A recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report showed a great disparity in the obesity rates of boys and girls in Korea.

While 26.4 percent of boys aged 5 to 17 were either overweight or obese in 2013, 14.1 percent of girls of same age were either overweight or obese, according to the Health at a Glance 2015 report published by the OECD. The OECD average was 24 percent for boys and 22 percent for girls. Poland was the only other country with a greater gender disparity.

The gender disparity in the overweight and obesity rate among Korean boys and girls has been widening over the years. While the gender difference in the latest report stood at 12.3 percentage points, the same figure in the 2011 report stood at 6.3 percentage points, showing that the gender disparity in the overweight and obesity rate has nearly doubled during the four-year period.

The gender disparity in overweight and obesity rates among boys and girls appears to be a result of girls trying not to gain weight. Childhood obesity is an unhealthy condition which can lead to serious health problems in adulthood and as such should be properly addressed. However, also worrisome is the great gender disparity in obesity shown in Korea.

In Korea where lookism prevails, girls are at a great risk of developing unhealthy body images. When stick-thin girl group singers are on constantly on television and subway stations are plastered with plastic surgery ads showing before and after pictures, impressionable young girls are bound to feel great pressure to conform to those “ideals.”

An online survey of health behaviors among youths conducted last year showed that 45.1 percent of middle and high school girls had attempted to lose weight in the previous 30 days. Among boys in the same age group, the figure was 23.1 percent. Girls were also more likely to have a distorted body image, thinking they are heavier than they actually are, at 18.8 percent compared to 13.4 percent for boys.

The body image problem is exacerbated as girls enter their teenage years and this is shown in the data compiled during annual school physicals that show a widening gap in the obesity rates of boys and girls as they grow older.

Unhealthy body images and unrealistic expectations can drive young girls to go on severe diets and can even lead to bulimia and anorexia in some. Often, girls feel so pressured to conform to the society’s standard of beauty – a girl can never be too thin, it is often said – that they take up unhealthy habits to lose weight.

Rather than tell girls to lose weight, families, educators and communities should encourage both girls and boys to eat right and exercise to stay healthy and fit. Society should also consider ways to send out messages about positive body images to counteract the constant barrage of images of unhealthy, reed-thin girls.