It is common knowledge that K-Pop idols are often expected to achieve hard-to-reach beauty standards. This includes maintaining a low body weight and appearing as skinny as possible.
Former member of MOMOLAND Daisy recently talked about her experience with this diet culture as a trainee.
Daisy | @daisiesforyu/Instagram
In a TikTok shared on her account, Daisy begins by saying she would tell a story about her time as a trainee, prefacing it with a warning against assuming it is about any specific company, as she was under multiple.
She says that, like most K-Pop companies, this specific one held monthly evaluations and would have a year-end evaluation in December.
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This evaluation would be themed like a year-end award show and not as “serious” as the other monthly evaluations. The company would hand out awards to the trainees, mostly light-hearted, like those who came to the practice room the most or who improved the most.
They did like a themed one, it was kind of giving year end award show vibes. It was like less serious than the other monthly evaluations. And because it was like an award show, they gave out awards. And these awards were basically just like custom made trophies that you can order online. And these awards were very unserious and lighthearted in spirit. The categories were the person who came out to the practice room the most or the person who improved the most.
— Daisy
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Daisy says she didn’t think much about the last category then but remembered how it was “kind of weird.” She says the last category was literally called “the Diet Award” and was given to the person who lost the most weight.
But today, I’m going to talk about the last category because I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but I suddenly remembered this and I was like ‘oh, this is kinda weird.’ I don’t know if some of you might have seen this coming, but the last category was literally called ‘the Diet Award,’ given to the person who lost the most weight.
— Daisy
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The former idol says that while she understands the company meant to reward hard work, it rubbed her the wrong way, remarking that none of the trainees were adults. The person who accepted the award would give a speech, and Daisy admitted she wanted to win it, too.
I get the company’s intention of rewarding hard work. I think that’s great. But I can’t seem to put my finger on why this rubs me the wrong way. Not a single trainee in that room was an adult. We were all just middle schoolers and high schoolers, even, I’m pretty sure there were, like 11 year olds.
So, nonetheless, the winner got their award, the little trophy, they said a little acceptance speech, along the lines of ‘I’ll try to lose more weight.’ At the time, I didn’t think this was weird at all. If anything, I was like ‘oh I want that too.’
— Daisy
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Daisy finishes the video by saying that she hoped that the company would stop doing those awards, saying she shared the story to get confirmation that it was weird. She says she “lost her sense of judgment” when discussing these topics, reflecting how diet culture can affect how an individual views certain things.
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Hopefully, as Daisy said, the company no longer gives out this award, even if it is meant to be “lighthearted.”
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