"I Want to Become a Bone-Dry Thorn Man" 1020 Imitating Extreme Fasting [Dito Society]

②Starving, vomiting, and repeating for a slim body
Extreme fasting copied exactly from YouTube and SNS
1 in 6 underweight women in their 20s attempt weight loss
"We must change the social atmosphere that induces unnecessary dieting"

Editor's NoteThe Seoul National University Consumer Trend Analysis Center has identified 'Ditto consumption' as one of the top 10 keywords for 2024. Ditto, derived from the Latin word meaning 'the same,' refers to the tendency to imitate celebrities' tastes and trends when purchasing products or consuming content. This article analyzes the blind 'Ditto' phenomena in Korean society, such as the lowering age of luxury consumption and the increasing trend of trend-chasing investments.

The number of teenagers and people in their twenties who starve themselves and induce vomiting to achieve a thin body is increasing. Those who want to become a "bony person" (someone so thin that their bones are prominently visible) imitate the extreme weight loss methods of celebrities and influencers who maintain slim figures. Anorexia and eating disorders have become a trend.

The so-called 'pro-anorexia' individuals who follow anorexia as a trend are gradually increasing. According to the National Health Insurance Service, a total of 51,253 patients received treatment for eating disorders over the past five years (2018?2022). The number of patients with eating disorders increased significantly from 8,517 in 2018 to 12,714 in 2022. It is well known that excessive weight loss is harmful to health. Extreme dietary restrictions can cause anemia, hair loss, amenorrhea, osteoporosis, and nutritional deficiencies. Especially during adolescence, when brain development is ongoing, it can lead to obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and negatively affect mental development.

[Image source=Pixabay]

The place where pro-anorexia individuals form a sense of community is social networking services (SNS). Here, pro-anas communicate using their own language. Neologisms such as 'gaemalla' and 'ppyeomalla,' which refer to extremely thin bodies, describe the ideal body type for pro-anas. These neologisms refer to a weight that is the person's height minus 120 to 130. For example, a person who is 160 cm tall would weigh around 35 kg.

A celebrity who reveals that they survived for days eating only water and ice to lose weight becomes a role model for pro-anas. When pro-anas eat because of encouragement from people around them, they seek comfort by saying they were "fed against their will" and receive advice to "eat and purge (vomit to avoid weight gain)." Those who have lost a lot of weight through harsh fasting are sometimes called 'named' (famous) on SNS. Pro-ana named individuals share how they maintain their dietary obsession through their accounts or post photos of their bony limbs with the hashtag 'pro-ana stimulation.' When someone asks for advice saying, "I keep giving up fasting because of weak willpower," they sometimes respond harshly, saying, "You are not truly desperate. Live as a pig for life." They are a kind of 'pro-ana authority.'

Professor Im Myeong-ho of Dankook University's Department of Psychology said, "The younger the age, the more behavioral learning called modeling occurs, where they imitate famous figures appearing in media and SNS," and expressed concern that "as the culture of preferring thin bodies spreads excessively, many people try to lose weight rapidly."

This tendency is especially strong among younger people and women. According to a report published this year by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency titled 'Attempt Rates and Related Factors of Weight Loss According to Body Mass Index Classification of Korean Adults,' one in ten women (9%) with a normal or underweight body weight attempted to lose weight, which is twice the rate of men (4.5%). Among underweight women in their twenties, one in six (16.2%) reported having tried to lose weight, and 1.7% of them even perceived their body shape as obese.

The report pointed out, "A social atmosphere that prefers thin body types and induces indiscriminate weight control has formed, leading to a high rate of body shape overestimation among young women. To prevent the continuation of a social atmosphere that encourages unnecessary dieting, it is important not only to provide education on healthy body image but also to create a social atmosphere through mass media and other channels."