Fans defend ITZY's Yuna against allegations of using body enhancers

ITZY's Yuna recently came under fire on social media for allegedly using hip enhancing pads during the promotions of their recent comeback CHECKMATE.

The idol was spotted with a curvier-than-usual-waist at all the promotional events. Moreover, with the release of the paparazzi pictures, fans started speculating that ITZY's Yuna was resorting to body enhancements for aesthetical purposes.

She has often been praised for her facial features and physique. Her actress-like aura has never failed to gain attention and set her apart from the crowd.

However, netizens criticized the idol for trying to modify her actual body-shape. At the same time, many fans came forward to defend the idol for her choice and instead appealed for lesser scrutiny against celebrities.

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ITZY's Yuna criticised for alleged usage of hip pads

ITZY'S Yuna was recently criticized by netizens for the alleged use of butt pads to make her waist look curvier. Netizens criticized ITZY's Yuna for trying to modify her body image when she is already quite pretty. According to some, such a move goes on to set unrealistic standards of beauty for fans.

However, some netizens also came forward to defend ITZY's Yuna, stating that she had every right to wear anything that made her feel confident. After all, it comes down to an individual's choice. The responsibility of making K-pop idols feel safe to present their true selves lies as much with the public.

The netizens stated that the audience ought to stop commenting and paying attention to every little detail about the idols' physicality and should focus on their music and work instead.

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The K-pop industry is infamous for its unrealistic beauty standards

The K-pop industry is notorious for having unrealistic beauty standards that border on the unachievable. The conventions seem to be even harsher for female idols, who are expected to be the epitome of perfection at all times.

Aside from demanding big eyes, a small face with a v-line jaw, a high nose bridge, and plump big lips, the unreasonable standards also force them to sport extremely slender bodies, preferably with an hourglass shape.

Women in South Korea who generally do not have a genetically voluptuous body tend to feel pressured to wear enhancements for their self esteem. This trend is very common in the K-pop music industry, where female idols are almost compulsorily forced to wear chest and hip pads to look appealing during their stage performances and in music videos.

Several former K-pop trainees have come out and confessed to being forced to wear such enhancements, which were not only extremely painful and inconvenient, but also damaging in the long run.

Not to forget that their self esteem was crippled to such an extent that they couldn't venture out without resorting to these enhancements.

Christine Park, a former member of the K-pop group Blady (now disbanded), once revealed that female idols needed to have a "glamorous body or a very voluptuous body", and she revealed that bra pads and hip pads were a "must". She also added,

"Everytime we were on stage we would either wear certain bra pads or hip pads to basically enhance our bodies and ya its depressing because when I'd come home and take off all the bra and butt pads, I felt very disgusted with my body and unconfident."

K-pop idols feel pressured to wear them to escape the constant scrutinization of their bodies from society. But it does not work out, for the same reason it comes back to put them under the spotlight, demanding an answer for setting unrealistic trends.

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ITZY debuted under JYP entertainment in 2019 and earned the title of Monster Rookies of the era. Their debut single "Dalla Dalla" performance was so good that they scored their first broadcast station music show in a record-making 11 days and won on MNET's M!Countdown in just 9 days of its release.

The music video for the single also crossed a record 24 million views, the most for any K-pop group debut.

Their latest comeback, CHECKMATE, mark ITZY’s highest number of stock pre-orders for an album to date, but it also makes “CHECKMATE” only the fourth girl group album in history to surpass 700,000 stock pre-orders. The other girl groups to have achieved this feat were aespa's Girls, BLACKPINK's THE ALBUM, and TWICE's Formula of Love: O+T=<3.