Muslim Youth in K-pop Dance Practices: Performative Responses against Islamic Norms in Malaysia

Abstract

This article offers an ethnography of Malaysian youth who perform cross-gender K-pop dance. In the context of Malaysia’s hegemonic masculinity, I explore the wider cultural space within K-pop dance for nonnormative gender expression, which is usually stigmatized. Drawing on Judith Butler’s work on gender performativity, Kareem Khubchandani’s approach to Asian drag, and Erving Goffman’s stigma theory, I analyze the challenges of male Malay K-pop performers to Islamic norms and hegemonic masculinity. I argue that Muslim Malay K-pop dancers make use of performance as a context to traverse religious and gendered norms.