After the class on sexual objectification, explain what you think about sexual objectification in K-pop.
Sexual objectification refers to “the act of treating a person as a mere object that serves another’s sexual pleasure” defined by Caroline Heldman in her Tedtalk. This is evidently shown in k-pop music videos featuring females, in which case they are inevitably presented in “revealing” clothing, perform “suggestive and often erotic choreography filled with sexual innuendos”, and are only shot with “male gaze” (Lin and Rudolf 2017, 28). My proposal is that ideas of sexual objectifying women is embedded into the minds of the youth, and can negatively affect women’s attitude regarding themselves. As well as inhibit the formation of healthy relationships.
As entertainment media is seen as a major source of information, teenagers often refer to contents in the media when thinking about attitudes on gender roles (Kistler and Lee 2009, 68). In relation to K-pop, idols’ play a significant part in “shaping young people’s ideas on sexuality” (Kistler and Lee 2009, 68). This can lead their fans into mimicking a presented role, and engaging in an unhealthy way of thinking about themselves. A study done by Kistler and Lee revealed that male participants who were in the high sex condition (exposed to highly sexual music videos), scored higher on “female objectification, sexual permissiveness, and acceptance of rape” compared with those in the low sex condition (2009, 72-73). Additionally, those who already possess views of sexually objectifying women can further strengthen this belief, due to the overwhelming sexually objectifying material shown in K-pop. The abundance of sexually objectifying content not only affects the way young people think but would also prevent efforts to change that thought process.
K-pop’s oversexualized media skews with the audience’s perception of women. Females are often seen as an accessory to men. This is seen in Gary’s MV “Shower Later”, where the girls’ only purpose were to display their sexual desires towards Gary. As female viewers are constantly exposed to this kind of depiction, they begin to subconsciously objectify themselves as well. This leads to a loss of confidence, self-doubt, and habitual body monitoring discussed by Heldman. These views will negatively impact the formation of healthy relationships as well. Due to fact that feelings of inferiority would result in excessive neediness and constant victimization in relationships. This will also stress their partners as they would feel burdened with the responsibility of fulfilling the dominant role.
In conclusion, K-pop is an influential source of information and its contents should promote healthy and empowering images of women instead of degrading females as simple accessories. We need to understand the negative effects sexually objectifying women has on both genders and I am optimistic in seeing changes happen in the future.
Author: Katherine Shen
Citations
Lin, Xi, and Robert Rudolf. “Does K-pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set.” Asian Women 33, no. 4 (2017): 27-54.
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.
“The Sexy Lie: Caroline Heldman at TEDxYouth@SanDiego.” Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMS4VJKekW8&vl=en (accessed 11/19/2018).
AILEE 
Entertainment media is definitely shaping the attitudes of youths through the display of these so desired “perfect K-pop idols”. Youths are presented with these figures of perfection and brainwashed to think that to become someone like that would make them significantly happier. By not showing the other side of this perfection, it does make youths think of them in unhealthy ways as they don’t understand why there may be so many inconveniences and consequences in being that way, and eventually it may demoralise them to think they will never achieve their goal.
I think that in our current state of society, we all have a general idea of what gender roles are considered “correct”. Of course I in no way support sexual objectification, but I will raise some arguments from the other side for some discussion.
Firstly, let’s imagine what would happen if sexual objectification were to suddenly be removed in entertainment right now. Companies would probably start losing money, as well as female idols. We then have to consider that the thing some of these female idols are selling IS sexual objectification because we give it value in our society. The more important it is to us, the higher we value it, especially in the current entertainment industry. So if we were to want a sustained method of removing sexual objectification, then we would have to remove the value that people give to it. I’m not sure how one could do this, but possible extreme ideas may be that everyone has to wear the same clothes. Furthermore, if we remove the role of women needing to be “sexy”, then is it fair to say that should also remove the role of men being “shredded”. If so, should we also say that we should remove the roles of being “lady like” and a “gentleman”. Of course now I’m talking more about gender roles than solely sexual objectification.
Going back to the definition of sexual objectification in this essay, it implies that we should treat a person as a person instead of an object of use. In theory, everyone in our society has an “use”, otherwise they would be invaluable and unemployed. So we really have to go into what it means to treat a person as a person instead of as an object of use to have the general public more deeply understand why sexual objectification is not permissible.
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You raise some good points Alex. The entertainment industry as well as society certainly gives sexuality a value that is evident in advertisements, media and reproduction of a certain mentality that perpetuates this idea sexuality makes you valuable. Sexuality is given a commercialized, monetary value when advertisements specifically use body parts or sexual innuendos to attract the attention of consumers. The reason why this marketing strategy is repeated over and over is because it works! Lee Hyori increased sales of Chum Churum just by posing and showing off her legs with a bottle of soju in front of her. Because sex sells, it creates a dangerous cycle of promoting sexuality as a good thing, reducing models to a sexual object and consumers believing that they too should express sexuality which reduces them to the sexual object. Hyper sexualization in media also embed the mentality that regular people should look like that too. Hyuna is worshipped by millions of male fans because she’s always wearing revealing clothing and lip syncing with a “bedroom face”. If these male fans ideals are raised because of Hyuna, how are regular girls in society supposed to compete when this becomes the kind of girl a man wants? This ideal can also be flipped around. If Jungkook from BTS (unnecessarily) flashes his abs every time he’s singing the chorus of “Fake Love”, suddenly all of his female fans want to find a boyfriend with perfect abs. In the end, a person may face objectification from peers who criticize them and reduce them to their appearance.
I also find it interesting that there are so many K-dramas with plots around a certain person getting a makeover to impress someone, such as “Oh My Venus” or “200-Pounds Beauty”. Both stories revolve around an overweight woman losing weight just to impress a man they like. These themes in media once again embed the mentality that women need to be slim and sexy to be considered beautiful in society.
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Who wrote this nice blog post?
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I agree with what you said about how K-pop idols – in particular, female K-pop idols – are able to influence viewers on how girls should look, act, and think about themselves, which is often encouraged through appearance and personality. Specifically, it cages female viewers to try and fit a certain “role” because they think that that is what the media is showing, that is what others are following, and ultimately, that is what is expected of them.
Unfortunately, sexual objectification extends beyond K-pop. In Korean dramas, we usually see objectification of females as well, although it may be done more subtly. For example, we may think it is romantic in the moment of watching the male “wrist-grab” and pull the female into a kiss, but – and especially – when this happens in scenes where the female is angry or upset and the kiss is used as a distraction, it is objectification. Forcing a kiss on someone who is angry is objectification because you are acting upon them as if they are an object; you are disregarding their feelings and think that kissing them solves the problem. Another example that is commonly used is when the female is fought over by two males, and is used to evoke feelings of jealousy while simultaneously being presented as something to be owned or possessed (such as when the guy demands jealously, “why were you with him?”). But time and time again, we see these sorts of scenes and tropes in many dramas and have been conditioned to think of them and see them as “romantic.”
These instances of the media’s portrayal of women thus condition female viewers to act and be a certain way in order to fit the “female role.” They give themselves a value where their level of worth is based on how closely they fit to the standard. They see K-pop idols with thin bodies and in sexually objectifying MVs, and they use that as a baseline. They see Korean dramas of females being objectified and they conflate that with “romance.” It is a depressing, destructive, and consuming mindset, and I agree with you that we need to start realizing the negative effects of objectification in order to promote a more healthy mindset that does not encourage this behaviour, but instead challenges it.
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Really interesting analysis Christy! I hadn’t thought about the dominance of a male character in MV’s until you pointed it out. Now it’ll be hard for me to watch MV’s the same way again. Another MV that comes to mind that might not represent sexual objectification but objectification nonetheless is Girls’ Generations’ “Gee” video. The members are mannequins and Minho (of SHINee) literally picks them up and moves them around like an actual object. The girls are represented as helpless and in need of a man. I guess objectification can be represented in many ways.
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I agree with a lot of the points you’ve made. K-pop idols definitely plays a big part in influencing a viewer’s perspective of an ideal female. By promoting a specific beauty standard of tall and stick-skinny body figures, it leaves female viewers subconsciously comparing themselves with unrealistic standards. I believe that this is also a contributing factor to the high amounts of girls with eating disorders. Women who do not into this concept displayed the media may feel more pressured into eating less in order to lose weight. Although there are healthy ways to lose weight, oftentimes this can lead to unhealthy eating habits and eating disorders, impacting their physical and mental health. In Korean culture, looking your best is considered to be an important part of self-development and the media also plays a part in enforcing that belief. As Nia mentioned, there are numerous K-dramas that focus on a female protagonist who is overweight. For example, “Oh My Venus” portrays a character who does not have much luck or happiness in life due to her oversized figure and gets dumped by her boyfriend for a hotter girl. The show follows her weight loss journey and show her falling in love after becoming pretty. These examples again enforce the idea that the prettier you are, the better loved you will be. Other examples include Ailee and her struggles in achieving the Korea beauty standard. Prior to her dieting and weight loss, her singing would constantly be overshadowed by fans objectifying her body image and comments on her size. Eventually due to the pressure from media, fans and management, it led to her losing a great deal of weight for her comeback. Other idols have also received backlash for being considered too fat, which led to fans believing they were lacking in self-development. Our current culture and media are deeply embedded in the idea that looks are everything, which has a negative impact on the audiences. It is negatively affecting the viewer’s health and mindset. Instead of promoting thin, pale K-pop idols, the media should promote a healthier and more realistic image instead.
Cathy Leung
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