• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.52 no.8
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• pp.41-54
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• 2002

This study discusses the beauty of the ideal body shown by fashion communication media, and explains how aesthetic aspects of, the body are being expressed in contemporary fashion. The beauty of the body may be considered as the beauty of sexual, controllable or consumable object. First. the most vigorously discussed point about the body is its sexual aspect, the most outstanding of which is the voluptuous and the androgynous beauty in contemporary fashion. Second, the body is an object which has been oppressed or controlled under the name of history. morality. and rationality. The things making us regard the body itself as an aesthetic object may be considered as dynamic and functional beauty Third, the sexual instinct and the body are fetishized as consumer goods, and women's bodies are presented as comsumer objects whose most parts could be restored to exchangeable value. The consumable beauty presented in contemporary fashion is the conspicuous beauty and the decadent beauty. So far, the various aspects of the beautiful body has been considered, based on the beauty of the ideal body shown by the fashion communication media. Man exists through on his body. but it is the embodied and formed body that serves as a means to manifest his social status and cultural ties. A natural body is reformed as a cultural phenomenon in various artificial ways. Popular culture has transmitted a series of new body image by creating and reproducing symbols and images, and has made the ideal body. Now there is not only one standard for the ideal beauty in our society. The standard of the beauty has changed continuously. There has been an aesthetic sense which can represent the times during the process of those changes. The various communication media have played a role of mirror reflecting those changes. The ideal body in contemporary times is no more an abstract media to express classical beauty, but an object directly affecting us, who are living in the crisis of subjectivity and identity.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.41 no.12
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• pp.13-26
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• 2003

This study was designed (1) to examine adolescents' body cathexis, ideal body image, clothing behavior, and clothing purchasing behavior, and (2) to identify gender and age differences. Descriptive statistics, Chi-Square ($\chi^2$) analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Duncan-Test were employed to analyze the data collected from the convenience sample of 729 middle- and high-school students in Gyeongnam, Korea. Adolescents tended to be dissatisfied with their body, while female high school students' dissatisfactory degrees were higher The ideal body image was thinner than normal, and neither gender nor age differences were observed. Adolescents showed higher dependences compared to other clothing behaviors including conformity, fashion, popularity, brand, and exhibition, and gender and age differences were observed. Fit/comfort and clothing displayed in store were most important evaluative criterion and information search method. Adolescents tended to prefer shopping in department store with friends or parents in less than 3 hours. Gender and age differences were observed in those clothing purchasing behavior. Marketing strategies generated from the results of this study were suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.437-447
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• 2010

This study compares by gender the preference about ideal female height and body parts. Data was collected through a survey of 203 males and 236 females. The results are as follows: Males and females prefer 161~165cm as the ideal female height and 176~180cm as the ideal male height. In regards to the ideal height difference between couples, both males and females prefer males to be taller, with the head of the female at the same height as the neck of the male. Males and females prefer the shorter height than the ideal height of a fashion model and Miss Korea who got the prize from the korean beauty contest. In the case of Miss Korea, there has been a demand for tall women to participate in world beauty contests. However, this study shows that young people prefer a shorter height than the society expects. Males and females think the shoulder width is ideal when it is 2 times wider than the width of a face in regards to the preference of the ideal female body parts. There is a difference between males and females in the ideal breast size. Males prefer C-cup size while females prefer B-cup size. The ideal size of waist preferred is between 60~65cm to both males and females. The ideal shape of legs preferred to both males and females is a slightly muscular shape.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.3-12
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• 2007

This study was performed to investigate the body image perception by BMI and the dietary behaviors in 803 college students(408 males and 395 females). The degree of obesity was divided into an underweight group with BMI less than $18.5kg/m^2$, a normal group with BMI of $18.5{\sim}22.9kg/m^2$, an overweight group with BMI of $23{\sim}24.9kg/m^2$ and an obese group with BMI over $25.0kg/m^2$. The average ages of subjects were 22.9 years in males and 20.2 years in females. The average weight and height of male subjects were 175.3 cm and 69.6 kg, respectively and those of female subjects were 162.5 cm and 52.0 kg, respectively. The average BMIs of male and female subjects were $22.6kg/m^2$ and $19.7kg/m^2$, respectively. The distribution of subjects who perceived their current body image as ideal body image was 25.7% in males and 10.9% in females, showing that the body image satisfaction of male subjects was 1.5 times higher than that of female subjects. Body image perception for their own bodies was mostly shown as the average or standard shape both in males and females with 64.2% and 54.2%, respectively, but males showed a higher perception rate than females and 31.1% of females and 19.5% of males perceived their bodies as lean shape(p<0.01). The body image satisfaction was 4.20 in males and 3.70 in females, showing more satisfaction in the male subjects(p<0.001). The correlation between body image and physical variables in male subjects indicated that CBI and IBI showed statistically significant correlation and also BMI showed statistically significant correlation with IBI(p<0.001) and CBI(p<0.001). The frequency of eating out increased as the frequency of skipping meals increased(p<0.001) and the frequency of having snacks increased as the frequency of eating out increased(p<0.01). The correlation between body image and physical variables in female subjects showed that CBI and IBI(p<0.001) had statistically significant correlation. Body weight showed statistically significant correlation with CBI(p<0.001), BMI(p<0.001) and height(p<0.001). The frequency of eating out increased as height(p<0.01) and the frequency of skipping meals(p<0.001) increased. When both male and female subjects wanted leaner body shapes, they preferred much leaner shapes despite their current body images belonging in the normal range. Additionally subjects preferred the body image in the normal range in cases when their current body images were lean. In particular, more female subjects had strong desires to become leaner in their body images than male subjects, which could be analyzed as a risk factor for physical him. From the above results, it is considered that both male and female subjects need to establish proper recognition and dietary behaviors for their body images and also need nutritional education and counseling for desirable weight control methods.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.31 no.1 s.160
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• pp.33-43
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• 2007

Middle age is the time of the most important meaning in life and also the time of physical and mental change, which offers new social activities for self-development. Middle-aged women form the major consumer class in current clothing industry, but few have been performed on this so far. The researcher studied in many aspect on the clothes which middle-aged women need to wear during this period of change. Thus this study is executed to examine what benefits middle-aged women pursue in clothing attitudes and the relationship among clothing pursuit benefit and their somatotype compensation and image orientation. The research performed the theoretical study and practical study simultaneously. The subjects are 238 middle-aged women between 35 and 49 years old in September, 2004. The results of this study are as follows: 1. The attitude of women's clothing patterns in relation with image consist of two factor structures. One is the body image and the other is the appearance image. 2. As a result of researching the attitude for choosing clothes of each body group by Rohrer index, the women with gross body group take a top priority for the lower-body compensation, while the women with slim body group take a top priority for volume compensation. 3. As a result of researching the cognitive somatotype group's attitude for choosing clothes, gross body group takes a top priority for lower-body compensation and upper-body compensation. 4. As a result of researching the relationship between real somatotype and cognitive somatotype by Rohrer index, middle-aged women think of themselves as being fatter than present state. And choosing the clothes, the body misunderstanding group of women usually show that they consider more compensation than the normally body understanding group. 5. The evaluation on real somatotype, cognitive somatotype, ideal somatotype influences on the body cathexis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.49-66
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• 2003

In the relationship between post-modern feminism and the body. the body of women, which has been taken as 'other' by dominant arguments, has escaped from the fixed idea at post-modern times and the post-modern feminists tried to escape from the taste of the times about body image that was prevalent in the former times.'The taste of the times' here means the fixed physical form of ideal women's body by the educational custom, and it includes the educational prescription which establishes the docile body of women. This kind of educational custom aims at the perfect and permanent restriction on size, shape, desire, attitude and movement as well as on the overall demeanor and each part of the body. And the custom produces 'dependent and trained'. that is, inferiorized women's body. Hence, this paper points out that the feminity as a fixed Physical form should be overcome in order to move forward, and as one part of the effort, it attempts to analyze the designs which deformed and distorted women's body in 1990s. This research indicates that the work, which tries to deviate the fantasized and casted women's mystery, has been closely connected with the expression of 'non-separate bodies' and 'irregular body shapes' in 1990s, which aims at escaping from the fixation of women's body Image. Therefore, it is concluded that the target design trend of this research, which expressed the deformation and perversion of the body, provides the anti-these against the ideal body image of women and the these of feminity. which have been reproduced in various methods and patterns throughout the public and the culture on the whole by expressing the refusal and deviation of the existing women's body image through the post-fixation of the body pattern.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.53-66
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• 2004

Purpose: To compare differences in BMI, body weight perception and satisfaction, and eating behavior by gender among middle school students. Methods: From 19 middle schools in W city four classes in two middle schools were selected by cluster sampling with multi-stage sampling. A structured questionnaire was answered by 143 adolescents. Results: Differences in BMI between boys and girls were significant (x$^2$=13.15, p=.00l). Boys reported higher ideal body weight than girls (t=6.33, p<.000l), and discrepancy between ideal body weight and body weight perception in girls was significantly greater than in boys(t=-5.0l, p<.0001). There was no significant gender difference in body weight perception but more boys were satisfied with their body weight(t=-4.48, p<.0001). Comparison of eating behavior showed that girls reported high scores in disinhibition (t=-2.29, p<.05) and hunger (t=-2.81, p<.01), while boys reported higher scores in cognitive restraints (t=3.22, p<.01). Conclusion: Interventions to help girls improve body image and satisfaction with body image are crucial. In order to establish proper diet habits and balanced nutritional status for adolescents, educational interventions should address characteristics of eating behaviors.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.115-126
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• 2005

This Quantitative study was investigated to examine the relationship between self-esteem on body image and disordered eating patterns in some university students. This study used a cross-sectional study design. Total 347 students participated in this study (88 male and 259 female) among three universities. The assessment of eating disorder was conducted by Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), a score of >or=20 identified individuals likely have an eating disorder, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Ideal body weight and current body weight were completed with self-evaluation. A distorted body image was independently related to the eating problem in the Logistic regression analysis. There were stronger relationships between their EAT-26 scores and their expected weight changes and weight control behaviors. Compared with the men, women showed highly wishful to loss for current body weight. In the relationship between score of EAT-26 and BMI distance by sex, levels of eating disorder showed linearly elevated toward increased BMI distance (Ideal BMI-Current BMI) (F-value=18.794, p<0.0001) in women, but there were not significant in men (F-value=2.028, p>0.05). In estimate on state-trait anxiety inventory according to quartile of BMI distance by sex, levels of state-trait anxiety were not significant difference by degree of body dissatisfaction in all sex. In addition, higher distorted body image was significantly increased numbers of weight control method and experience of side effects in female, but there were not showed significant relation between two variables in male.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.14 no.3 s.62
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• pp.514-527
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• 2006

It can be said that the ultimate goal of advertising is creating consumers' buying intention and buying behavior toward advertised goods. But literature suggests that ads have both intended and unintended consequences, and one of the unintended consequences is that the idealized images of physical attractiveness found in advertising have negative impact on girls' and womens' self-perceptions. Thus, this study, using social comparison theory as a framework, was designed to investigate the influences of the images of models in ads portrayed in TV and fashion magazines on the purchasing intention, self-esteem and body satisfaction of college women. Using an experimental stimulus, a moving picture representing thin and attractive models in the context of advertising fashion goods, two conditions were manipulated and the subjects were placed into one of two groups randomly, the experiment group and the control group. The experiment group only was exposed to the ads portraying highly attractive models. Data were collected from two groups using same questionnaire. The data were analyzed using t-test, two-way ANOVA, and descriptive statistics. The findings were as follows: 1. The thin and attractive image of models in ads on buying intention had significant positive influence on buying intention(p<.05). 2. The thin and attractive image of models in ads had significant negative influences on self-esteem(p<.05). 3. The thin and attractive image of models in ads had significant negative influence on body satisfaction(p<.05). 4. The ideal body internalization had significant negative influences on body satisfaction(p<.05), but interaction effect of model's image and ideal body internalization on body satisfaction was not significant.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.125-133
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• 2005

The purpose at this study was to examine and understand shopping behaviors and body image among Korean females in U.S. Subjects for this research were 20 Korean housewives. They were interviewed for this study using an interview schedule. As a result, most at the subjects have enjoyed shopping in U.S. stores. They showed that they go shopping more often in U.S. than in Korea due to more time to shop. They considered refund policy and kind salespersons as th positive characteristics in U.S. stores, while they complained about size, quality, and style in even their favorite stores. Also, subjects tend to be dissatisfied with their bodies. Compared to how they feel in Korea, they especially feel lower body image and lower self-esteem in the U.S. Ninety percent of subjects considered their body affected their shopping behaviors. To compensate how they felt about their bodies, they responded that they limit or change clothing styles or colors when they shopped. Based on these results, socio-cultural body image regarding ideal beauty and shopping behavior would be discussed.