve seen each other drunk.
Nah… not saying there can’t be nice Korean butts.. but that there is a continuum from the Korean butt to the African one. Which is a horribly reductive scale, but represents a reality.
That said, your argument seems to be they are making her “more” Korean by thinning it.. which I think is evidence for my point?
BTW… “hindsight?”
DEEEEWD!
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Nobody’s perfect, but Hyori’s pretty damn close to it!! Would you agree James? or would you say UEE instead, haha!
I agree that she doesn’t need the photoshop. Since there is photographic ‘evidence’ of her already having breast implants, why the extra enhancement?!
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Oh dear, if they need to “fix” Hyori then the ‘standard’ is unattainably, ridiculously high. She looks fantastic, and not quite as malnourished as the majority of the female SK celebs. What hope do “ordinary” women hope to get even close to that ideal? They’d need massive amounts of “fixing”, and even then that wouldn’t be sufficient – not to mention the side effects.
I’ve always thought that the kind of photo shoots that these pics are from do not produce attractive pics generally, and the shots which make it onto the front of mags like this seem more fictional than real. I guess SK photoshoppers must be very skilled from all the practice!
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