REVIEW Giaae Kwon's memoir traces how K-pop saved her life
In Korea, a bit of extra weight around the midsection can be a positive thing... for a man. I found that out shortly after arriving in Korea in April 1978. Never, though, in the decades since have I heard a single congratulatory word about even a trace of pudginess in a Korean woman. Rather, as we learn in Giaae Kwon’s 2025 memoir, "I’ll Love You Forever: Notes from a K-Pop Fan," the slightest display of obesity can lead to long-lived shaming of the individual. South Korean women are subject to some of the strictest standards of female beauty worldwide, one of the most prominent being maintenance of a slim figure. We learn that for Kwon the shaming began in high school and lasted for a decade. Though growing up bilingual and bicultural to first-generation Korean immigrants to the U.S., she came to believe that she lacked “the right body to belong among Koreans.” What, then, did K-pop fandom do to alleviate the trauma she experienced? There are, after all, as Kwon observes, toxic elements to K-pop such as misogyny and exploitation. The answer, she realized in retrospect, was that
May 1, 2026By Bruce Fulton
