Living fully in a land of slim expectations
After moving to South Korea, 'Plus Size in Paris' author Erin Zhurkin found unexpected inspiration for her sequel
Three years ago, author Erin Zhurkin moved to South Korea, and her fictional heroine came with her.
Abby Allerton, the plus-size influencer at the heart of 'Plus Size in Paris', had already taken on Parisian fashion and cultural expectations in the first book. Now, in a Seoul-set sequel currently in the works, she's about to face an entirely different set of beauty standards.
The push for a Korean story didn't come from publishers or agents, she said. It came from Korean readers.
'It's a sequel, and it was inspired by launching the (first) book here in Seoul, during my first year in Korea,' Zhurkin said during an interview with The Korea Herald.
At the book launch event in Seoul, one the attendees raised her hands and asked, "Are you going to write a version set in Korea?''
At first, Zhurkin wasn't sure. 'I said, 'Do you think I should? I don't know if it would be accepted.''
The response was immediate.
'They told me, 'It's a big problem here: girls with anorexia, girls not eating, girls feeling really bad about their bodies,'' she said. 'They said it would be powerful to have a book from an outsider's perspective.'
Body image pressure from a young age
As she works on the new book, Zhurkin has been researching how Korean girls experience body image pressure, and what she's found is troubling. In the upcoming sequel, she hinted, readers might see those themes appear.
'It makes me sad,' she said. 'Such young girls, worrying about things that just aren't important. They should be out playing and dancing and painting.'
The issue especially hits close to home. Zhurkin is currently raising two of her three daughters in Seoul. Her oldest, now in college in the US, attended high school in Korea. Her 12-year-old twins are in Seoul, attending middle school.
'We talk a lot about what they hear from classmates,' Zhurkin said. 'There are so many comments flying around about looks, about what girls should eat or not eat. Things like, 'Oh, I don't know if I should eat that.' And they're twelve.'
In their home, she's tried to keep the focus off appearance.
'At our house, we just don't talk about bodies. It's a nonissue,' she said. 'My girls are slim, so it's not that they're being targeted for their size. But there's still so much commentary, from classmates, from adults, about their faces, their face shape, their nose and their eyes.'
She explained that her daughters were unsure at first how to react to those comments, even when they were positive.
'One of them said, 'I love all the compliments. It makes me feel really good.' But then she added, 'It's just a lot. It's a lot of focus (on looks).''
Pervasive fatphobia
Some of Zhurkin's experiences in Korea may find their way into her new fiction, like a gynecology appointment for a procedure last year that turned into a three-month ordeal. Doctors fixated on her weight, warning she could 'die on the table' from heart complications if put under anesthesia.
She was sent for a full cardiac checkup, prescribed statins she couldn't tolerate, and told her perfectly normal test results weren't good enough.
Eventually, she flew back to the US in January.
'I went back to the US and did the procedure without any complications or issues,' she said.
When Zhurkin shared this episode with Kim Gee-yang, one of Korea's first plus-size models, she told her that 'she is not surprised,' and that ignorant comments and assumptions at hospitals are common in Korea.
The author also noted that it wasn't her first difficult experience at a Korean hospital.
'Every year I've done the annual checkups they offer here,' she said. 'The first year I went, there were no gowns that fit me.'
At Korea University Hospital, one staff member accompanied her between tests, gently trying to preserve her privacy. 'There was this lovely lady who walked around with me,' she said. 'She held the robe shut the whole time.'
Even outside hospitals, the message followed her. At a Korean tea expo, booth after booth offered her slimming tea, a pitch never directed at her thinner friend that she went with.
'Every booth I walked up to, they'd say, 'Oh, I have slimming tea for you,'' she said. 'It got so predictable, it became a game. I turned to my friend and said, 'Let's bet five bucks the next one says it.' And sure enough, 'We have slimming tea for you.' It just became a joke.'
'I've gotten to the point where I can laugh at these moments. So they don't cut as deep anymore,' she said. 'The medical thing did. I wasn't ready for that. But the rest, I can laugh a little,' she added.
Breaking the silence
Zhurkin is careful to point out that fatphobia isn't uniquely Korean.
'This is happening all over the world,' she said. Still, she added, Korea stands out for the intensity of its beauty standards.
'I wish it wasn't (as extreme). Because there are so many beautiful parts of this culture you're sharing with the world.'
But she's also seen small signs of change. She felt this when she recently had a talk with one of Korean plus-size model Kim.
'She did a really thoughtful video on Arirang, and she's published articles and books, and even started her own magazine for Korean women living in larger bodies. Not foreigners, Korean women.'
Zhurkin believes that change begins with people willing to speak up like Kim.
'It's going to take people just doing that, talking. That's what's going to help.'
ssh@heraldcorp.com
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