text | Music Herald, author | Ding Qianwen, editor | Fan Zhihui
Recently, with the intensive holding of South Korea's waterbomb music festival, many popular girl groups and female singers have participated in the "wet party" held entirely in the water park. The dress and body shape of female artists have also caused great controversy.
For example, Kwon Eun-bi, who broke the image of a pure and gorgeous girl during the iZone era on last year's waterbomb stage and showed off her impressive figure in an ultra-low-cut swimsuit, was reviled by the audience for choosing a non-revealing look during this year's waterbomb performance.
In fact, most of the cases where people get out of the industry due to their figures are female artists who dare to take off their clothes, dare to show off, do not skimp on the "benefits" of their figures, and perform choreographic stages full of bold moves, which have also become a major selling point of the Water Bomb Music Festival, such as Hyun Ah, Sunmi, and Kwon Eunbi were once dubbed the "Big Three of water bombs" by netizens.
But on the other hand, new girl group idols such as (g)i-dle and Kiss of Life who appeared on the waterbomb stage also suffered from too cool stage costumes, sexy choreography or provocative and suggestive lyrics. Fans protested and were "judged" with a lot of details.
Looking at the production and consumption methods of K-pop female idols, even though music works that use issues such as feminism and women’s rights as idol music themes are gradually being produced, in essence, K-pop female idols are still objectified fantasy commodities. .
As the New Yorker said, K-pop female idols are carefully manufactured "factory girls."
“Sexualized” female idols
In fact, in the eyes of many Korean scholars, the “image” portrayed by young girls often represents a change of the times. In South Korea, this youthful expression is systematically expressed in the pop culture of k-pop, which deepens gender stereotypes and further objectifies female idols.
For example, during the first generation of K-pop in the 1990s, whether it was S.E.S or Fin.K.L, they generally marketed themselves as innocent schoolgirls, and created underage female idols in an overly mature or sexy way. In the second-generation girl group era after the millennium, the phenomenon of underage female students debuting under the blossoming competition of girl groups has become more common, such as Kara member Kang Ji Young, former Wonder Girls members HyunA and Sohee, and former F (x) members Sulli, Soojung, etc. all officially debuted when they were around 14 or 15 years old.
Whether it is emphasizing the revealing clothes of underage female idols, performing sexually suggestive dances and lyrics, or infantilizing adult female idols or amplifying the mature style, we have all come to a period where we are more committed to attracting male fans. . At that time, being able to attract male fans such as "uncle fans" and "military fans" also became one of the symbols of the success of the girl group.
The most obvious thing is that a large number of girl group songs have the theme of "showing love to oppa (brother)" with either childish or sexy images, such as Girls' Generation's "Oh! ", "Aegyo Divine Comedy" "Oppa" by seenroot, "Brother Virus" by Grade 1 Class 7, and even the children's girl group Seven Princesses also have songs that depict the details of love between men and women such as "First Love" and "Love+", with immature children's voices Singing lyrics with a very adult perspective such as "My young heart is all about you, we can love each other more and share love together now", "Love and the sea are disgusting".
The reason why there is a phenomenon of focusing on the flow of male fans is because in the K-pop market around the 2010s, boy band idols attracted the most important consumption power among the K-pop audience-female fans. In order to break this situation, many girl group producers have also begun to deliberately create girl groups based on the preferences of a "male condensed" perspective, and even use a large number of borderline pedophile fantasies to create girl groups.
kpopstarz entertainment reporter jody once mentioned that in order to attract male audiences, female idols are forced to transform their concepts into sexy and create competition among them. “As the number of competitors increases, more skin is exposed. ".
For example, after the 2010s, K-pop girl group styles generally became sexy.Girl groups that generally contain underage members, such as aoa, exid, miss a, sistar, secret, etc., have made a breakthrough, and they have all won the first place with their masterpieces with revealing clothing, suggestive lyrics, and ambiguous music styles. He was even ordered to make rectifications by the TV station's singing program because his dance moves and music video content were too 18-year-old.
Moreover, in order to gain a foothold and attract consumer audiences, many girl groups are forced to perform more explicit musical works. For example, although the girl group Stellar is a "must-have" group, many of its large-scale works are still popular today; even the girl group 4l, which only has one debut song "move", has become "little famous" in the mainland market and has gained a lot of success. Quite an audience.
After 2015, the explosion of sexy style also caused a new batch of three-generation girl groups eager to open up the market to try diversified styles, among which the "Lolita" setting became more and more obvious. For example, "school uniforms" and "physical education uniforms" are more common as performance clothes, such as gfriend's school uniform trilogy, "produce101" series, etc.
Kim Ye-ran (transliteration), a professor at Kwangwoon University in South Korea who focuses on ethics and gender studies, pointed out that “uniform” school uniforms originated from Japanese subculture. The appearance of school uniforms is the main fashion item of all K-pop idols, “a pure and innocent Young people are also attractive and sexually attractive".
In other words, the success of k-pop is, to some extent, due to the "sexualization" of idols, that is, its audience views these idols from a sexual perspective. Both male idols and female idols are faced with the situation of being sexualized, but in slightly different ways, and the situation of female idols is relatively more difficult.
Why has innocence changed?
In fact, the praise of youth is a common theme in music and pop culture in various countries. But throughout the history of Korean pop culture, from the 1970s duo Bunny Girls to today's K-pop girl groups, the desire for young girls has always been ambiguous.
This is because Korean social culture, which is essentially biased towards the traditional "Confucian" atmosphere, advocates "innocence". For example, the so-called "national sisters" Ahn So-hee, IU, and "national first love" Suzy are all famous for their innocence. However, the transformation of K-pop idols has experienced the influence of the European, American and Japanese idol industries, and "innocence" has also changed in the changes.
For example, the success of Britney's "Slave 4 U", akb48's swimsuit photos that "were ashamed to hide", and the otaku fantasy created by the single, etc. These "sex sales" have also been imitated by K-pop to attract consumer audiences. For example, Korean girl groups fromis9 and izone have overwhelming purchasing power of male fans, accounting for the majority of millions of sales.
It is precisely in the intertwining of tradition and excess that the concept of K-pop female idols has also produced certain conflicts: advocating "adultization" and "underage adultization", as a sexy but innocent doll product, and Traditional and sexy images and behaviors satisfy the male eyeballs.
Kevin Craley, a professor at an Irish university who studies East Asia, once mentioned that although K-pop female idols are told to dress provocatively and perform, they are also told that they need to conform to Confucian sexual norms. In short, is the sexually attractive "Virgin Mary".
Whether it is the much-criticized sexy style or girl crush, which is now considered to have pioneered the "girl power" of girl groups, they are essentially inseparable from the trend of "sexualization", especially in music works dominated by a large number of male producers. It's amplifying.
For example, when blackpink's debut work "Boombayah" was released, it was regarded as a "girl power" that was different from the innocent and cute style popular at the time. However, under the "I like you, you really do" created by the producer Teddy "Handsome", "I have a special figure, I know through your eyes that you want to touch me" and a lot of coquettish shouts of "oppa" interspersed in the onomatopoeia of the chorus. This song is also regarded as a show of love. Male fans "change the soup without changing the medicine."
But in fact, this kind of insinuation also exists in the works of female producers. For example, producer Min Hee-jin, who has been involved in the "pedophilia" controversy, was criticized for ordering underage members of her girl group New Jeans to sing and dance to a sexually suggestive song in their school uniforms for "Cookie".This reinvented concept of "Lolita" is shown in Min Heejin's conceptual construction of SM girl groups such as Girls' Generation, f(x) and even boy groups.
Similarly, HyunA's hit song "Bebe" was considered by Korean netizens to be a humorous narration of the pedophilia and sexualization phenomena she has encountered since her debut, including "Please love me, you let me turn into a 17" "Years old, I feel 15 years old", "You made me a baby girl", etc.
This K-pop sexualized gaze idol product operating model has also entered the idol aesthetic system of East Asia, Southeast Asia and other countries with the 101 series draft, whether it is minors who are "adultified" in advance to over-elaborate sexual concepts, or adult idols Forced to magnify sexual parts, this normalized stage performance setting is also beautified and "opened" to all ages.
"K-pop fans are no longer just for teenagers, they have expanded to people aged 20-40 or even older. What are the true intentions of these aunts and uncles, deep down we will never know", South Korea Li Kuizhuo (transliteration), a professor of cultural studies at George Mason University, once pointed out that in fact many fans, especially older fans, are not aware of the problems that exist when idols are sexualized.
But this does not mean that K-pop female idols have to break away from human desires.
In fact, in South Korea's conservative social culture, it is extremely common to suppress young women from expressing any "human desires." It is in this taboo yet open atmosphere that K-pop female idols also face the same problem With invisible sexual violence and exploitation, "the erotic problem of k-pop is not that they are portrayed as 'sexual' people, but that they are used as 'sexual' objects to generate profits."
“When you call someone a goddess or fairy, you are objectifying that person and, in a larger sense, limiting their behavior,” in Is a Goddess a Compliment? ” in the book, cultural critic Choi Ji-sun (transliteration) criticized the way K-pop female idols are consumed. Why did
begin to be boycotted?
From the perspective of today’s K-pop trying to open up the global market, the sexualization of K-pop female artists in music videos, music, photos and performances is also regarded as an “obvious controversy that hinders the performance of the K-pop industry”. ".
For example, not long ago, the Korean girl group (g) i-dle performed wearing modified lifeguard uniforms with the "Red Cross" logo, and was protested by the Korean Red Cross and asked to pay a fine. And this sexy look of short shorts, tight skin and exposed navel has also been criticized by South Korea as "professional clothing for entertainment".
In the long history of K-pop girl groups, this is not the only example of the objectification of female professional roles. As early as the millennium, the trend of uniforms in girlhood has spread across Korean military uniforms, nurses, traffic police, etc., including the current trend of girl crush, such as the controversy caused by the change of nurse uniforms to sexy costumes in blackpink's MV. They have all been the focus of conflicts.
What’s even more serious is that after school uniforms have become a fashion item for today’s girl groups, the meaning of “school uniforms” has also been flexibly deconstructed in different concepts of K-pop music.
went further and said, “Seeing the girl group wearing school uniforms like they (regular female students), but them (female idols) performing highly sexualized songs and dances and being praised for it, makes this pair of real-life teenagers It’s so contradictory and confusing,” Professor Jin Yiran pointed out.
Therefore, even with the trend of girl crush in recent years, the proportion of female audiences in the fan base of girl groups has gradually increased, and they have a certain say in K-pop female idols, but they have not yet broken away from the male gaze. It was also boycotted by female fans due to suspected pedophile concepts, "skirts too short", "leggings exposed", sexy dance moves and other factors, and even more protests against the agency and producers behind it.
For example, recently, the new song MV of the girl group Kiss of Life deliberately focused on key parts such as buttocks and breasts, and the male composer who provided music works for itzy left a message on the member Liuzhen’s social platform, saying “Let’s get Botox.” This attracted fans The controversy was called "uncomfortable provocation."
In fact, even though these girl groups shout "I am myself, I love myself" in their concepts, as commodities, the role of sexual objects under the male gaze is the reality faced by all K-pop female idols.
Of course, the "confusion" about the objectification behavior of K-pop girl groups has also gradually changed with the voice of female K-pop. The feminist movement and feminist trends in recent years have had a strong impact on the K-pop world, especially female fans. On a deeper level, the theme of the song "oppa (brother)" used by K-pop female idols to express their love is gone forever and they are more focused. In "Girl Power."
In a general sense, k-pop is pop culture that avoids touching on social issues, especially gender issues and feminism. It is precisely because K-pop idols cannot escape the perspective of the audience, so when a K-pop female artist starts to show certain anti-male behavior, confident speaking, etc., she will lose the support of male fans to a certain extent. For example, red velvet member Irene and le sserafim member Heo Yoonjin received death threats and delisting because of their public exposure of feminist books.
In addition, girl groups that regard feminism as their idol concept are also inevitably conflicted about "self-objectification."
For example, (g) i-dle wrote "tomboy" and "nxde" based on feminist issues. Although they are highly praised by young k-pop fans, they are also considered "uncomfortable" by some female audiences; similarly le sserafim , new jeans, ive, etc. are also faced with the concept of "female self". However, because of the flattering and seductive styling and choreography that have a certain male preference, they are contrary to the theme of the song, so that The audience was surprised and critical.
K-pop music critic Park Xiya (transliteration) pointed out, "This is because this concept is aimed at men and disguises open sexual desire as 'female confidence,' but in fact it runs counter to female empowerment."
The emergence of this contradictory evolution is not only because female fans occupy the main consumption power of most K-pop female idols, but also because the audience pays attention to the autonomy of idols and the progress of social issues. In other words, the "interest exchange" of female audiences for K-pop female idols is not based on the "eyeball economy", but more on the spiritual need for resonance.
For example, HyunA, who was once regarded as a feminist idol because of her special dress, dance, etc., was regarded as a "rape apologist" because of her love and marriage with Yong Junhyung, who was involved in the "Lee Seungri incident", and even criticized her for converting feminism into as a conceptual image.
Under the suppression of female sexism and the breaking of gender norms, K-pop’s cultural narrative has to “open its eyes to see the world.” K-pop female idols are also increasingly singing odes to feminist consciousness in the audience’s feedback.
Therefore, the concept of girl groups that are independent of the male gaze is also gradually emerging in K-pop, although it does not break the label of "feminism". For example, "Butterfly" by Girls of the Month, "Justice" by Dreamcatcher, etc. are all currently being Seen as an inspiration.
Conclusion
Of course, in the entire k-pop context, not only female idols, but male idols are also faced with the phenomenon of being "sexualized"
Such as the early second-generation group 2pm's big show. The sexy "beast group" appearance of the abdominal muscles, "chained up" that incorporated the "s and m concept" that made the third-generation group vixx an instant hit, and the vague narration of the age between a boy and a teenager at the time of their debut NCT Dream, which prohibits love, is also given the meaning of provocative behavior.
Not only that, in the music works of some male artists, the process of animalizing female artists is promoted from the perspective of the leader, and a large number of women are exposed. Key parts of the body, sexually suggestive choreography, ambiguous movement duets, and the classification of beauty and money as similar items, such as psy's famous songs "Gangnam Style" and "gentleman", and its subsequent works after "Gangnam Style". , female idols such as Hyuna and Son Ga In appear in the music video with sexy and provocative "mascot" images, which is also regarded by the K-pop industry as an "honor of recognition" for female idols.
As Korean cultural critic Choi Ji-sun said, "Idols are forced to play non-human roles. They need to spend time and energy to function, but once they are no longer effective, they will be discarded" . The step to break the objectification may also come from how to promote the change of idols' commodity concept. In short, today's idols, especially female idols, still have not achieved "idol autonomy."
After all, the sexualization of idols is essentially determined by the upstream and downstream of the k-pop industry—the agency and consumers.
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