2021年经济学人 为啥那么多人晒内衣身材照（在线收听）

Asia

亚洲版块

Instagram and youth culture | Hot shots

Instagram与青年文化 热点

Why young South Koreans are posing in their underwear

为什么韩国年轻人穿着内衣摆姿势拍照？

Lee ji-hoon’s younger clients have lately been making unusual requests.

李智勋的年轻客户最近提出了一些不同寻常的要求。

“People in their 20s and early 30s showed up and asked me to draw up these excessive training plans and dieting rules,” says Mr Lee, who works as a personal trainer at a fancy gym in Gangnam, a posh part of Seoul, South Korea’s capital.

韩国首都首尔江南区的一家高档健身房私人教练李先生说：“最近20多岁和30出头的人要求我帮忙制定过度训练计划和节食规则。”

The clients, most of whom are women, all have the same aim: they want to look hot for their “body profiles”.

这些客户大多是女性，他们都有相同的目标：想让自己的“身体曲线”看起来性感。

An Instagram search in Korean for the hashtag “body profile” turns up more than 2.5m results.

在Instagram上用韩语搜索“body profile”标签，会得到250多万条照片信息。

Most of them are glossy full-body portraits of men and women in their underwear, posted on personal accounts (though a few belong to celebrities).

这些照片大多是男男女女穿着内衣的全身照，由个人用户发布（也有一些是明星）。

Some subjects are draped over chairs, recline on beds or emerge from pools and rivers.

也有一些是半卧在椅子上，趴在床上，或从游泳池和河流中走出来。

Others pose with champagne and canapés, or with foliage.

还有些人拍照时摆着香槟和小饼干，或树叶。

The point, like so much on Instagram, is to impress.

就像Instagram上的很多东西一样，重点是要给人留下深刻印象。

Joo Sohyun, a 27-year-old in Seoul, says she booked a body-profile photo session because she was bored with doing nothing except work.

首尔27岁的朱素贤说，因为厌倦自己除了工作以外无事可做，所以预约了一个体形拍照会。

“I wanted that identity of someone who keeps fit,” she says.

“我想保持自己的身材，”她说。

Taking the profile shots was a way of proving to the world that she had worked hard to achieve a valuable goal.

拍摄身材照是向世界证明她为实现一个有价值的目标而努力的一种方式。

The whole thing, including the training programme and photo session, set her back more than 1.5m won ($1,300).

整个过程，包括训练计划和拍照，花了她150多万韩元（1300美元）。

Others splurge even more.

其他人的花费甚至更高。

Mr Lee’s packages start at 2.5m won; bespoke ones can be 7m won.

李先生的套餐起步价250万韩元；定制的套餐高达700万韩元。

Yoo Hyun-jae, who studies youth culture at Sogang University in Seoul, thinks the trend reflects an obsession with looks and social status.

首尔西江大学研究青年文化的柳贤载认为，这一趋势反映了人们对外表和社会地位的痴迷。

The attention young people pay to their online image mirrors everyday life, where looking your best in public is considered polite and commenting on others’ appearance and offering suggestions for improvements remain common.

年轻人对自己网络形象的关注反映了日常生活，在公共场合保持最佳形象被认为是一种礼貌，对他人的外表加以评论并表达改进建议仍然很常见。

As in other countries, advertising exploits the associated anxiety.

与其他国家一样，广告宣传利用了相关的容貌焦虑。

A company hawking diet products plasters cinemas all over the country with posters urging patrons to “reconsider your popcorn”.

一家出售减肥产品的公司在全国各地的电影院贴满了海报，敦促顾客“重新考虑你的爆米花”。

Serious-looking plastic surgeons admonish commuters in ads on Seoul’s subway: “Think you’re pretty? Think again."

表情严肃的整形外科医生在首尔地铁的广告中告诫上班族：“你觉得自己漂亮吗？再想想。”

"Celebrity culture also plays a role," says Mr Yoo.

柳先生表示，名人文化也起到了一定作用。

The first people to publish body profiles were the pop stars from whom many youngsters take their cues.

最先发布体形照的是流行歌星，许多年轻人都是从他们那里开始效仿的。

Some commentators worry that the trend harms young people’s mental health and fosters poor eating habits.

一些评论人士担心，这一趋势损害了年轻人的心理健康，并助长了不良的饮食习惯。

Even Mr Lee is concerned. “I was so proud when they showed me the pictures, but some of them came back a few weeks later looking worse than they did before they started working out,” he says.

连李先生也很担心。他说：“起初他们给我看照片时，我感到非常自豪，但一些人几周后回来时，看起来比开始锻炼之前更糟糕。”

Mr Yoo is less fretful: “Those body-image problems are not caused by the fact that people are now taking pictures of themselves while exercising."

柳先生则没有那么担心：“那些身体形象问题并不是因为人们锻炼时给自己拍照造成的。”

Hand-wringing will in any case do little to dissuade the likes of Ms Joo.

无论如何，生活的绝望都无法阻止像朱女士这样的人加入其中。

“Houses are too expensive and jobs are hard to come by.

“房子太贵了，工作也很难找。

This is one of the easiest and healthiest ways for young people to feel a sense of achievement,” she says.

这是年轻人获得成就感最简单、最健康的方式之一，“她说。