YouTuber finds disturbing 'fat test' hidden in South Korean parks
A fitness and lifestyle YouTuber uncovered a disturbing ‘fat test’ hidden in the parks of South Korea.
Documenting the experience for his 4.88 million followers, Will Tennyson shared his surprise when discovering a way for people in South Korea to test your weight.
In the clip, the YouTuber explained: “Behind me there’s a fat test that are in all the parks in Korea. They really just said, ‘Let’s gamify emotional damage.”
The test itself is made up of a series of narrowing poles that park goers need to fit between to determine their size.
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According to the translations shown in the clip, each gap between the poles represented a different body category, ranging from ‘alien’ and ‘chubby’ to ‘average’, ‘thin’, and ‘skinny’.
As Tennyson attempted to squeeze through the spaces, he joked about how the test was already changing his breakfast plans, admitting he was shocked to be considered ‘chubby’ despite being in good shape.
He continued: “Crazy to think that I’m considered chubby in Korea because I like to think that I’m in pretty good shape.”
The YouTuber appeared to become increasingly uncomfortable as he realized the structure was located in the middle of a children’s playground.
He warned that kids could begin treating it like a game, saying: “If I can’t fit through it, I’m going to do whatever it takes to be able to fit through it eventually.”
Throughout the video, Tennyson explored the wider pressures surrounding appearance standards in South Korea, which is often referred to as one of the world’s cosmetic surgery capitals and this prompted many people to share their own reactions to the video online.
In the YouTube comment section, one user wrote: “The way just watching this instantly made me feel fat even though im pretty in shape. I cant even imagine living there and seeing this everyday. I feel for the women who have to deal with this.”
Another said: “That playground measurement guide was super traumatising to watch. When I was at school, we had annual health assessments including weigh-ins, where the PE teachers would yell your height and weight out to another teacher recording the numbers. The adults were insensitive, but the kids were downright brutal.”
A third person commented: “will tennyson discovers state mandated looksmaxxing.”
And a fourth added: “Korean here. He is highlighting some of the most extreme examples of dieting and celebrity culture. Most ordinary Koreans don’t really adhere to these standards.”