Female Idols Research Articles

Body and Gender: Postfeminism and Representation of Girl Groups in K-pop Music Videos

As South Korean pop music (K-pop) gains popularity globally, people start to realize the exploitation and gender discrimination undermined in the patriarchal society that girl groups go through. This study aims to examine how exploitation is inflicted on female idols and how it influences fashion trends and the evolution of the representation of girl groups in the K-pop industry through analyzing music videos (MVs) and the lyrics of title tracks from different K-pop girl groups from the 3rd generation to the 5th generation with postfeminist lens. The results of the study indicate that K-pop girl groups undergo three stages of transformation in media representation. First, girl groups experience hypersexualization or infantilization by wearing high heels, miniskirts, and school uniforms, in order to satisfy male gazes from male fans. Second, the popularity of girl crush makes girl groups choose boots and leather clothes to indicate girl power, which explores the female fanbase. Third, K-pop producers conceptualize girl groups to satisfy different ideologies, meaning that members of girl groups have to give up authenticity to achieve synchronization and coherence. To conclude, dominated by a patriarchal society, girl groups satisfy the male gaze while empowering sisterhood and questioning heterosexuality with the influence of feminism, which indicates a postfeminist landscape.

Creativity and Innovation in the K‐pop System and a Possible Link with Pansori

ABSTRACTThis study aims to distinguish between creativity and innovation in K‐pop using a conceptual framework of the K‐pop system and to examine if any traces of Korean traditional Pansori are found in K‐pop. Innovation refers to successful implementation of creative ideas, and creative ideas without successful implementation are of no use in the business sector. A conceptual framework of the K‐pop system, developed by the author, consists of enabling people, contents, system processes, and environments. This study identified eight innovative aspects of K‐pop, which include manufacturing K‐pop stars using a specific formula; providing government leadership for K‐pop export; using well‐balanced copyrights to encourage K‐pop fans' social media sharing of their copycat versions; and embracing culturally hybrid K‐pop music styles for global markets. K‐pop's possible links with Pansori are found in K‐pop singers' Grit, similar to Pansori singers' Gongryeok; and female K‐pop idols willing to take personal sacrifices of “no dating” and “curfews,” resembling Pansori singers' “punishing effort.” Confucian influence on K‐pop is traced in South Korea's top‐down approaches by the government and music industries, and gender inequality imposed on female idols as the male gaze.

The Influence of the Development of the Global Feminist Movement in the 21st Century on the Image Transformation of K-pop Female Idols

From the beginning of the 21st century to 2022, it is generally recognized that more and more entertainment agencies decided to introduce K-pop girl groups with strong and independent performing styles. With the search for Korean feminist movements, this review will concentrate on the image transformation of female idols from the first generation of K-pop to the third generation of K-pop through their performances and fan-related activities. Furthermore, pieces of evidence used mainly by this review are collected from previous research, Spotify and YouTube. By analyzing several samples, it can be concluded that there are association correlations and interactional relationships between the development of Korean feminism and the image transformation of K-pop female idols.

“Yea I’m a f* Tomboy”: “girl crush,” postfeminism, and the reimagining of K-pop femininity

ABSTRACT “Girl crush” is a relatively new genre in South Korean pop music (hereafter “K-pop”). Unlike the stereotypes of female idols being cute and submissive, idols of the “girl crush” genre usually show provocative “girl power,” challenging the patriarchy by incorporating feminist messages in their works. In March 2022, a girl group (G)I-DLE released a song entitled Tomboy, which went viral for its outrageous music video delivering a bold statement about women being independent, fearless, and abandoning toxic heterosexual relationships. This study conducts a social semiotic analysis of Tomboy with a postfeminist lens and comes up with three findings: first, the music video of Tomboy has shown a postfeminist sensibility by exhibiting an entanglement of feminism and antifeminism; second, Tomboy has tackled a queered theme by focusing on women’s collective empowerment and sisterhood against patriarchy; third, “girl crush” has revealed the limitations of celebrity feminism, making the relationship between “girl crush’s” success and feminism questionable.

Blackpink queers your area: the global queerbaiting and queer fandom of K-pop female idols

ABSTRACT This entry discusses the global queerbaiting and queer fannish discourses surrounding the K-pop girl band Blackpink. I examine some key moments in the music group’s tantalization of female same-sex intimacies and its global fans’ queer reading practices. My analysis shows that while queerbaiting encourages a global queering of the female idols, the contextual specificities of contemporary global K-pop industry facilitate a particular kind of queer fantasies that simultaneously contributes to a global LGBTQ visibility and the social policing of its idols’ (hetero-)sexual innocence and desirability.

STRUKTUR NARATIF DAN PENOKOHAN PADA NOVEL THE PERFECT CHARM KARYA DY LUNALY

Literary work is the result of creative and imaginative human thought. Literary work is a medium that utilizes language to reveal the problems surrounding human life. Creative nature causes a person to be able to give birth to a beautiful creation. Literary work has literary value if it contains equivalence between form and content. Therefore it is worth the hand, heart and imaginative. Literary work is an expression of the author's imagination to tell various human and author issues expressing this problem through literary works such as poetry, drama, short stories and novels. The method used by researchers in the study used a qualitative descriptive method. In this study researchers tried to discuss the narrative structure and characterization of The Perfect Charm novel by Dy Lunaly. Thus this research is designed in accordance with the characteristics of qualitative research and qualitative data sources. including the following: (1) objects, (2) data, (3) data sources, (4) data collection and, (5) data analysis. Qualitative research was carried out to describe the narrative structure and characterization of Dy Lunaly's The Perfeck Charm. This research is a qualitative research. The source of the data in this research is Dy Lunaly's The Perfeck Charm with a focus on research on narrative structure and characterization. The data collection technique used is reading notes by reading and recording research subjects repeatedly until they get consistent data. The results show that: (1) the narrative structure in the novel The Perfeck Charm. The flow found in the novel The Perfeck Charm is divided into five, namely: Exposition, Complication and Conflict, Climax, Revelation, and Denousement. (2) characterizations in the novel The Perfeck Charm. The figure discussed in this study is every character in the novel The Perfeck Charm and his character. Adhela figure (Dhe) Stubborn, Not confident, Afraid, Desperate, Appreciate, Merciful, Anxious, Keep promises and Jealousy. Mama's figure is anxious, angry, and feels guilty. Alena Iri figure, and regret. Figure Julia Not desperate and fond of eating. Figure Ann Attention. Papa's attention. Ahsan Peduli figures, female idols and willing to sacrifice. Career Bri and Cheating Person. Satria Figure Handsome, Not Desperate, and Enthusiastic.

Female idols in Japan: Desiring desire, fantasmatic consumption and drive satisfaction

In this article, the author explores the idol-phenomenon in Japanese society and, more specifically, how the relation between the idol-image and the otaku should be understood. By analysing the way in which the otaku interacts with his desired idol-image, the author is able to explain how an otaku comes to desire an idol-image and how his supportive consumption of her commodities constitutes an investment in her grand-narrative of lack. He also shows how this consumption, as driven by the otaku’s desire to desire, concerns a consumption of fantasies of the supposedly writable sexual relationship as well as a consumption of images that satisfies the scopic drive. Eventually, the author concludes that the interaction of the otaku with his desired idol-image, an interaction devoid of female subjects, remains beyond any true love whatsoever.

From Hybridity of Cultural Production to Hyperreality of Post-feminism in K-pop: A Theoretical Reconsideration for Critical Approaches to Cultural Assemblages in Neoliberal Culture Industry

This paper evaluates a current discourse of cultural hybridity that is deployed to examine the global success of local popular culture from South Korea. Indicating the discourse is descriptive without retaining an explanatory merit, I propose an alternative perspective based on Jean Baudrillard’s notion of simulation and hyperreality, while focusing on the political economy of cultural hybridization. Examining how the Korean popular music (K-pop) industry mixes various audio-visual elements, I argue cultural hybridity in K-pop is not so much an autonomous, self-reflective cultural endeavor as an industrial means to maximize profits while perpetuating the status quo of gender relations. Re-inserting K-pop within the industry’s structural configurations, I analyze how and why a hyper-real personality of female idols who sport contradictory characteristics, innocence and explicit sexuality, becomes a new ideal femininity. Indicating neoliberal and post-feminist ramifications in K-pop’s hybridity, I redress the myopic, descriptive nature of the current scholarship.

Influence of member color on impression formation in female idols

Influence of member color on impression formation in female idols

Never-Ending Gender/Sexual Cannibalism? Transformation of Female Idolisation in Japan

Inspired by an innovative class named “The (underground) Idol as a Transcendent Existence,” this paper concentrates on the psychological and economic relationship between young female human idols, the aidoru, and their devoted male fans, the idol otaku. The first section of the paper uncovers the exploitation of female human idols by their male fans. While the concept of “idol as image” imposed by idol producers fosters the fetishisation and objectification of female human bodies, the consuming act exhibited by the male gaze indicates a metaphorical form of gender/sexual cannibalism. The second part of the paper focuses on the impact of the birth of digital female idols on the issue of female exploitation. With the development of computer and artificial intelligence technologies, female virtual idols have been replacing female human idols, as they offer more space and freedom of manipulation. With computer technologies, each idol otaku can construct a more intimate relationship than is possible with female human idols through designing feminine characteristics of female virtual idols according to his personal needs and fantasies. However, from a feminist perspective, this transformation of female idolisation or more specifically, the digitalisation of female human bodies, could ultimately lead toward a world of feminist dystopia due to the further manipulation of female selves and bodies by their male producers and consumers.

K-pop Female Idols as Cultural Genre of Patriarchal Neoliberalism: A Gendered Nature of Developmentalism and the Structure of Feeling/Experience in Contemporary Korea

As a critical reconsideration of the recent growth of South Korean popular music, also known as K-pop, this paper explores historical continuities and breaks in this musical genre through an examination of its female idols. Given that the recording industry both creates a new culture and is influenced by the broader social environment in which its creation takes place,1 the status of K-pop female idols as a dominant cultural genre in contemporary Korea warrants further scholarly interrogation. As a revival of the girl groups popular in both the United States and Korea during the 1950s and 60s, K-pop idols have…

Obesity of Womens in Paleolithicum

Photos and/or copies of a hundred Paleolithic statues were observed. The photos were taken on frontal, lateral and back view. Among the 97 female idols studied, 24 were skinny (mainly young ladies); 15 normal weighed, while more than half of them (51) represents overweighed or very obese females, their breasts was also extremely large. The figurine analysis shows various types of obesity. Fat tissue deposition can be seen on the following places: belly only on 2 figurines; belly + hip on 10 statues; belly + gluteal + hip on 14 idols, belly + hip + gluteal+ femora on 24 statuettes and diffuse obesity on one Venus. Steatopygia could be detected on 7 idols, while these females are not particularly overweight and had reasonably thin waist and legs.

Obesity in the paleolithic era

Photos and/or copies of one hundred Upper Paleolithic (45,000-40,000 to 10,000 BP) statues were studied, the photos having been taken from the frontal, lateral and back view. Among the 97 female idols studied, 24 were skinny (mainly young women), 15 were of normal weight, while more than half of them (51) represented overweight or very obese females whose breasts were also extremely large. The figurine analysis revealed various types of obesity. Increased fat tissue deposition can be seen in the following body parts: belly only in 2 Venus figurines, belly + hip in 10, belly + gluteal + hip in 14, belly + hip + gluteal + femora in 24 and diffuse obesity in one. Steatopygia (derived from the Greek "steato" meaning fat, and "pygia" meaning buttocks and describing excessive fat of the buttocks) was observable in 7 idols, although these females were not particularly overweight and had a reasonably thin waist and legs. Only seven statues were in the state of advanced gravidity (pregnancy). The presence of such a small number of gravidity statuettes challenges the general view concerning Venus idols, namely, that they all represent female fertility.

“Boots,” “Female Idols” and Disembodied Heads

“Boots,” “Female Idols” and Disembodied Heads