Transnational Masculinity in the Eyes of Local Beholders? Young Americans’ Perception of K-Pop Masculinities

Abstract

The advancement in communication technology has created myriad online media sources through which people from different cultural backgrounds meet more frequently and easily than ever before. In this highly interconnected world, intercultural sensitivity has been the utmost important quality for global citizenship. Empirical literature on how gender norms operate across countries in the realm of a global circulation of media contents is limited. This study examines how young American individuals perceived masculinity embodied through Korean pop male band members’ bodies. Survey data suggest that U.S. cultural norms played a significant role in research participants’ ( N = 772) perception of Korean band members’ masculinity. Respondents perceived them neither highly masculine nor feminine. Such ambiguous gender images are similar to the stereotypes of Asian American males in the United States. Moreover, respondents’ perception of and evaluation of band members’ masculinity largely conform to what the concept of hegemonic masculinity suggests as ideal. Findings imply that participants construct the difference between Korean pop band members’ masculinity and the Western hegemonic masculinity ideal, and subsequently reproduce cultural distance.