Being Plus Size in Korea
I was bound to stand out for many reasons, including my body shape.
I have never been thin by any standard, at least not since puberty struck. While I was trained from an early age to see my body as a project to be improved, it didn’t hold me back. I loved to travel and have adventures, so when the chance to move to South Korea appeared shortly after graduating, I jumped at it.
The scale had always been my enemy, so how would I fare in one of the thinnest countries in the world? And should other larger people fear traveling to countries that present an image that makes it seem like bigger bodies are absent in their world?
How Did People See Me?
Yes, there are larger people in Korea despite their absence from depictions in the media. What made me stand out, other than my sun-starved translucent skin and demonic blue eyes, was my body shape. In western countries there tends to be more diversity of ethnic background, more variety of looks. Someone’s figure is more than just their weight, but how that weight is configured. Body shape is just as important as body size.
Korea isn’t a very diverse country and there’s just less overall variety of body types. Rectangular or column-like body shapes are the most common among women, with some larger…
