Eating Disorders in Korea

SNU THE SNU QUILL VOLUME 66 VOLUME DEC 17 FROM THE EDITOR I was outside a bookstore the other day when I saw this small boy run up to his sister and hit her in the face. He was yelling something at her, something indistinguishable because EDITOR-IN-CHIEF of the snot running down his nose, but I gathered that she had taken something from him. John Kim She responded to his provocation in a pretty reasonable way: she slapped him so hard he spun, then fell on the floor, screaming.The screaming made their parents turn around, see their older daughter with her hand outstretched in a brilliant forehand follow-through, and their SECTION EDITORS son on the floor, crying. The mom rushed over and picked up the boy and shushed him and told him to stop crying and that it was okay. The dad turned back around to his parents and Rakel Solli shrugged halfheartedly, and the three of them just sort of rolled their eyes. All throughout Yeji Kim this process, you could see on the girl’s face that she knew exactly what was coming. And sure Sylvia Yang enough, as soon as her brother stopped crying, the mom went over to the girl and told her with this deadly frozen voice that she shouldn’t bother rejoining the family until she realized how she was supposed to act in public. Then she went off to join her husband and her son CREATIVE DIRECTOR and his grandparents and they all walked away together, without her. The girl stood there for a while, her back turned to me, then ran to catch up with them. She never said anything. Minju Kim I got a pretty good view of the whole event. I got to see the mom’s face, the grandparents’ embarrassment, the girl’s arcing, cinematic strike. And it made me think about a lot of things. MANAGING DIRECTOR In particular, I found myself thinking about the violence inherent in raising children. How our modern traditions are in some ways even crueler than ordinary physical violence. Because Minju Kim yes: direct physical and verbal abuse has enormously detrimental consequences for a kid. But at least it’s an outburst. A lapse in judgment, not its controlled use. Because to give your kid that look––of blank disapproval and disgust––and to then walk off with the rest of your family, COVER BY leaving her there with one leg curled up against the other like a drooping stocking––there’s a premeditation there, a channeled coldness, that makes the whole thing look less like parenting Minju Kim and more like a really masterful kind of emotional manipulation. I’m not sure how to put a positive spin on this. But maybe what parents are really doing when PUBLISHER they discipline their kids this way is teaching them the rules of their world. That, for example, often the causes of things don’t really matter. That the most important thing is avoiding blame, Late Spring escaping culpability. And that the world will sometimes seem like it is actively trying to hurt you, but what’s important is that you take your isolation and shame, and place it on the soles of your feet like Hermes’ sandals, and rejoin the world anyway. That this is how you survive. ADVISOR Yours, – John Kim Prof. Jörg Michael Dostal 2 Volume 66 3 Feature SNU Society Arts & Culture Hiding in Plain Sight: Eating On Exchange at SNU Late Disorders in Korea by Jenny Cho by Whiyeon Sung 06 by Ga-in Oh 15 23 IN THIS ISSUE... The Imitation Game Questions: the More the Better? The Art of the Prick 10 by Helen Cho 19 by Yoorock Suh 27 by Maya Stevenson Two Years In Free Riding Wiped Out Connecting the Dots by Daniel Choi Papyruth by Michiel Kemmer 12 21 by Geonho Min 29 Quill Beats 29 by Quill Staff 4 Volume 63 5 COVER STORY very year, there are many ‘Days’ for is strong emphasis on ‘fitting in’ a certain certain groups of people: ‘Day of social norm, and anyone who doesn’t fit Ethe Disabled’ (April 20), ‘Day of the Na- in the norm sticks out like a sore thumb. tional Army’ (October 1), ‘International The social norm, especially for women, is Women’s Day’ (March 8) etc. But one day to be thin and so there is great pressure often goes unnoticed in Korean society, from all sides (family, friends, media) to and that is World Mental Health Day. maintain it. Korean society is also known Created by WHO, this day has the aim to be highly competitive. So when ‘be- of ‘raising awareness of mental health is- ing thinner’ becomes paired with ‘better sues’ and ‘mobilizing efforts in support ability’ and better chances to succeed in of better mental health’. Perhaps the lack society, people are all competing with one of attention paid to this day reflects our another to become thinner and pressuring lack of understanding of mental disorders themselves to lose weight. Studies have article around us. One important aspect of this shown there are fewer job opportunities, GA-IN OH are eating disorders. Ever since eating and even lower wages for the same jobs, section design disorders were officially diagnosed in the for overweight women in Korea. Some YEAEUN SHIN 1970s, their rate has been rising steadily. companies require women to write their A 2010 study found that 15 percent of height and weight in their resumes, even teen girls and 10 percent of boys in Korea when they are completely unrelated to the were suffering from an eating disorder. nature of work, e.g. being a bank teller. However, researchers say eating disorders In daily life, too, we see Youtube videos Feature are still probably underdiagnosed greatly of Korean girls at a healthy weight say- in Korea. So how did this come to be? ing they’re ‘fat’ and need to lose weight. HIDING IN We also see fat shaming being accepted Obviously, as eating disorders are men- as normal and being used as a source of PLAIN tal illnesses, so the reasons for their on- comedy in media, and people copying ce- set vary greatly from person to person. lebrities’ extreme diets just to lose weight. Someone’s eating disorder could be linked And in some cases, what merely started SIGHT: to other mental health issues they have, out as a diet can turn to a perpetual fear or personal histories and backgrounds. of eating and gaining weight, leading to Genetics may even play a role. Recent the development of an eating disorder. EATING research on mental disorders has shown eating disorders, and mental illnesses in The two most widely known eating dis- general are not that different from phys- orders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia DISORDERS ical illnesses, and that mental disorders nervosa, including more recent additions can arise from a deficiency in the brain of binge eating disorder(BED), eating or immune system. However, there is an disorders not otherwise specified (ED- IN KOREA opinion, among researchers who stud- NOS), among others. If you’re Korean, ied eating disorder cases in Korea, that you’ve probably at least heard of anorexia aspects of Koean culture definitely in- nervosa and bulimia nervosa, as a fleeting fluenced many of these cases. Like other paragraph in Health class textbooks. The East Asian countries, Korea has its roots textbooks briefly describe what they are, in Confucian culture. Even today, there what behaviors they entail, and tell 6 Volume 66 7 People view having a mental illness sufferer in their family as a disgrace, and something to be “ hushed. Feature learners not to emulate these behaviors. Anorexia What makes eating disorders so difficult to recognize a ‘crazy’ asylum patient, or criminals using mental patients will not be changed in a day. However, there and bulimia are also sometimes portrayed in movies and treat is the social stigma surrounding mental illness as an excuse for crime, when in reality, mental are definitely some things that can be changed, such or TV shows, and most people have heard of famous illnesses. Although there is a significant number of illness can occur to anybody and are more widespread as bettering education and raising awareness of eating models or celebrities who suffered and died from Korean people suffering from eating disorders (mainly than most think. People view having a mental illness disorders. Eating disorders shouldn’t just be two fleet- eating disorders. What the textbooks and media por- anorexia and bulimia), and the rates for these diseases sufferer in their family as a disgrace, and something ing lines in a Health textbook, and taught to people as trayals fail to talk about is the extent of damage an are significantly higher than most of the neighbor- to be hushed. What is worse is that mental illnesses something sufferers can just ‘overcome with a bit more eating disorder can have on its sufferer. Aside from ing countries’ (China, Taiwan, Vietnam, etc.), the are often seen differently from physical illnesses, and willpower’. Instead, they should be discussed more the obvious (yet still very serious) effects such as sufferers can be described as ‘hiding in plain sight’. as a matter of willpower. Just like a physical illness openly, and in more depth. Textbooks should focus malnutrition, impaired health or even death, an eat- If they are aware their behaviors fit the description takes time and proper treatment to be healed, mental on how eating disorders are a result of unreasonable ing disorder affects other parts of a person’s life.

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