i feel sorry for the millions of insecure girls out there who think that this is what defines beauty

Have no idea in how/what people see this sick and dangerously skelaton thin woman look sexy? Both girl look so much better before. I wonder with that kind of flat behind, when she (han Ji Hye) sit down doesnt she feel any pain from her back bone hitting the couch? I never comment anything like this but this is it " that picture is disgusting, she still act cute and thoght that she looks pretty, in fact she's plain sick.

I love Han Ji Hye's old look more..She looks scarily thin now...Like matchstick..

yup Han Ji hye's thin specially after shooting daily drama for several months..but after that drama she said she added 5 lbs which is not enough...good thing is that she said in her CY she needs to eat more..which means she doesn't want to stay stick thin..her face is smaller in Likable or not compared to EOE...

Jung Ryeo-won really needs to put on some weight and eat healthy. She looked so much better last time.

She's Totally skinny from the First time i saw her in Samsoon, she totally has Eating disorder?? but some actress and actor they lost their weight for their role like kim jung eun ( * kg ), Joo jin mo ( 10 kg ), JIS ( 8 kg ), Song kang Ho too ~ but he recover now

I'm sorry to say but this is just nasty. There's nothing attractive about being frail and malnourished.

What is a W-line, U-line and M-line? The "whole fragile and weak, corset thin Engish lady trend" is coming back.

omg jaw shaving?!
that is like something from a violent and bloody horror movie.
i seriously shivered at that.
at least she realises she should start eating again.
man, there IS a limit people!

Yes, please do eat!

just panicking..
youre still recapping "the world they live in righttttt"?

D: I hope girls don't try to do this. I remember awhile back (and who knows; it may still be going on under my nose) there was a major trend in the US for girls to look like Mary-Kate Olsen. Some people thought she was the definition of beauty, and the fact that it took anorexia for that look procured no pity or shame out of most who were interested.

Does inner beauty not count one bit?
No wonder the suicide rate is so high in Korea.
You know what? On campus, I see two kinds of Korean girls...ones that are really skinny and the others that are almost obese. What does that tell you?

If an over-weight Queen Latifah can be categorized as "beautiful" and "healthy" then I don't see why we can't make the same assumptions for these women.

At the end of the day, we all put too much emphasis on women's appearance.

cjgohan2003, I think the point is tthat they aren't healthy. Even just a few months ago Ryeo Won and Ji Hye looked so much healthier and happier before their drastic weight losses. Ryeo Won looks so miserable or blank these days.

omg koreans really used the word anorexia? i cant believe it. i really hope its going to become a real subject. because until now... the "I" line seemed to be the #1 aspired figure among korean women =(

han jihye has always been that skinny, her face just looks 'fat' compared to her body, thats why nobody noticed?

meow.

^ uh, even HJH admitted she lost weight recently.

yeah maybe she lost even more which kinda scares me. but she's always been VERY skinny @_@

i just hope & pray they don't go too far with this thin is IN (I line nowadays) cause I agree with a few comments here that both these actresses look good before & i didn't see anything wrong with their figures before. for example Jung she looked good in her old projects as well as Han who looked good already in Secret Lovers (that's the latest i've seen of her so i cannot relate on the other latest projects she's on like East of Eden as i haven't reached that epis with her on it). I hope Han doesn't lose anymore & turns to be anorexic!

wow who knew that Koreans new the word anorexia almost all the women are very skinny to be honest i would never want to be celebrity in Korea im black so having no butt or tits is a no no im skinny to and worry about my wait but dont want I line

Wow... the first pic. Her neck and collarbone.... I just.... is that something to aspire to?

There's nothing wrong with losing weight. I probably could stand to lose some weight for health reasons. But these stars... I can't imagine such figures being NATURAL, (unless you have an overactive metabolism). It's probably the result of over-exercising and dieting. And it's probably not healthy.

cjgohan2003-Queen Latifah is beautiful, not overweight. She positively GLOWS with health and energy. Can I say the same about these girls?

No one said overweight was beautiful, but neither is being stick-thin. Because those are signs of EATING disorders, and you can probably tell by the way they look and act (lack of energy for example). This type of image horrifies me. You're mistreating your own body, becoming sick and depriving yourself of food to gain this ideal image. Bound feet and corsets, anybody?

I'm planning to lose 20 lbs...

looking at this...I should just embrace my body.

Anyway, I don't really understand why JRW is losing so much weight. She was fat before? (Sarcastic...) I don't understand how they view skinny = beautiful. What matters, like I say a million times, is how you LOOK, not by the WEIGHT!

As long as you are fit and healthy, who cares about the #.

If people want to look like Latifah let them, same with girls who strive to look like these actresses. That's all I'm saying.

i used to think Jung Ryeo-won was really pretty but with the way she looks now, not anymore. she looked good the way she was back then, i don't know why celebrities think "stick-like figures" make you 'sexy'.

huh? BoA? are you serious?
She was very skinny in her Girls on Top era, but now she's got the perfect body size. How come the article mentioned her?

Wow, Jung Ryeo Won almost looks like she doesn't even have the energy to stand...let alone smile...gosh. She looks totally like she's dying if you took all that make up away. There's a youtube video of her making home made tee shirts or something for some premier and she almost sounds like she can't hardly talk and is out of breath. Hope that she starts eating soon....I thought they've finished filming Mellows already?

I wonder if korean men think women who have bones sticking out is attractive?

I"f an over-weight Queen Latifah can be categorized as “beautiful” and “healthy” then I don’t see why we can’t make the same assumptions for these women. "

First of all Queen Latifah is not overweight and if people would have been paying attention to the news then they would know she just lost 25 pounds via Jenny Craig.

If you have a B-line, does that make you a hermaphrodite?

Pretty much everybody, boys and girls, are losing weight on the East of Eden set. It's a tough shoot with long hours, difficult to keep your weight when you're working 12-16 hour days.

Jung Ryeo Won had to lose an extreme amount of weight for her role in Melo. She's been busy with other projects, and so she too has had difficulty bringing her weight up. It's not a body image or beauty issue for her. That said, there is stunning resemblance to Mika Nakashima now, who probably is still skinnier than JRW.

The core problem isn't the weight. It's how virtually every aspect and permutation of body image has been objectified into a "thing" (or in this case, a "letter.") Even when this is done as a well-meaning reproach against a destructive, malnutritious behaviour, it merely reinforces that a specific body image, this absurd alphabet of femininity, is a cause (rather than symptom) and solution. Now, having said that, this is also being expressed from an American standpoint. There is no feel-good element in Asian culture and "loving yourself for who you are" is ridiculed even by my parents.

"But there are progressive waves in Asia, in Korea, that are embracing more emphases on individual value (which have traditionally been thought to be Western constructs) and promote self-acceptance and self-love."

Mmm, I feel the nature of the discourse itself hasn't changed as much, because the language still concerns itself with material identification. Self-acceptance and self-love are still attached to saying "it's okay I don't have an S-line", "it's okay if I am not beautiful", "it's okay if I am not well off." Even something like Coffee Prince or Painter in the Wind gets processed differently between domestic and Western sensibilities. Here, we talk about its gender twist. There, they talk about how it tweak conventions of feminine beauty. Not that I'm criticizing, per se, since this is only a wrinkle in the differences between here and "over there."

hmmm. yeah, i basically sport the "O" line. har har.

"There (I presume you refer to Korea), they talk about it in terms of both gender/homosexuality and beauty, not just beauty "

Yeah you're right about that.

"You make some good points — of course Western and Eastern thought processes bear differences due cultural issues — but I think that aspect is oversimplified."

I don't mean to make a "Great Wall of Orientalism" impasse argument. My viewpoint is that beauty in Asia is about expressing or pretending to a certain material success and status, not necessarily peer acceptance or well-being (as it would be here.) To look pretty is to look/be rich. Pop culture is filtered as such to reinforce this, increase the level of discourse, and introduce more options of wealth objects to attain in order to enhance your class status. Eastern notion of beauty is what you can share with others; what you share with others is what you "own." (Western-speak: "Look at my X/ I am A because you look at my X.." Eastern-speak: "Let me show you my Y. I am B because I gave you my Y.")

My question is why exactly are some of these stars, like jung ryeo won told to lose weight for a drama role??? (even if they arent told to, which im sure they probably are, they still feel the need to lose weight)
I dont get it at all. I mean if they are like 5"6 5"7...whatever height....and they are like 35kg or like 90-100lbs, why exactly do they need to lose anymore weight when they already have healthy bodies or at least their weight is right for them and their bodies.
I just dont get it. Overweight or underweight, why cant people just ever think of healthy or not healthy? i mean eating too much is the same as eating too little.
And these stupid diets that stars go on for roles and completely pointless and unhealthy.

"My question is why exactly are some of these stars, like jung ryeo won told to lose weight for a drama role???"

JRW had to lose a lot of weight for a upcoming movie, opposite my man Lee Jung Jae. She plays a character who has been in a coma for a year. She's next up for a sageuk with Park Min Young, which are typically grueling for leads. She's going to have significant problems keeping her current weight, and the stress might be dangerous.

The pressure applies to both actors and actresses. Lee Jung Ki was considered a little pudgy before he took on Time of Dog and Wolf and had to lose weight. Jo Ji Hoon has lost a lot of weight since Goong. Also, production shoots nowadays have become even more strenuous. Everybody in Iljimae and East of Eden lost weight during the grind.

skin and bones is not attractive or healthy to me. but, unfortunately it's the standard of beauty over there and i was constantly harped on about my weight when i was visiting my relatives in Seoul this summer--both by relatives and strangers (i'm 5'5" and a size 6). i consider myself a pretty independent and strong-willed female but towards the end of my month long visit, i was borderline bulimic. social norms there are vicious and "real" (read: socially acceptable) beauty cannot be achieved if you weigh over 50kg.
Thank God I live in the USA.

"social norms there are vicious and “real” (read: socially acceptable) beauty cannot be achieved if you weigh over 50kg."

Yeah, that was my impression too. Also, to Asians in general, we (i.e. Americans) are viewed as really, really fat and "decadent/lazy/spoiled" (not that I necessarily disagree if you consider working 12-16 hours a day is normal there), so protesting that just fans the flames. I'm not complaining though. Other cultures say that about us too.

Man, the Koreans have seriously such a distorted view on body image. The way she looks screams desperation. People are dying all over the world because they have no food and yet they're starving themselves?

A healthy body like Jennifer Garner's and Kate Winslet's is very attractive and sends out a positive body image message to all of their fans. Since when was skin and bones ever attractive? I thought we were over with the Twiggy era?

i think people gotta start to realize that beauty is not just physically. awesome face doesn't grant you an access to be arrogant or ill-mannered. i have came across really (i mean really) sexy and beautiful people... but as soon as you start to know them.. you kinda want to get them out of the picture for their bad attitudes ha! my interest and likeness grows when someone has a good characteristic/personality (inner beauty), at least for me.

It is a trend in the modern world. Whether you are in the U.S. or in Asia being thin is the social word. It's a every girl's dream to be thin because of the advertisements, fashion, and clothings. Everyone is dying to be thin. Some people just starve themselves while others are gym freak. Every girl wants to be in size 0. No girl wants to be in size 10.
I believe in Korea is the same too. I don't know why but it's just a girl thing. It's a common thing for girls to be anorexic or bulimic. If you starve yourself too much, then you'll eat so much and vomit up everything to avoid gaining weight.
I hope Ryu Jung can be in real life drama soon because eating disorder affects every human being in this world whether you are rich or poor. Ryu Jung is then able to create eating disorder awareness for the future hope.

We want to deny there is no eating disorder but we can't. Isabelle Caro, a French model, actress, and author died at the age of 28 because of anorexia nevosa. She was 1.65m and weighed only 25kg. Since Ryu Won Jung is the honorary ambassador to raise Korea's Tourism, she should take this opportunity to educate the people about the damaging effects of eating disorder. A drama that would change and save the lives of many.