Korea is represented internationally through women in sports and entertainment, as young women’s bodies appropriate nationalism. In K-pop, female performers are constantly sexually objectified for the purposes of marketability, societal standards, and bringing pleasure to the viewer. As many Korean entertainers earn the majority of their money through advertisements, their marketability is dependent on how well they can sell a product and themselves (Turnbull 2017: 132). In 2012, “Korean women were 57 times more likely than men to not be fully dressed in television commercials” (Ibid., 133). For female idols, their face and body have to be visually appealing, as they are exploited “according to the commercially driven standardization of sexuality” (Unger 2015: 26). Old men with a lot of money, ‘Samchon fans,’ are also willing to support these sexually enticing girls. Female idols would subject to sexual objectification as it brings them income. Furthermore, because it is Korean “social etiquette” to live up to societal standards on beauty and sexuality, idols’ images are branded as the ultimate Korean beauty standard and sex appeal (Elfving-Hwang 2013: 3). The performers’ works and music videos are often an “[emphasis on] their sexuality rather than their dexterity or individual expressiveness” (Unger 2015: 35). The audience no longer blinks an eye when music videos feature an excessive amount of skin or sexually provocative content, as having K-pop idols be presented as objects with sex appeal is standardized to be the cultural norm. Lastly, sexual objectification brings pleasure to the viewers, whether it be in the suggestive or the entertainment sense. Although companies may claim that being sexy is supposed to empower female viewers, in my opinion, being sexy is a way of presenting the idealized societal femininity. There are other forms of empowerment that does not involve scantily dressed women singing with sexually provocative expressions. Unfortunately in current day, we are desensitized to sexual objectification in media products as “long term exposure to such videos” encourages “traditional gender attitudes and distorted sexual norms” (Kistler and Lee 2009: 82). Sexual objectification also happen to male idols, but it is unarguably more apparent with female performers in K-pop. Whether it be ‘cute-sexy,’ ‘sexy-sexy,’ or the so-called ‘powerful-sexy,’ female artists are presented as sex objects because they rarely have a say in artistic decisions. In our society today, having sexual objectification in works is the easiest way to make money. Entertainers’ job is to entertain, whether they like it or not. If we want to move in a positive and more empowering direction, we need to have more females in leadership positions and have widespread education that sexual objectification is not okay. ReferenceElfving-Hwang, Joanna. “Cosmetic Surgery and Embodying the Moral Self in South Korean Popular Makeover Culture.” The Asia-Pacific Journal 11, no. 24 (2013): 1-16. https://apjjf.org/2013/11/24/Joanna-Elfving-Hwang/3956/article.html Kistler, Michelle E., and Moon J. Lee. “Does Exposure to Sexual Hip-Hop Music Videos Influence the Sexual Attitudes of College Students?” Mass Communication and Society 13, no. 1 (2009): 67-86. Turnbull, James. “Just Beautiful People Holding a Bottle: The Driving Forces behind South Korea’s Love of Celebrity Endorsement.” Celebrity Studies 8, no. 1 (2017): 128-135. Unger, Michael A. “The Aporia of Presentation: Deconstructing the Genre of K-pop Girl Group Music Videos in South Korea.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 27, no. 1 (2015): 25-47. AuthorAriel Cao
17 Comments
Vanessa
11/19/2018 08:54:10 pm
I've done a research presentation about how sexual objectification in K-pop influences eating disorder. Sexual objectification absolutely not only degrades human, but also sets unhealthy standards of beauty in our society today. I'm sure this has been a social phenomenon since decades ago but with K-pop being the mainstream around the world now, it enhances the idea further. Having suffered from eating disorder, I can say that I was influenced by how media portrays the woman body for sure. Back when K-pop first started spreading in Taiwan, around mid-2000s, female idols weren’t presented as “healthy slim” as if they have been working out. They were just slim, as if they were born that way. The idea of starving has been portrayed as the right thing to do, that it should give me a sense of satisfaction. Moreover, although girl group idols have “exposed” their daily meal being unhealthily small proportioned, there are also TV shows that portrays how these girls can actually eat a lot. I remember seeing Yoona from Girl’s Generation eating a lot on TV shows, as well as Hani from EXID. That got my ideas twisted even more because I would actually believe that they have the type of bodies that just don’t gain fat, and I would wish to be like them, which caused an even more extreme eating disorder.
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Kristy Lin
11/19/2018 10:30:11 pm
Having experienced eating disorders myself as well, I can say that a lot of the pressure I personally had to look a certain way came from the idea of having "skinny legs" and a "thigh gap", which was often used as a way of evaluating "beauty" amongst Korean idols and celebrities. I remember watching an episode of a show where they took measurements of SNSD and picked out the members who had or were close to the "golden ratio" of head to body measurements. At the time, I thought this was normal and I too believed that this was the definition of "beauty", but now that we are more aware of and educated about these issues, I've learned that this is what the media has taught us to call beautiful, and that it's whole definition has been redefined by media for marketing/profit purposes.
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Aneet
11/20/2018 01:28:07 am
It is true that media plays a huge role in influencing audiences to believe what “beauty” looks like; however, I think another reason why this issue exists is because Korean media and audiences expect their idols to be perfect. Of course, they have to be “perfect” in terms of beauty, but they are also expected to bear the pains and burdens that come with being an idol such as staying quiet on issues that directly affect them and the industry, with an example being objectification and looking good all the time. If idols speak out about this, it may indicate that they are not naturally “perfect”, which is opposite to what the media wants to portray.
Han
11/21/2018 11:57:32 am
What's sad is that little girls who watch these shows, the ones that reveal all these unrealistic body measurements, make girls love these idols EVEN MORE... It's like the more 'unreal' the idols are, they more praise they receive from us. It's a terrible cycle that harms the idols and the fans as well, leading both groups to severe eating disorders and unrealistic body goals.
Chaeree
11/22/2018 08:39:56 pm
I wondered the same thing too! Why would such male sexual objectification influence less than female sexual objectification? I agree that it has to do with longer history of female sexual objectification. It is true that female education started later than male and also, mainly in Korea, female roles in the society was very weak back then. They were expected to be housewives, taking care of their kids and supporting their husbands’ careers. Since the social roles of male were much higher than to that of female’s, female sexual objectification may have begun in order to please or provide sexual gratification for men (maybe??) who were at higher social hierarchy. The difference in social roles somewhat made it easier for women to be sexually objectified than men. Even though not only in Korea but also all over the world, more people claim gender equality and it gets more accepted by the society, there still are countries which often look down upon female roles in society and things we have experienced in the past somewhat still remains until nowadays.
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Kristy Lin
11/19/2018 10:41:36 pm
I really agree with you Ariel, about how we need more women in leadership positions, because I think that this is the best way to make and execute changes to this issue of sexual objectification. Often it is hard for the artists to have any say in the way that they are portrayed because they are not the ones in charge, and they do not get the final say. And if you consider the audience to be another important factor to media products, in this case, it will be really difficult to get to the point where audiences can demand a change to the sexual objectification of females within the entertainment system. Because at the end of the day, the whole issue of sexual objectification comes out because it works as a way of "entertaining" the consumers. This will be a hard battle in the entertainment industry, but I look forward to the changes that will come in the future because I believe that if things change in the right direction, then it will also lead the society in changing its ways of defining "beauty" and the "female body".
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Aneet
11/20/2018 01:08:19 am
I absolutely agree! Females are needed in more leadership positions in order to eventually start changing the mindset of audiences and rethink the concept of “beauty”. However, I do think that this type of leadership should perhaps start from behind-the-scenes, or rather, the staff. K-pop idols are usually the last people to make any decisions for their music works; generally, staff members (such as camera directors, producers, stylists, make-up artists, etc.) have more control over making decisions for the idols. I think more leadership positions need to be given to females in “behind-the-scene” roles, as they can help control or minimize effects such as short clothing, camera angles that show specific body parts, and even excessive body movement in choreographies.
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Kristy Lin
11/20/2018 01:20:21 am
I can't even imagine how hard it is going to be, to get more female employees involved and in change-making positions within the companies itself. But Yes! We must be optimistic about this, and I hope that in the future this really changes. Maybe with the help of Youtube, more female content creators and entrepreneurs can be discovered and recognized?
Clara Ng
11/21/2018 10:53:29 pm
I really do hope to see more women in leadership positions as well. Women have often faced the barrier of the "glass ceiling" when trying to strive for high-level roles in corporations. But the fact that sexual objectification, which is related to "male gaze", is such a prevailing issue in this industry, corporations should realize the impact and effect of helping women advance to senior positions in order to combat this large issue.
Han
11/21/2018 11:40:19 am
I think it's great that idols work so hard to obtain such 'perfect bodies'. However, I do believe not all 'hard work' needs to be surfaced to the public for them to see - you can keep your hard work to yourself and not 'show it off'. But being in this industry, idols MUST showcase all their hard work and achievements to win the hearts and to stand out from the huge industry they work in. I feel like the reason companies (and also some consumers) believe that women objectification is 'empowering' is because so many consumers are brainwashed by the media. They have associated looking good = having power. In addition, Idols also receive mass attention from the crowd when they post a gym selfie showing their nice abs and legs, which creates positive reinforcement for the idols to post more of these revealing pictures of their bodies.
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Kristy Lin
11/21/2018 10:13:52 pm
Yea! It is kind of scary (the kinds of expectations society puts on the celebrities), because at the end of the day they are human too. I remember there once was a trend on Youtube of people following the "IU diet", and knowing of all these diet trends going on that revolve around celebrities is really scary. Not to mention that a lot of these restrictive diets are around female idols, and for the male idols it is more about working out and having "wash board abs".
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Clara Ng
11/21/2018 10:38:54 pm
And since these celebrities are the individuals that regular people look to as inspiration and motivation, their ridiculous and outrageous diets are the things that they are promoting as “okay” to do in order to achieve those “ideal” body type.
Aneet
11/22/2018 07:55:07 pm
It truly is scary, especially when little girls follow these diets because they think they have to in order to be "popular" or to make friends, which has such a negative impact on their overall health. What the media and entertainment industry is doing for money is ultimately costing the health of younger audiences.
CedarBough Saeji
11/21/2018 07:53:16 pm
Great job, everyone (although some comments should be longer, or you should add more discussion up until the deadline).
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Clara Ng
11/21/2018 10:48:06 pm
Is having women in leadership positions enough though? I wonder how contradictory it may be for the said leader to be vouching for realistic body expectations for all individuals while possessing the “golden ratio” of measurements. Perhaps it may be more effective if they were to “lead by example”; by showing that living a healthy lifestyle with a healthy body is what should be educated to the public.
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Chaeree
11/22/2018 01:32:49 am
I think the use of sexual objectification in K-pop nowadays more focuses on "empowering" (literally gaining power) or raising popularity of specific K-pop artists. I believe sexual objectification is being used as one of the most powerful ways of attracting more audience. Once it comes out, it gets so viral that makes everyone to watch such sexual objectification used in music videos or any media contents even though they are not aware of that artists. K-pop is honestly a business which cannot survive without people's attention and popularity that this will make certain female artists to become successful, empowering, and leading at least in K-pop.
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Kristy Lin
11/22/2018 10:48:36 am
I really like how you pointed out the two ways that both the media and society are showcasing the words "empowering", and I've never thought about it this way! I think society is so focused on "empowering" the audiences (aka mostly male gaze audiences) because it has been shown that this way works. So I agree with you about the point that I hope in the future, they could better understand what it takes and means to empower the females in the audiences.
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