Dieting

(Source: Seoul Focus, May 17 2011, p. 13)

(Source)

Do you think Arirang should have removed its  Twist in Figures video from YouTube?

A simply surreal video making the rounds at the moment. As explained by Lisa at Sociological Images, it:

…beautifully illustrates the socialization of children into particular kinds of worship. With hand motions, body movements, and facial expressions, this child is doing a wonderful job learning the culturally-specific rules guiding the performance of devotion.

How cool is it that someone so young makes a video starting like this:

Now, I’ve been here [in Hong Kong] for about…3 and a half years…and I think that if you look at common stereotypes, and you look at the way women are portrayed in the media, there are basically 3 main categories of role models for young girls to look up to. I call them: the sex-object, the virgin baby-machine, and the [bitchy] career woman. And the thing is, I can’t help but feel that it doesn’t matter which category a woman finds herself falling into…cause they all suck! And no matter what she chooses, she just can’t win!

This time, a live phone-interview on tomorrow’s This Morning show on TBS e-FM, Busan e-FM’s sister station in Seoul. Hosted by Dr Hans Schattle, a political science professor at Yonsei University, I’ll be talking alongside Dr. Robert Kushner of Northwestern University on the overuse of diet pills in Korea, with me focused on the sociological aspects of dieting and body image in general. Catch me there from roughly 8:40am either before, together with, or after Dr.