Attractive Women Paid to Work Out at Korean Gyms

[theemii.livejournal.com]

New light is being cast on the employment of young, attractive women by health centers in Korea in order to attract male customers.

On July 16, a job advertisement titled “Work out two hours per day and earn money (female)” was uploaded by a large fitness center in Mapo-gu on job search website Albamon. Searching for three female employees, the listing’s qualifications were clear and simple: applicants should be born between 1986 and 1996 (between 20 to 30 years old), be taller than 165 centimeters (5.4 feet), and weigh less than 50 kilograms (110 pounds). In exchange for working out each day for two hours, the gym claims it will pay the women 10,000 won (9 USD) per hour.


Meanwhile, a representative of the fitness center said, “This is a classic method in the industry,” and, “There have already been about ten inquiries in only half a day since uploading the ad.” They also added that “Out of 1,000 members, the gender ratio is only two women for every eight men, so we need to utilize top-level women in our marketing. It might not be ethically sound, but there is no problem from a legal perspective.”

The representative also added that the strategy is “nothing new” in the fitness industry. Many centers offer free membership or pay hourly wages to recruit celebrities, models, and even normal women to join their gyms.

However, many experts are concerned that the practice leads to a commodification of women’s bodies and encourages discrimination among women. Kim Moon Jo, a professor of sociology at Korea University, says, “To put it simply, by recruiting beautiful women these gyms intend to ‘beautify’ the gyms themselves.” He also pointed out, “It is not fair to differentiate based on physical standards.”


source: soompi mk

Comments

[4minutesluts.livejournal.com]

sincerely doubt this is unique to korea tbh

[9celcius.livejournal.com]

I've only ever worked out at YMCA's and school gyms but while I think it'd be a good lure for certain types of guys, do people really just walk by a gym, look in the window, see attractive people and feel like signing up? I feel like in my experience people just sign up for a gym because they want to work out/like the idea of working out?

On another note I'd totally accept money to work out, I can't afford gym memberships at good privately owned gyms :(

[mamamoos.livejournal.com]

i believe this would be to attract gym-goers to their gym in particular or to keep them coming

[9celcius.livejournal.com]

True, true. I guess I just know a lot of people who sign up and just rarely show up so the gym is making money off of them whether they go or not. They're also on contracts so they're paying long term too.

[hozrien.livejournal.com]

Wooo YMCA. When college starts up again I gotta get into it but honestly there aren't many girls at the gym, and in true I end up feeling just slightly uncomfortable because I end up being the only girl in the gym. (which is at the college)

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

A representative of the fitness center said, “[...] It might not be ethically sound, but there is no problem from a legal perspective.”
can we just... pause on that while i do my best jon stewart impression

also 110 pounds what. the fuck. what. 110 pounds. what. What.

[chimpansee.livejournal.com]

The fact that they have to be ~tall and less than 110 pounds was the worst thing about this for me tbh. Like.. you're trying to promote fitness yet you hire women so thin? There is no way a slim person with a fair amount of muscle of that height weighs less than 110 pounds.

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

yeah anyone working out that often is going to be more than 50 kg at that height

[heyitsrocky91.livejournal.com]

lmao mte...muscle is much more dense than fat

[sayitisso.livejournal.com]

using female bodies as objects to gain money~ what's new

tbh if i were a regular there i would probably quit. when i'm sweaty at the gym and i see pretty girls in cute outfits with their make-up done pretending to work out, i feel really uncomfortable. tenfold when it's obvious they don't even know what they're doing. but to each their own ig

[extraenchanted.livejournal.com]

oh so do people really work out because there are pretty girls/guys at the gym? i'd be intimidated tbh

it took me a long time to sign up at the gym because i thought there'd be a lot of attractive people there and i'd get intimidated lol. but then i saw most of the people working out were either fitness freaks or those who really wanted to lose/maintain weight.

[oonalala.livejournal.com]

There is a gym right by my home that I refuse to go to because every time I go by it there are all these super fit people there. Instead, I pay more and travel farther to go to a gym that has a mix of fitness freaks and overweight people and young and old people -- it just feels so much less intimidating.

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

I chose an all female gym

[prlsb4swiine.livejournal.com]

I rotated gyms so much until I finally found one I was comfortable in. It's a really nice mix of amateurs and pros trying to stay fit, and even the obsessive gym goers have really strong but not ~thin~ glamorized bodies. I love it and I'm really sad I might be moving soon :(((

[carra-mia.livejournal.com]

"so we need to utilize top-level women in our marketing"...
This sentence is wrong on so many levels (oh, the irony) that I don't even know where to start

[feel-my-mind.livejournal.com]

Its sexist as hell, but lets be honest here I actually fit the criteria and would do it. Free gym and extra $129. Sold. Granted it probably mean make up for the gym (ugh) and not hitting the work as hard as I'd like (double ugh), because you know sweat is unattractive and everything. However, if they really want attractive young females, hire some attractive young men. I have friends who choose their gym based on how hot the guys that worked out there are and these girls are super pretty.

[neoreulwonhae.livejournal.com]

Taller than 5'4" and less than 110? Isn't that super underweight?

[haixiao.livejournal.com]

it's very underweight
i'm 5'3 and a less than 110 pounds and my doc said i absolutely cannot weigh any less than i already do so anyone who's taller than me and the same weight as me is definitely pushing the limit

[feel-my-mind.livejournal.com]

Depends on the person. their bodies build and their metabolism. Those two numbers can not determine everything and BMI is even more an outdated system to determine if someone is underweight. The idea that someone can determine if your healthy or not based on just numbers is ridiculous and leads to a lot bashing/unnecessary judgement.

[seul-gi.livejournal.com]

It really depends on the type of body you have. I'm 5'8" and 110 and I neither look too skinny nor have an unhealthy body so...

[ariellm13.livejournal.com]

I know some people might think this stupid but it's actually a pretty effective strategy. They purposely seek out women who have a certain type of body, one that is probably more do to genetics than effort. They place her in a gym, which suggests that she built her body. To the average women, when you see a girl like that in the gym, it says "That girl has to work hard to get those results. If I work hard enough then I can get those results". To the average man, it says "Girls like that come here. If I want to get a girl like that then I need to keep coming here".

It's a pretty common strategy for clubs too. In fact, if you know what to look for, they are pretty easy to spot. They will be pretty and well dressed but they won't actually take part in any real activities. They won't have too many of these people because, as some comments have already stated, that would be intimidating. Maybe one for every ten or fifteen customers(more in clubs). You would notice if half of your yoga/pilates/kick boxing class were model types right? But in a class of 45, are you going to notice 3?

Also, this is just supposed to be a way to get people to stay in the door a little bit longer. It only takes 5 minutes to sign up for a gym membership you're never gonna use.

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

the problem isnt that it's "stupid" so much as that it's sexist and evil

[pbutterlion.livejournal.com]

how is it evil if they are being paid? its like hiring a famous actress or idol to be the face of a brand

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

for women it promotes an unhealthy body image (as the previous commenter said, these women they're hiring are likely naturally skinny and wear makeup to the gym, so women who are actually there to work out will feel bad for not looking like that) and for men, coming to a gym to ogle women is just sexist and objectifying
hiring celebrities to promote a brand is totally different, people trust celebrities because they recognize them and it's openly obvious that they're being paid to do an endorsement, rather than a shady company trying to pass off paid models as regular customers

[ariellm13.livejournal.com]

Ok. First off, it doesn't promote an unhealthy body image. Real people have these body types. This is a gym we are talking about. They aren't saying this body type is the best. They are just putting out what people respond to the most in terms of fit bodies. A lot of people respond well to thin girls with above average height. A lot of people think thin=healthy. Thin girls at your gym=your gym is good. If just seeing a thin pretty girl at a gym(and there are real pretty, thin girls that really workout at gyms) upsets you then you have a whole different set of problems.

Secondly, it's in no way sexist to go somewhere in hopes of attracting someone who you find attractive. I know girls who go to the gym because of guys. Not to mention women who go places to find attractive women and men who go places to find attractive men. The gym is popular places for mating.

Thirdly, it is inherently the same as openly hiring a spokesperson because either way, you aren't getting an actual opinion of what you're getting and it's just an extension of the products image. Implying that thin model types work out at your gym is no different from implying that a celebrity uses your product.

[a-seagreen.livejournal.com]

ok this is gross but i really hate how the ad (and several of my asian relatives / friends) only think one weight is OK across all heights. my mom legit gasped when i told her i was 52 kg, i was like the fuck??? i'm tall and very underweight for my height, not everyone should be in the 45-50 kg range. idk the fact that the ad doesn't even adjust weight for height pisses me off the most

[kjesta.livejournal.com]

This. Whenever I tell people I weigh 90kg they're flabbergasted and sputter "what, you don't look like that much" and I need to remind them there's a reason I tower over 80% of my friends, because I'm an amazon over six freaking feet tall and I've got broad shoulders and boobage and a bit of belly, of course I'm gonna weigh much more than my wispy 160cm friends. And I'm trying to get down to 80kg, but even if I tried starving myself I doubt I'd ever get below 70kg because I'm just not built for that.

Like yo, weight is not a zero-sum thing that's applicable towards everybody the same way. 52kg for a tall person sounds really low! (Depending on what goes for tall where you live of course, but still. 52kg is really light!)

[a-seagreen.livejournal.com]

girl yes!!! good for you for knowing what weight's healthy for your height. i can see why people might be confused but i mean, it's common sense that people much taller / shorter than you will have a completely different weight range

[keki7.livejournal.com]

With such a strategy they must be aiming for casual customers and not regular gym goers. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week and once I'm there I legit don't even have time to check out other people. I'm too busy with my own workout. Maybe after I stretch and I'm casually walking back to the locker room I may notice some eye candy but then I'm rushing off to another commitment.

That fitness centre staff are also pretty self aware noting that what they are doing is ethically problematic but legally fine. It's a messed up world we live in that they are fine with such a thing.

And I'm just as messed up because I might actually consider doing it if it were offered to me. To be honest the only reason I would turn it down is because I actually want to work out and sweat, not casually walk on a treadmill looking pretty. And I don't meet the weight qualification either now that I think about it. How can you be fit and toned at 110? Muscle weight ain't no joke.

Anywayz the whole thing is messed up.

[natywentz.livejournal.com]

"utilize top-level women"

[existingisfunny.livejournal.com]

reminds me of john green's infamous video where he says nerd boys need to utilize nerd girls.

[kjesta.livejournal.com]

Ew what? Utilize in what way?

I'm not into John Green in general, his books look really crap, but I hadn't heard that before, that actually gives me sth substantial to side-eye other than second-hand opinions on his writing.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

where can i apply

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

Oh.

[huanyia.livejournal.com]

if they want anybody taller than 165 cm they're going to have to increase that weight limit, because people who actually work out would definitely have more muscle mass? like?
i'm not even going to start getting into how sexist this is. why don't they pay men to do the same thing? (at the same rate no less), maybe that would attract more female gym-goers, hmm? edit: i mean to say the female:male ratios are already imbalanced according to the article, so why are they trying to get more men to work out, why not the other way around?

[nurii.livejournal.com]

lol seriously. if they actually want more women to work out, they'd make more women-only hours and have fitness classes geared towards women's fitness. but no, they WANT the dudebros.

[pbutterlion.livejournal.com]

lol sexism? maybe on the way the article was written but as long as the ladies are being paid, i see nothing wrong. its work. its just being a model to attract more people in this is as legit as a, well, an actual model.

the only thing that is kinda side eye-worthy imo would be the way they want to select the models? they barely fit the ideal of a fit person but anyways, work is work and we live in a world where slim = ideal

[jaelissi.livejournal.com]

(applicants should) "be taller than 165 centimeters (5.4 feet), and weigh less than 50 kilograms (110 pounds)"

Motherfuck! They want someone my height to work out for two hours while being anemic af?

[aleksu7.livejournal.com]

Sexism and objectification, what's new? Same as clubs that let girls get in for free. I'm so fucking tired of patriarchy...

[heyitsrocky91.livejournal.com]

they need to make that weight much more flexible because my friend works out a lot and is around 5'4' yet weighs about 145 pounds and people are always surprised when they realize it lol...but she's fit though...

[nurii.livejournal.com]

yeah my friend is 5'2 and 160 lbs, but she does a lot of weightlifting and is seriously jacked. she has the tiniest waist. but she also has a very different bone structure and body frame compared to most girls who are 5'2.

[nurii.livejournal.com]

165 is 5'5, not 5'4. so taller than that and 110 lbs? eaux.