author | Zhang Wenxi
editor | Tan Shanshan
title picture | "Lolita"
illit debut song "magnetic" mv screenshot.
Five girls were wearing pink and white clothes, running in the dark hotel corridor, and then crowded into a V-shaped space with expressions that looked like crying faces; there were also unicorn elements and white socks that kept appearing... Recently, South Korea The music video for girl group illit's debut song "Magnetic" caused controversy because of its scenes that pointed to elements such as pedophilia, infantilization, and sexual innuendos.
It is undeniable that some sexy moves that emphasize the female figure and curves often appear in the music videos and singing stages of Korean girl groups. However, the average age of the five members of illit is only 18 years old, and the youngest Iroha Sozono is 16 years old. Therefore, the excessive portrayal of the childishness of the girl group members in the "Magnetic" music video makes people feel uncomfortable.
Sexualizing girls and emphasizing the sexual charm of girls is something South Korea’s industrialized, assembly-line star-making industry is used to. The director of this MV is not the first to do this.
(Picture/"magnetic" mv)
Put aside the filters,
Is "Lolita" still romantic when it returns to reality?
"I looked at her, and looked at her. All my life, with all my heart, I loved her the most. I was sure of it, as sure as I was going to die... She was pale, vulgar, bloated, and the flesh and blood in her belly belonged to someone else. But I love her... She can fade, she can wither, she can be anything. But I just look at her, and all kinds of tenderness come to my heart..."
This psychological confession full of love can be placed in any love story. , can almost become synonymous with affection. But when it is told by an adult man with pedophilia to a 12-year-old girl, the original love will be tainted by the power inequality caused by gender, age, and social status.
This passage comes from the writer Nabokov's controversial work "Lolita". The protagonist Humbert morbidly projects his nostalgia for his former lover onto girls aged between 9 and 14. He even married the mother of the girl "Lolita" in order to get close to her.
(Picture/"Lolita")
After the movie of the same name adapted from the novel "Lolita" was released in 1997, the white socks, dresses, bows and other elements that appeared in the film became important symbols of sexualized girls. In this type of works, the girls all have innocent desires, and the viewers all have a male perspective.
In Japan, there is also the "Mei Zhai Fan" with sexualized girls as its main selling point. In the drama, female characters are often created to please the otaku audience, and "meat-selling" plots such as wet clairvoyance, falling down and revealing underwear, etc., have little effect on advancing the plot.
Movies such as "This Killer Isn't Too Cold", "Yin Jiao" and "Poor Thing" also have the problem of beautifying "pedophilia".
(Picture/"Yinjiao")
In "This Killer Is Not So Cold", which is regarded as a classic by many movie fans, the little girl Matilda expressed to Lyon that she wanted to be his lover, but Lyon rejected her request. . But this is actually a version that was edited out by director Luc Besson due to the pedophilia controversy that arose when the film was released. In the 1996 European and Special Edition DVDs, the second half of the film shows Matilda sitting on the edge of the bed and Leon waking up from the bed.
Luc Besson commented on "The Killer Isn't Too Cold": "This is a story about two children, a girl and a boy. In their hearts, they are both 12 years old, and they both feel lost, and they are deeply Love each other."
If we put aside the literary filter of these works and only look at the characters, would the stories that return to reality be as romantic as people imagine?
The audience has no way of knowing whether a male character is actually a 12-year-old boy in his heart. All they can see is an emotional relationship between an adult man and an underage girl with completely unequal social experiences. The audience has no way of knowing what happened to the male character obsessed with the girl. What is certain is that Natalie Portman, the actor who plays Matilda, has been receiving letters and messages from pedophiles after she participated in the movie. I was harassed by phone calls and suffered a lot.
(Picture/"This killer is not too cold")
Is it love,
or violation?
In addition to sexualizing children, literary and artistic works represented by illit's debut song "Magnetic" MV also have the problem of beautifying violations. For a long time, writers and translators dominated by male perspectives have avoided talking about the hidden violations in many works that are regarded as classics, and readers have more or less conformed to this way of viewing works.
In fact, romanticizing the plot and language of "pedophilia" or violations is itself a kind of rhetoric that occurs in the literary and artistic field and uses power.
(Picture/"Lolita")
In Nabokov's writings, "Lolita" is the exclusive name Humbert calls the girl, and her real name is Dolores Haze. The entire book is taken from Humbert's perspective and is the imagination and projection of his own desires. Therefore, even after reading the entire book, readers cannot understand what Dorothy is thinking. Even Humbert's claim that Dorothy actively "teased" him is just his own opinion. Who is the real Dorothy? No one knows.
If you only look at the story from one perspective, you may not be able to intuitively understand the impact of the right to speak on the direction and tone of the story.
The movie "The Last Duel" uses Rashomon-style shooting techniques to present a rape case that occurred in the 14th century. Margaret accuses the knight Jacques le Gri of raping her, but Margaret's husband, Margaret, and Jacques le Gri see the same thing from completely different perspectives.
(Picture/"The Last Duel")
In Jacques Le Gri's opinion, Margaret had a secret eye for him when they first met. Margaret's courtesy-based friendliness was regarded as a favorable impression by him, while her rejection was regarded as a welcome-rejection. Even rape can be flaunted and beautified by him as uncontrollable and "God's will."
In Margaret's eyes, she did not have the slightest fondness for Jacques Le Gri. He violated her by forcing him to have sex without her permission; her husband was willing to fight through a duel. Determining the authenticity of the incident was actually just to demonstrate his so-called masculinity and wash away the humiliation caused by his wife's suspected violation.
The naked violation is packaged into a dreamlike love by the deep affection and love that men think.
(Picture/"The Last Duel")
What is the real female experience like?
Once upon a time, Taiwanese writer Lin Yihan used tears of tears to show readers the abyss that Li Guohua once showed her. At this time, the text no longer covers power, but conveys pain - it tells readers that pain is pain and will not change in essence due to someone's self-movement or rhetorical modification.
The TV series "Her and Her", which has a similar plot, also shows the real female experience. When filming the scene in which the heroine was sexually assaulted by a teacher, the director did not film the victim's nudity, but instead focused the camera on the perpetrator. Under such lens language, the audience assumes the role of the victim, can better feel the fear of being oppressed, and understand the physical and mental harm that sexual assault brings to the victim.
(Picture/"She and Her Her")
In contrast, works such as "Man Jiang Hong" and "Article 20" emphasize the process of the victim being violated. They have some things in common: women's skin must be exposed, clothes that have been torn off must be photographed, they emphasize the sexual shame of female victims due to violation, and try to create an image of a martyr woman who is loyal and whose soul has not been "tarnished."
On the surface, this is a protest for the suffering of female victims; in fact, it is once again placing women in the public perspective for obscenity, but it fails to break through the shackles of the male perspective and brings male audiences Just a cool way to do it.
(Picture/"Man Jiang Hong")
On April 17, according to Korean media reports, South Korea's crea studio will produce a girl group talent show "under15" for under 15 years old, with 13-year-olds from more than 70 countries around the world~ Participants are selected for auditions from 15-year-olds.
The lower age limit for viewers in the entertainment industry has been repeatedly exceeded, and the number of views on short video platforms showing girlfriends as children or pets has soared. When we laugh at the world as a "grass-roots team," we may also remember that in the hidden corners of this grass-roots team, harm to children and women continues to occur. This kind of persecution is not a direct dagger, it is more likely to be a lollipop or a beautiful dress, constantly luring them into the trap of pink bubbles.
(Picture/"Poor Thing")
[1] Barcelona Film, the director of "This Killer Is Not So Cold" was exposed for sexual assault, and the film was actually suspected of pedophilia
