Author
Chaeree
Sexual imbalance and Women empowerment linking to contemporary Korean Society
Lookism or bodily perfection has become increasingly crucial in media industries and everyday life in contemporary Korean society. I believe Hyo Min’s “Nice Body” reflects well the Korean ideology of using lookism to acquire socially desirable status. I will explain how it uses sexual objectification and visual binarism or contrast to illustrate how women empowerment is achieved through sexuality and overcome gender imbalance and inequality in the video. It uses visual representation of sexual objectification and visual binarism.
Prevalent sexual objectification represented by images and lyrics in this video leads to sexual imbalance or gender inequality. The visual representation of video shots of parts of Hyomin’s body and body measurements on her outfit clearly objectify female body. The lyrics draw a clear distinction of what defines to be men or women. For instance, “all women want to show skin, want to be loved (by men), and go on a diet as enduring the pain and resisting from eating what she wants to eat.” All men “like pretty girls and have dirty thoughts of girls at least once of their times.” More importantly, this classifies male as an active or a bearer of the look while female is passive or something to be looked at and displayed (Mulvey 1975: 11). Such division leads to a gender imbalance or a “patriarchal organisation of local femininity under the masculine gaze (Puzar and Hong 2018: 15), putting male superior over women.
Secondly, the visual contrast between the lives of a fat girl and a ‘nice body’ girl misleadingly illustrates that an appealing physique equals living a successful life. The life of a girl in her ‘nice body’ sets a vibrant, social, healthy atmosphere (such as playing tennis, kickboxing) contrasting to that of a fat girl under a darker and gloomy mood. This leads to a notion of how lookism enables one in order to gain one’s admirable quality of life. Since K-pop is significantly driven by visuals, this gives potential influence on fans’ gender attitudes (Lin and Rudolf 2017: 28). This will give a wrong idea of women’s lookism is a way to acquire what they want.
Combining two points, the song promotes that such sexual imbalance can be overcome by feminine sexuality as an empowerment to live a successful life. The lyrics say once she acquires a “nice body” no one will look [her] down. Therefore, this encourages narcissitic desirability to redress power imbalance of male and female (Epstein 2014: 318). Moreover, the guy says staring at her legs makes themselves losing; meaning she wins over men. This well supports today’s problematic issue of lookism in Korean women. Such lookism has become crucial for obtaining desirable social status or performing adequately in society (Elfving-Hwang 2013: 11). Appearance is essential for gaining employment in the customer-oriented workplace (2013: 2). Therefore, Korean women undergo excessive amount of pressure to conform to visual norms or the beauty standards set by contemporary Korean society (2013: 11). The apparent visual contrast between the life as a fat figure and a skinny figure. Life in a ‘nice body’ equals a successful life with love, social life, and healthy life style (playing tennis and kickboxing) while the opposite body figure incorporates dark, gloomy and eating unhealthy food alone. The fat girl acknowledges well that being skinny is successful and what she admires – eventually near the ending, she chooses to exercise to fit visual norms of the society in order to be powerful and successful.
To sum, Hyomin’s “Nice Body” uses sexual objectification to depict how women is being objectified through male gaze as putting men superior over women. Visual contrast portrays an appealing physique of women equals one’s successful life. Lastly, such women sexuality is now used as means of its empowerment to acquire the desirable social status similarly to the plastic surgery ideology of Korean women happening today.
Prevalent sexual objectification represented by images and lyrics in this video leads to sexual imbalance or gender inequality. The visual representation of video shots of parts of Hyomin’s body and body measurements on her outfit clearly objectify female body. The lyrics draw a clear distinction of what defines to be men or women. For instance, “all women want to show skin, want to be loved (by men), and go on a diet as enduring the pain and resisting from eating what she wants to eat.” All men “like pretty girls and have dirty thoughts of girls at least once of their times.” More importantly, this classifies male as an active or a bearer of the look while female is passive or something to be looked at and displayed (Mulvey 1975: 11). Such division leads to a gender imbalance or a “patriarchal organisation of local femininity under the masculine gaze (Puzar and Hong 2018: 15), putting male superior over women.
Secondly, the visual contrast between the lives of a fat girl and a ‘nice body’ girl misleadingly illustrates that an appealing physique equals living a successful life. The life of a girl in her ‘nice body’ sets a vibrant, social, healthy atmosphere (such as playing tennis, kickboxing) contrasting to that of a fat girl under a darker and gloomy mood. This leads to a notion of how lookism enables one in order to gain one’s admirable quality of life. Since K-pop is significantly driven by visuals, this gives potential influence on fans’ gender attitudes (Lin and Rudolf 2017: 28). This will give a wrong idea of women’s lookism is a way to acquire what they want.
Combining two points, the song promotes that such sexual imbalance can be overcome by feminine sexuality as an empowerment to live a successful life. The lyrics say once she acquires a “nice body” no one will look [her] down. Therefore, this encourages narcissitic desirability to redress power imbalance of male and female (Epstein 2014: 318). Moreover, the guy says staring at her legs makes themselves losing; meaning she wins over men. This well supports today’s problematic issue of lookism in Korean women. Such lookism has become crucial for obtaining desirable social status or performing adequately in society (Elfving-Hwang 2013: 11). Appearance is essential for gaining employment in the customer-oriented workplace (2013: 2). Therefore, Korean women undergo excessive amount of pressure to conform to visual norms or the beauty standards set by contemporary Korean society (2013: 11). The apparent visual contrast between the life as a fat figure and a skinny figure. Life in a ‘nice body’ equals a successful life with love, social life, and healthy life style (playing tennis and kickboxing) while the opposite body figure incorporates dark, gloomy and eating unhealthy food alone. The fat girl acknowledges well that being skinny is successful and what she admires – eventually near the ending, she chooses to exercise to fit visual norms of the society in order to be powerful and successful.
To sum, Hyomin’s “Nice Body” uses sexual objectification to depict how women is being objectified through male gaze as putting men superior over women. Visual contrast portrays an appealing physique of women equals one’s successful life. Lastly, such women sexuality is now used as means of its empowerment to acquire the desirable social status similarly to the plastic surgery ideology of Korean women happening today.
Reference
Elfving-Hwang, Joanna. “Cosmetic Surgery and Embodying the Moral Self in South Korean Popular Makeover Culture.” The Asia-
Pacific Journal 11, no. 2 (June 2013): 1-16.
Epstein, Stephen, and Rachel M. Joo. “Multiple Exposures: Korean Bodies and the Transnational Imagination.” The Asia-Pacific Journal
10, no.1 (2012): 1-24.
MBK Entertainment. “HYO MIN[효민] ‘Nice Body [나이스 바디]’ M/V.” YouTube video, 4:03. Posted June 29, 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xi9Zx4_Bog
Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen 16, no. 1 (1975): 6-18. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6
Puzar, Aljosa, and Yewon Hong. “Korean Cuties: Understanding Performed Winsomeness (Aegyo) in South Korea.” The Asia Pacific
Journal of Anthropology 19, no. 4 (2018): 333-349.
Pacific Journal 11, no. 2 (June 2013): 1-16.
Epstein, Stephen, and Rachel M. Joo. “Multiple Exposures: Korean Bodies and the Transnational Imagination.” The Asia-Pacific Journal
10, no.1 (2012): 1-24.
MBK Entertainment. “HYO MIN[효민] ‘Nice Body [나이스 바디]’ M/V.” YouTube video, 4:03. Posted June 29, 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xi9Zx4_Bog
Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen 16, no. 1 (1975): 6-18. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6
Puzar, Aljosa, and Yewon Hong. “Korean Cuties: Understanding Performed Winsomeness (Aegyo) in South Korea.” The Asia Pacific
Journal of Anthropology 19, no. 4 (2018): 333-349.