“Let me have men about me that are fat,

Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights.

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look,

He thinks too much; such men are dangerous” – Julius Caesar Act 1, Scene 2, 190-195

In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Caesar voices his apprehensions regarding Cassius. Caesar would rather surround himself with fat, content men who would never bite the hand that feeds him, not Cassius, who simply strikes him as “dangerous” because of his “lean and hungry look.”

While Shakespeare may not have been thinking about K-Pop, I think he hit the nail on the head when he was essentially suggested that skinny people can’t be trusted. And our offenders this time are the gorgeous goddesses, pretty princesses of So Nyeo Shi Dae.

Alright, so I don’t actually believe that skinny people can’t be trusted, but recently, in response to news that they consumed only 1200 calories a day, the girls retorted with laughs, claiming that they ate more than three meals a day, more than Super Junior, and around 3, 000 calories a day, and this all sounds incredibly suspect. It has almost as much truth as me announcing that Dong Bang Shin Ki’s Yunho and I are actually getting married this Sunday.

SNSD has been both praised and criticized for their weight. While some people praise their thin figures that could make paper bags look like haute couture get ups, others have criticized their breakable frames that could snap in half if the wind was too strong. Naturally, as public figures, these girls are bound to react to both the praise and the criticism. In response to the praise, I’m sure they dance around their dorm rooms reciting William Carlos William’s “Danse Russe.” But in response to the criticism, they are trying to convince us that they’re Fatty McFat Fats by letting us in on their enormous, unhealthy diets.

Does anyone else feel like a jerk besides me?

They eat five meals a day. Okay, great, dandy. But just because they eat five meals a day does not mean that they are stuffing their faces. In fact, according to research, the more you spread your food out throughout the day, the more meals you eat in a day, the better and healthier it is.

They spend more money on food than Super Junior. Again, great. But just because SNSD spends more money on food than Super Junior does not mean that they are eating more than Super Junior. In fact, all it means is that SNSD likes to spend more on their nom time than Super Junior.

They eat at least 3, 000 calories a day. I’m going to put my foot down and cry blasphemy on this one. I eat around 2, 100 calories a day and I’m still fatter than the biggest SNSD member. While there are these things called high metabolisms, what are the chances that SM Entertainment managed to find 9 girls with metabolisms that work at the speed of light and put them in the same group?

I’m not trying to say that these girls are opting to maintain their figures with poor dieting and god knows what, but insisting that they are able to maintain their figures eating whatever they want, whenever they want is just as worse.

It’s just as worse because I don’t believe they’re being a hundred percent honest. As idols, whether they like it or not, whether we agree or disagree, they are role models for the girls of Korea, Japan, and as of their global expansion, the rest of the world. And while the idea that they can do whatever they want with their bodies is amazingly magical, it’s not true. Everyone, regardless of the way their body works, needs to take care of their body. Telling the world that they eat a lot just to combat rumors that they don’t eat isn’t really the best thing to do because either way, they’re insinuating that they still don’t take care of what they eat. On top of that, they’re making it seem like it’s possible to remain thin and eat as much as they do. While it may be possible for some people, it sure as hell is not possible for everyone and it’s just another version of unrealistic expectations of a woman’s body.

But maybe a bigger problem is the preoccupation with weight in this industry and the rest of the world. The way we look, from weight to height to a plethora of other details that make up our overall appearance, is something upon which we judge ourselves and judge others. The girls of SNSD should not need to defend their figures, regardless of whether people are claiming that they are too fat or people are claiming that they are too thin. Hell, no man or woman should.

Sadly, this is the reality of K-Pop and to be fair, the much larger world that we live in. It is sad that SNSD feels the need to defend their thin figures at all, especially with these highly improbable idea that they can do whatever they want and still have runway ready bodies. Either way, SNSD, I’m having trouble believing your #skinnygirlproblems.

(Nate)