How are Women are Depicted in K-pop?

Much has changed with Korean culture in the past two decades due to Western influence following the economic crisis. Korean popular music has prospered by adopting many aspects of Western culture including their approach to marketing and more specifically, how hyper-sexualizing their products will generate the most profits. Similar to Western culture, Korean female celebrities and artists are expected to hold the highest standards of beauty and attractiveness. These standards include long, slender legs, petite frames, and symmetrical faces. In Korea especially, is has become the norm to undergo plastic surgery in order to meet these standards. Female K-pop idols today are manufactured and promoted as “consumer products rather than musical artists” (Hazzan 2016, 44). Entertainment agencies has caught on to the idea that “sex sells” and wants to drive their sales by utilizing the male gaze in their products.

All members of Girls Generation have the features of this beauty standard.

In an industry that is male dominant, it is very common to see female idols wearing “revealing costumes and performing suggestive, often erotic choreography” (Lin and Rudolph 2017, 28). Even though their outfits and dancing might not have anything to do with the message that is being said in the song, it reinforces the idea that all it takes to make sales is to keep the audience enticed and seduced. This is a conscious decision made by the management companies and little to no input from the artists themselves are considered. To some people, signing onto becoming a K-pop idol means that you’re now a slave to the company and they hold the reins to your career. There has been a documentary on the girl group Nine Muses that goes into detail revealing the control that these management companies have on the idol groups. These girls were purposely subjected to controversial wardrobe decisions and there was nothing they could do but “express their embarrassment or shock over their sexualized costumes” (Lin and Rudolph 2017, 30).

Sometimes girl groups take on a “lolita” concept in their image which can be identified as overly cute, submissive and innocent. This concept appeals the most to older men and satisfies the stereotype that older men find younger looking girls desirable. Again, this is another case where the exploitation of girl groups satisfies the needs of the consumer. We are starting to see less of this approach since K-pop has become extremely popular to a variety of people of all ages across the globe.

The "Lolita" concept. These girls are in cute frilly dresses making adorable gestures.

Amongst a sea of sexual exploitation and oppression, some girl groups such as Brown Eyed Girls have came out with songs that “satirize the industry’s subordination of women” (Kim 2013, par. 6). Their song and MV for “Sixth Sense” is about their revolution against male authority (Kim 2013, par. 6). Even though efforts such as this exists, a conscious effort from society is needed in order to make drastic changes in how we depict women in music and media. There needs to be a shift in beauty ideals towards a more realistic standard. As well as finding alternative marketing strategies instead of relying on sex to sell.

Nine Muses Documentary.

References:

Hazzan, Dave. "K-POP CHORDS OF SEXISM." Herizons 30, no. 2 (2016): 44-45,48,3.

Kim, Soyoung. "Female Empowerment or Exploitation?" The Harvard Crimson Oct. 8, 2013. https://www.thecrimson.com/column/k-pop-generation/article/2013/10/8/Female_Empowerment_Exploitation_Kpop/

Lin, Xi, and Robert Rudolph. "Does K-pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set."Asian Women 33, no. 4 (2017): 27-54.