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Kim, Kyung Hyun, and Choe, Youngmin, eds. Korean Popular Culture Reader. Durham, NC, USA: Duke University Press, 2014. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 13 October 2014. Copyright © 2014. Duke University Press. All rights reserved.

14 STEPHEN EPSTEIN with JAMES TURNBULL

Girls' Generation? Gender, (Dis)Empowerment, and K-pop

The hotte st phra se in Korea no\vadays is undeniably "girl group." But girl group fever

is more than just a tren d: it 's sym bolic of a cultura l era th at is embrac ing the expu l-

sion of aut horitari an ideo logy.

So begins the table of contents blurb for a story on the rise of girl groups (kol kurup) in the March 2010 issue of Korea, a pub lic-relations magazine published un der the ausp ices of the Korea n Culture and Infor mat ion Ser- v:ce. Beginning :n 2007, with the success of the Wonder Girls, ensembles composed of from three to nine females in the:r teens or early twen ties have dominat ed South Korean popular music.1 Certa inly the explosion of the term kol kurup :n recent public discourse :s unden:able: a search of the K es news archive, for example, turns up the first use only in 2008 with bu t three citations for the en tire year.2 By 2009, however, this nu mber had increase d to 39, and in 2010 KBS-News ran 174 items employ ing the term kol kurup. 1nter est cont inues to expand: in 2011, 356 stor ies on KBS featured the term.

Equ ally no tably, governmental forces are tak ing advantage of th is tren d. In May 2010, one girl group's song-"Huh" by 4Minute-w as champ ioned as "extolling freedom of choice" and used as part of a radio propaganda broadcast to North Korea3; the following mon th, the Defense M:nistry dis- cussed broadcast :ng g:rl group mus ic videos on screens along the D M z as part of psychological warfare operat ions.• In contrast ing bu t related fash- :on, the recent success of Korea's girl groups in Japan has become central to promot ing a second surge of the Korean Wave and has bee n hera lded by the med:a :n somet:mes str ident fash:on : "Korean Idols 'Occup y Japa- nese Arch :pelago,' Lay Waste to Japan" (Han aidol 'ilyoldo chomryong,' ilbon chot'ohwashikida) reads the title of one part icularly egreg:ous article.5 Str ik-

:ngly, a number of repor ts on the h igh-profile dispute of girl group KARA w:th its manageme nt focused not on the su it itself or the controvers:al labo r struc ture of the en terta inment system but rather on the effect the dispu te m:ght have on Korean assertio ns of brand nationalism. 6

These examples illustrate the exten t to which g:rl groups have become both a newsworthy topic for media authorities and a tool to be wielded by official interests. As "Korea, Inc ." deploys its cultural :ndust ries :n a b:d for

global market share, the genre's success has led to a hyperbolic discourse seek :ng to transc end the narro wer realm of pop mus ic. The Korea art:c le continu es:

No matte r our age or gender, these girls allow us to dream once again, mov ing us with the ir cheerfulness and a feeling of fresh radiance . The v:brancy of the ir songs, dances, clothes, and perfor mances is so irresist- :ble that every move :s picked up by the world's radar. They render the term "singer" insuffic:en t. They are at the edge of the frontier of popular culture, but they are not just p ioneers- they are the culture. 7

Nonetheless, despite top-dow n promo tion and accompany ing breath less celebrat ions, the !:berating natu re of the phenomenon rema ins debat- able. Of course, when ever the mar ket drives musical creat ion and groups are m anu factu red rather than arising organ ically, "authen tic ity" becomes suspec t, and the organ ization of Korea's mus ic :ndus try allows :dol groups m:nimal art iste autonomy. Furthermore, with in a context of cha nging so- cial mores and reduced profits from Korea's notor iously h igh levels of ille- gal downloading, the need for en terta: nment compan ies to att ract atten tion for their own perfor mers amid the current glut of groups has led to an in- creased sexualization of mus ic videos, pe rformances, and commerc ial en- dorsements .8

Part icularly qu estion able :s the correlat ion of a preponder ance of suc- cessfu l young fem ale ensembles in Korean pop mus ic with an expuls:on of author itar ian ideology. In this chapter, we engage in a reading of the lyri- cal and visual codes of the mus ic videos of Korean girl groups from 2007 to early 20 11 :n order to challen ge the not ion that the pheno menon sign als escape from patr iarchy or embedded power structures. As we will argue, although eleme nts of current packag ing may be novel, the gender ideolo- g:es propag ated by such groups as Girls' Generat ion, KARA , T-ara, Wonder Girls, Miss-A, 2NE 1, 4Minute , and similar ensembles have offered society, and young women :n part :cular, at best a h ighly ambivalent empower men t.

Girls' Generation? 315

M/V KILLED THE RADIO STAR

Wh ile a subs tantial body of work ex:sts on gender and Weste rn popu la r

mus ic generally and mus ic videos spec ifically,9 and scholars have addressed

Korean gender ideolog ies in film and drama,10 thus far surpris ingly little

work has been done on gende r and contem pora ry Korean popular mus ic,

desp ite the salience of gender as a key issue dr :ving its p rodu ct:on and con-

sump tion and pop mus ic's prom :nence as a site for the trans miss ion of, and

contestation over, gender roles.11 The cons iderable evolut ion in rep resen ta-

tions of gender and sexuali ty in Korea since the tur n of the m: llenn ium ren-

ders this lacun a all the more notewort hy. On e m ight cite, for example, the rise of Korean soft mas culinity via the kkonminam (lit. "flower-ha ndsome

man "); sympa thet:c portraya ls of homosexua lity (for examp le, the 2005 hit

film The King and the Clown and the 2010 drama Beautiful Life); and increas - ing p ublic awaren ess of tra nsge nderism, as ,vitnessed in the popu lar ity of

en terta:n er Har isu. 12 Popu lar representa tions of the feminine have also d: -

vers ified : in film, the confrontat ional bu t none thel ess des irable prota gonists

of My Sassy Girl (2001 ) and My Wife Is a Gangster (2001 ) exempl ify a blur ring of gen der roles; The Art of Seduction (2005 ) and Bewitching Attraction (2006) tr eat the com mo d:ficat:o n of provocat:ve fem in inity w:th:n consumer so -

ciety; and 2008's My Wife Got Married and Live Together each take fem ale sexual des ire and subjec tivity as cen tral themes .13 In comp ar:son, represen-

tations of gender roles from girl groups have shown rather less variat:on .

We treat girl group mus :c videos as a crucial compo nent in the contem-

po rary dissem ination of ideolog :es of gender and sexua lity for a few s:gn ifi-

cant reasons . First , although more traditiona l consu mption of Korean pop

mu sic exists, albe it with cassett es and cos hav ing yielded to digital me dia

playback, Korean popular mus :c is driven by the visual, not only v:a Eve per-

formance on television bu t in mus:c videos (regul arly refer red to as M/v in Korea) too . As Hoon -Soon Kim no tes, "The mus ic video has captivated the

younger generation ... and has changed the notio n of mus:c from that of

someth ing pr imar ily aud itory to someth ing to watch as well."14 M us :c videos

are now con su me d :n large numbers on the Internet. As of March 2012, the two mos t watched videos of all t ime on the Korean YouTube channe l were

both from girl gro ups : the official v:deo for the song "Gee" by Girls' Genera-

tion, wh:ch had been viewed 67 m ilEon times, and "Nobody" by competi-

tors Wonder Girls, seen over 56 m illion t:mes . The savvy use of You Tube,

literally and figurat ively a key "s:te" for the exper ience and distr:but ion of

mus ic at a m ass level, has now become a core component of Korean enter-

ta:n me nt compa nies' promo tion strateg ies, espec ially at the international

316 Ste phen Epstein with James Turnbull

level.15 Memora ble images from mus ic v:deos and signature dances for songs become touchstones in Korean popu lar culture and c:rcu late widely.

A second cons iderat ion :s that , with few except ions, performers do not compose the ir own mus ic bu t beco me part of the stable of conglomera tes, at the mome nt headed by the tr iumv irate of SM Enterta inme nt, YG Enter- ta:nmen t, and JYP Enterta inment, who together manage most of the groups discussed below. Indeed, one may well regard Korean popular mus ic art- ists as general en terta ine rs (and thu s see un intended irony in the earl ier Deok-hyeon Jeong charact erization of the term singer as "insufficient"), for w:th the collapse of recorde d mus ic sales success has come to depe nd not so much on vocal talen t as danc ing ability, phys ical attract iveness, and the project ion of im age thr ough appe arance in live performances , television programs , advertis eme nts, and so on . In this env iron ment, mus ic videos become not an autonomo us express ion of performer sens ibility but a mar- ket ing tactic concocted by man agers to sell a cultural produc t. In order to be effect:ve, a mus ic video (M/v) must resonate with the zeitgeist in the way :t conforms to, or in some cases challenges, normative expectat:ons; :n th :s sense it becomes part of a discourse "that is socially cons tructe d by the :nter- play among mainstre am mores and values, consump tion pract:ces, and sub- ject ive interpretat ion of its mean ings by its aud iences ."16

Concen tratin g on a read:ng of lyrics and mus ic videos there fore requ ires caveats. Wh ile the reception of any text is open to contestat:on, the rapid crosscutt ing between shots and decon textualizations of mus ic videos do far less to foreclose part:cular interpretat ions than the gene rally more coher en t nar ratives of film or fiction , and the medium's success ion of fragmen ted,

spectacular images set to mus ical accompan iment allows ind:viduals enor- mous range :n the cons truc tion of meaning. In a study of aud ience react :on to Madonna's mus ic videos, J. Brown and L. Schu lze also demons trate wide differences by race, gender, and fandom levels in how v:ewers per ceived a g:ven piece 17; likewise, with in Korea itself age and gender, among other cons iderat:ons, w] l have an impact on aud ience interpre tation of videos.

Further mor e, pop mus ic now plays a cruc ial role in Korea's increas ing dia- logue with the outs ide world . K-pop's enthus iastic global fan base means that domes t:c interpreta tions cannot be accorded exclusive validity any mor e than one can p rivilege Ame r:can un derstan dings of an Eminem or Lady Gaga video as more "correct" than others .

Conseque ntly we stress that our own readings of Korean girl group mus ic videos , while hop efully illum inat:n g, are mean t to stimu late discus- sion rather than be author itative; our aim :s to infiltrate the tr ium phant discourse of the cultural indus tr ies and the ir champ ions with a critical ap-

Girls' Generation? 317

praisal in Eght of a germane ques tion: are the postmodern express ions of

Korean mus ic videos "just another rep resen tational strategy that sus tains

gender d:scr im:nat ion by re:nforc ing the cultural logic of consumer capi-

talism," or do "they form a res istant style of express ion that can break away

from the b:nar ism of the existing patr iarchal system"? 18

Recurrent tropes :n the stud:ed presen tat:on of girl groups undercu t

claims to a progress ive ethos. Instead of nuance d views of gendered soc :al

:den tities , Korean girl group mus ic videos and lyrics, albe it with key excep-

tions, re inforce a dichotom: zation of male and fema le. As Ch'a U-jin argues,

:n one of the few academ ic ana lyses of the girl group phe nomenon to have

appeared thus far, man agem ent companies have targeted vary:ng aud :ences

thr ough produ ct differen tiat ion, with G:rls' Genera tion and KARA at one

pole, ep itomiz:ng the stoking of male fan tasy, and at the other 4Minute and

2 NE1, who strive for identification from young fema les.19 None theless , re-

gardless of where videos fall in relation to th :s cont inuum, not only do the

roughly 100 g:rl group videos from 2007-11 surveyed for th is chapter almost

w:thou t exception focus on the female image as visual spectacle; they can

also be subsumed w:th in a Emited set of categor ies.20 Most notably, wh ile

g:rl group singers often express des ire openly, the viewer in such videos :s

regularly cons tructed as ma le, and the pote ntial assert:on of subject ivity

:s accompan ied by a coy pass:vity that retur ns initiative to men . Another

set of songs sugges ts wome n's exert ion of control, but :nfluence is wielded

th rough recou rse to the force of a fem in:n e sexual ity that ren ders males

helpless and thus trans mits a message that narcissist ic desirability is the

route to redress power :mbalance. Even two additional catego ries of songs,

ostens ibly d:r ected toward young females throug h refer encing solidar:ty :n

acting accord ing to one's own wishes or wreak ing revenge on unfa ithfu l boy-

friends, never theless rema:n com mitted to a self-object:fying preoccupat ion

with an external gaze or cont:nue to define wome n in relat ion to men. While

th is typo logy is not exhaus t:ve and we cons ider the exceptional case of the

group f(x), the prevalence of songs from these categor ies challenges more

benign interpr etations of the current dom inance of g:rl groups in Korean

pop culture .

OH, OPPA!

Let us cons ider , then, examples of the first set of girl group videos, those :n

which des ire, often un requ ited , for a male is expressed. Wh:le it is difficult

to assess the impact of a given song, sales, chart listings , and Inter net video

hit counts offer a reasonable gauge of sign ificance, and accord ingly we begin

w:th an analys is of one of the mos t icon:c and ub:qu itous Korean h its of the

318 Stephen Epstein with James Turnbull

last few years, "Oh !" released :n January 2010 by Girls' Generat ion, currently

the re ign :ng p rincesses of K-pop.

A stylistic t ic of Korean girl group videos is a br:ef introd uctory sequence

that sets up the song proper and prov ides a frame of refer ence in wh:ch to

read it. "Oh!" begins with the nine membe rs of the group relaxing playfully

:n an appa ren t communal living situat ion. Afte r eight seconds of mus ic tha t

rese mb les a calliope and reinforces a carn:vall ike atmosp here, the viewer

sees a compu ter displaying an image of the n:n e membe rs of the band wear-

:ng football cheerleader outfits and each hold ing a placard to spell out in En-

glish "GI RLS' • YOU." Th e group members thus announce collective affection

for a second person addressee, amb iguously trea ted as singul ar or plural, :n

a strongly gendered image tha t ren ders th is "you," and the v:ewer, male. The

v:deo then launches into the song :tself, the visuals cu ttin g betwee n the band

at home and in ensemble dance pe rformances at a football stad ium:

Oppa, look at me , take a good look at me (Th:s is the first t ime I've talked like th :s, ha !)

I fixed my ha :r and put on makeu p (How come you're the only one who's so oblivious? )

Several po: nts dese rve comment : first of all, the term of add ress appl ied

here for the male, as :n mos t girl group songs, is oppa. Literally th is means "elder bro ther of a female " and can be use d by young women to address a

slightly older mal e, often with a connotation of amatory interes t . In Korea's

age-based h:e ra rchy, the te rm by defin:t ion subord inates the female, and its

use thus becomes par t of the repe rto: re of aegyo, a calculated pe rform ance of cuteness that infant: Ezes those (mos t frequently fema le) who engage in it in

the hope of ga in:n g the favor of a supe rior or attract ing roman tic attention.

On e should also cons ider the dec ision to prese n t G:rls' Generat:on as

cheerleaders for Ame rican football , wh ich is far from a major sport in Korea . Invocat ion of a fantasy Amer ica is not uncommon in Korean mus ic videos ,

presu mably not only to facilitate internat ional appea l, eye-catch ing :mages,

and the free flow of imagina tion that charac ter izes the genre but also to ob-

viate a need to conform closely to Korean reality. Here, the pa ir:ng of foot-

ball players with cheerleade rs emphas izes gender different:atio n as well: the men's pads and helmets , ,vh ich obscure the ir faces thr oughou t, accentuate

powe r and vir:Ety; in compar :son, the wome n appear frag :le and delicate , an

:mp ress ion enhanced by close-ups of affected aegyo poses. Elements of hero worsh ip are also evident, as me mb ers ofG:rls' Generation are seen hold:n g,

embr acing, or kiss ing the hel met , which comes to embody a rugged, des ir-

able, har d masculin:ty (see, for examp le, o :35-0 :39 in the M/v).

Girls' Generatio n? 319

The lyrics apolog ize for the girls' forwardness and des ire for att ention as

the y announce that never before have the y spoken so dar ingly:

Thump thump , my hear t is beat:ng . ..

Ohl Ohl Oh l I love you oppa Ahl Ahl Ahl So, so much

Please don 't laugh! I'm shy

I really mea n :t, please don 't tease me

But the re go my silly words again ...

The overwhelm ing attract:ve ness of oppa has impelled a sexual ma turation. He :s presented as the first object of affection, yet none theless remains im-

pass ive. Homosoc ial harmo ny offsets intimat:ons of rivalry, and the v:deo's

images and lyrics prese nt an inco ngru ity betwee n claims of shy :nnocence and flirta tious overtures, revealing dress and erotic ized dance moves . In

other words, there coexist fantasy-fueling project ions of both v:rg:na l de-

meanor and eager collective anticipat:on of deflorat ion . Th is tens ion is per-

vasive in th is category of girl group videos , serv ing as a quas i-master trope.

In Girls ' Generat ion's 2009 megab it "Gee," enough similar elements are

present as to suggest consc ious formu la . The video opens with the mem-

bers of the group configured as ma nneq u:ns in a cloth ing store, and the

treatment of the group as figur:nes, void of personal ity, further effaces an

:ndividuality already weakened by ensemble performance and apparel de-

s:gned to crea te a visual effect of overall liken ess.21 Here the man nequ ins

are seem:ngly insp ired to life by the ir commu nal des ire for the attrac tive

male employee, and the song becom es an ode to roman tic awaken ing, be-

ginn ing in English: "Uh-huh . L:sten, boy, my first love story." As in "Oh!" the

lyr:cs point to shyness in falling in love (sarange ppajyoso sujubun gol), a hea rt thump ing with exc:teme nt, and self-deprecat:ng references to be:ng made

a fool (pabo) by des ire (see plate 5). Close-ups of the \¥ome n's hands bro ught to upper body and face in childlike fash ion, :ntended to be endear ing, again

feature th rou ghou t (note espec ially the success ive cuts at o :38-0 :40 and

o: 59-1 :04 ), and profess ions of shyness are :nterspersed with dance shots

of the me mbers in the ir signa ture hot pants .

Th is mo tif of dolls bro ught to life as fantasy figures becomes even more

sexually charged in the video to Girls' Generat:on 2009 follow-up single

"Sowonul malhaebwa" (Tell me your \vish), which emp loys, unus ually, two br ief introductory sequences befor e the song proper. In the first (o :oo- o :16). the membe rs of the group ma ter iaEze around an overs ized gen ie

lamp to the accompan:ment of sitar and tabla (see fig. 14 .1), sett ing the

mood for lyr ics that relate the girls' subm issive w:ll ingness to serve as fan-

320 Stephen Epstein with James Turnbull

Figure 14.1. Opening sequence of "Tell Me Your Wish' by Girls' Generation.

tasy objects and effectively convert them into ciphe rs whose existence de-

pends on flatter ing male des :res :

Tell me your wish

Tell me the Ettie dreams in your heart

Try to draw the ideal woman in your head

Then look at me

I'm your gen:e, your dream, your gen ie.

The second :ntroduc tory sequence (o :17-0 : 28) emp loys a disco-:nflected sound track that beg: ns with a sleek (or unctuous, depend ing on one 's per-

spect :ve) mascul ine vo:ce saying, "Hey," and goes further in estabEshing the

video as an erot :c daydream . The gender ing of the came ra's gaze becomes

explic:t: in th ree success :ve po:nt of view shots, a male, hands v:s:ble in

fron t, comes upon a trio of welcom ing band members . In the first shot the

subjec t opens a door and discovers g:rls fight :ng with pillows on a p:nk bed

that rema ins suggestive ly v:sible at various po:nts th roughou t the M/v; it :s

almost as if the camera has intrud ed upon a hare m, or more to the point, a

pornographic video set, and thus renders the viewer a voyeur ist :c accomplice

as the girls' initial surpr ise yields to delight. In the second shot, the male is welcomed into a club scene and is drawn toward soft dr inks stacked on a

table . Eager ant :cipation of a male presence beco mes par ticularly str ik ing

:n the th ird shot as-rem iniscent ofa stag party-a group membe r ju mps

out of a cake :n welcome. A recapitulated th ree-shot sequence (2: 27-2 :37) adds h ints of ero tic progress ion from coy refusa l to acqu iescence and satis-

faction: in the first , by the bed, one member wags a finge r at the sub ject as if

Girl s' Generatio n? 321

to say "naughty boy" bu t is p reemp ted by another who gives a come-h ither

gestu re; in the second, the subject snaps a photo of the girls' pos ing, and the

th :rd involves the provocative smear ing of wh ite frosting from a cake that

says "I • U." The v:deo, unsurpr isingly, is otherw :se composed of seduct :ve

dance sequences with ero t:cized shots and ample atten tion to the group's

bare legs.

Girls' Generat:on is, of course, hard ly the only girl group whose videos

hold out the fan tasy that the viewer is a ma le addressee desired by eagerly awaiting females who will not act un t:l he makes the first move. The visu-

als of "Mister" by KARA , for :nstance, feature the ongdongi ch'um, a dance

that became no tor ious for its titilla ting swaying of the buttocks, and the

lyr:cs deta il growing :nterest :n the song 's addressee and include hopeful

:nvitations: "I l ike you and my heart is gett ing bolde r (come closer, closer) .

My hear t keeps thump ing .. . Hey, m ister . Look over her e, mister." Never-

theless, ul timate initiative rem ains with the male , who again is placed in a

super ior pos ition with the Engl:sh title address and flattered into imagining his un :quen ess ("I've never felt like th is before ").

The trope of simulta neous inn ocence and ant:c ipation pers ists even

when lyrics and images come into confl ict with each othe r: the p rotagonist of T-ara's video for "Like the First Time," for instance, is presented as a na1f

whos e girlfr iends tell her she needs to meet a man, and they then provide

advice on sl:mm ing, style, and compor tme nt . The song's lyr:cs, however,

spec ifically invoke exper:ence ("This isn' t my first love/ I'm not :nno cent"),

and the rap break , both lyrically and v:sually, transfo rms the p rotagonist

from :ngenue to wizened aggresso r, as she claims that she w:ll refus e a man

who constra ins her, and the choreography p rogresses to overtly sexual ges-

tu res. None theless, the video retur ns to the :mage of the prota gonist shyly

awaiting her crus h's approval: they mee t at a cafe for a first date and when

he invites her onward to conti nue the ir rendezvous , she is congratu lated

by her girlfr iends, who are watch ing expectantly in the backgrou nd, and

then dashes after h im gidd:ly. The video thus presents a str :king examp le of

Korean popular cul tu re's curren t attempts to accom modate contrad:ctory

:mpe rat:ves , not always with great logic, and with consequences for a read-

:ng of the emp ower ing natu re of the recen t surge in girl groups .

l' M SO HOT . ..

In her study of Korean mus ic videos shortly after the turn of the millennium,

Kim notes that "women are presen ted in polar :zed images ... as e:ther an

inno cent and sweet girl or a provocat ive and sexy fem me fatale" but also

that many images fall between the two extremes, such as a "sexy yet inno-

322 Stephe n Epst ein with James Turnbull

Figure 14.2. So Hee gives a knowing look in the Wonder Girls' "So Hot," acknowledging the power she wields over the male gaze.

cent girl" and focus on "her body danc ing sexily."22 By the latter part of the

decade, th is th ird option had becom e almost exclus :ve in g:rl grou p videos:

lyr:cal and visual stra teg:es steer away fro m "e:ther/or" toward "both/and,"

urg ing, in varying proportions, a meld ing of the two poles as a goal to str ive

for: claim to virtue rema ins, but sexiness trum ps it as de rigueu r qua lity.23

Patr iarchal contin u ity rem ains obvious in the songs analyzed above,

wh ich dep ict an essent ial harmony betwee n the sexes, governed by projec-

tions of availability and an en couragemen t of pu rsu it that retu rns power

to the ma le. In contras t , a further set of songs suggests that the sexes are

engaged in an antagon :stic, zer o-su m struggle for con trol. Although such

songs , :n encourag ing action for wome n beyo nd flatter ing male fan tasy, less

paten tly subm it to tr ad:t:ona l nor ms, they too un de rcut the: r own move-

men t toward a more hopeful world . Cons ider "Irony," the first single from the Wonder Girls , whose suc-

cess lau nched the curren t surge of girl grou ps. The song's introdu ctory se-

quence con tains a shot of the Wonder G :rls' logo, followed by a wolf wh :stle .

Although the EngEsh term "wolf wh istle" does not translate literally into

Korean, it is a useful phr ase here, for in the ideolog ical un iverse of g:rl group

videos, men are reg ula rly nuktae (wolves) and women, not infrequ ently, you (foxes). These trad itional animal metaphors continu e to reso nate in contem-

Girls' Generation? 323

po rary Korean popu lar d:s cou rse and env isage me n as dangerous preda tors

and women as sly crea tures, the latter figured spec ifically in the kumiho , a n ine-ta iled fox of folklore that wou ld transform :nto a bea u tifu l woman and

seduce me n in order to eat the ir liver.

In songs that reflect suc h a worldv:ew, women rely on phys ical attraction

to gain an advantage; rat her than simp ly performing to the d:ctates of the

male gaze , such videos demons trate its knowing exploitation . The Wonder G iris' 2008 h it "So Hot" flirts, almost Eterally, w:th narc:ss ism as a des irable

goal and deserves analysis for :ts simul taneous satire and nurt ur ing of such

an att:tude . The video opens as the fron t of a giant gift-wrapp ed box d rops

away to reveal the group members strutt ing w:th in. Each wears a piece of

cloth ing w:th leop ard pr:n t that conveys a knowing fel:ne sexua lity. The

v:deo then interspe rses shots of them danc ing provocat :vely with:n the box

and being fawned over in tur n by male adm:rers , to the accompan ime nt of

an infect ious h :p-hop bea t and over the top lyr:cs:

Why do you keep look:ng at me?

Am I tha t p retty ?

Well, even if I am, if you stare at me Eke that

I get a little embarrassed

Humor is u nde niably prese nt her e: one grou p member tur ns up her nose

at the gifts her su itors presen t her ,vith and then gazes longingly at a hu ge

diamond in a store window, only to have the me n scatter :n fr:ght. Group

leader Su n Ye accepts a bouque t from a man who jumps for joy, at wh ich she

:mmed iately flings the flowers over her shou lder. Nor :s the group afra id to

poke fun at itself: me mbe r So Hee stum bles while walking on a red carpet

and pulls hersel f u p as if noth ing happe ned.

But what message does the video convey ult imately? The hum or present

m ight allow one to dism iss it all simply as a joke , but for the fact that at the

song's release the Wonder Girls were arguab ly the top pop stars :n the land

and constructed in popu lar discourse as icon ically "hot." Consequently, for

them to claim to be so as they dance seduct ively only engages the irony that

t itled the ir first single in confused fash ion. The naesung (that is, a coy dis- avowal of in ner intent:on) of the group's membe rs with:n the video in claim-

:ng to be embar rasse d by stares is thus matched by the song's me ta-strategy.

Engageme nt with , and man ipula tion of, the male gaze, moreo ver, cou ld

hardly be more self-consc ious: So Hee plays to adm iring cameras be neath

a thea ter ma rquee , and papa razz i lu rk in the bushes snapp ing sho ts of the

group's rapper Yu B:n loung ing at a poo l. Yu Bin, however, coolly reverses

324 Stephen Epstein with James Turnbull

the dynam ic. When a man is so sm itten by her that he falls off balance and belly flops in to the water, she rates h:s dive like an Olympic judge : zero. In other \Vords, the video shows the Wonder Girls arous ing interes t in them -

selves and reveling in controll ing access . That So Hee's sh irt in the dance sequences reads "Stop" is surely no coincidence . Thus, the glamorous world they inhabit encourages jealousy for the attention they rece ive and power they wield, desp ite the ir (mock) protestat ions that celebr ity is tiresome . As the rap cEmax relates: "All the boys be lovin' me/g irls be hatin' me/t hey will never stop/'cause they know I'm so ho t, ho t." Nonetheless, even as the v:deo sanc tifies obsess ion with appearance, it impels a rem inder that atten- tion is a scarce commod ity: Sun Mi, dressed :n a cheer leader costu me and surrounded by football players, has another woman twirl by and her fickle adm irers immed:a tely turn to the newcomer . The video holds out empower- ment and :nsecu rity as :ts dual rewards, becau se at any momen t somebody "so ho tter" than thou may come along.

Controll ing the male gaze also figures in "Bang!" by After School, which frames the purpose of abandon in danc ing as "mak:ng the fellows go crazy." A more concer ted trea tme nt appears in the ir song "Ah !" which adds the tease of a relat:onsh ip between teacher and student and :s set in a fantasylike g:rls' h:gh school (a couch :s clearly visible :n the classroom). The song has the group membe rs in erotic ized school un iforms, prese nting themse lves to an attract :ve male teacher for appra isal, certa in of the ir seduct :ve power:

You've fallen in love with my slender legs and the way I look , If I give you a wink you'll fall fu rther You th ink you're spec ial, but how's my body? You're going to crumble before me.

As with "So Hot," the potentia l for empowerment with in the song calls itself into ques tion as it derives from unabashed man ipulation of des: rab:lity, g:ven additional impact by the video's school sett ing.

20 1o's "Bad Girl, Good G:rl" by Miss-A, one of the mos t intr igu :ng and successfu l recent girl group videos, address es the duality of its title head- on and in doing so inverts the framework of contro l and confl ict found :n "So Hot ." Here the mem bers procla im that when they dance, they are "bad

girls," bu t in love they are "good girls," and critic:ze the hypocr isy of males who are mesme rized by the ir sexual appeal but then reject them for the negat ive stereotypes their provocat ive style calls forth . The video also opens :n a h igh school as one member aggress ively knocks a stud en t aside; another grinds her heel :nto the book he has dropped. In address :ng the male gaze

Girls' Generation? 325

explicitly, the lyrics insist on a dist:nct:on between the external and the in- ternal ("you don't know me/so shu t up, boy") and lash out at male assert:o ns of patr iarchal privilege, por traying them as cowardly:

You couldn't say anyth ing in front of me But you trash talk me beh :nd my back ... Why do you judge me? Are you afraid of me? You look at me as if I'm pathetic But your own star:ng is ridiculous .... You lose it when you watch me dance But the hypoc ritical way you point afterward

Is really ridiculous

The song therefore stands the naesung of "So Hot" on :ts head: inst ead of dissembling ulterior motives, th is song cla:ms tha t the truer essence lies w:th in. Nonetheless, desp ite the song's confron tat:onal lyrics, the video ren- ders prob lemat ic the appropr iation of danc ing like a "bad girl" as pure self- express ion, as it acqu:r es much of its force from the erot icism of its choreog- raphy, notewor thy even by the standards of K-pop, and one cannot escape the fact that the video is a produc t des :gned as spectacle to arres t attention. Though explicitly addressed to males and per haps evoking empa thy on the part of women who might be tem pted to jo:n :n sing:ng "shut up, boy," the song just:fies comm itme nt to the increas:ng demands of the publ:c gaze in Korea's intensely mediated consumer culture: blithe self-commod itization

and pos:tive sense of self go hand in hand , even if preju dices need to be ad- dressed. In th is light, it is not difficult to see the song as a cynically brill:ant strategy on the part of impresar io Jin Young Park . What is more difficult, however, is to see the song as genu inely empower ing self-express ion on the par t of a ban d that includes among its four members two Chinese women who are not native speakers of Korean and then-s ixteen-year-old membe r Suzi (see plate 6).

4M:nu te, cited above as offering a song profess ing freedom of choice and address :ng females as the ir pr imary audience, hold out s:milarly amb ivalent freedoms. The ir first single, for example, declares the ir in ten tion to become a "Hot Issue :"

From head to toe, hot issue

Every s:ngle th ing about me, hot issue Take control of everyth ing I'm always a hot :t hot it hot it hot :t i-i-i-i-i-i issue .. .

326 Stephen Epstein with James Turnbull

Are you jealous of everyth :ng about my style

But you can't copy me so careless ly

If you ,vant, try to follow, try to follow my style

With brash claims to be :n control of the ir des tiny, they urge other young

women to follow them, bu t do so with:n the context of compe tition th at

relegates the ir fans to wanna be status and additionally sees the :r appeal in

terms of contemporary Korean standards of beau ty: "my waist :s slenderer

than yours/I've got long, sEm legs."

The ir follow-up single "Hu h" follows a s:m ilar lyr:cal patte rn and speaks

of a desire to be famous and dete rminat ion to ignore naysayers who don' t

believe they can appear on TV or in magaz ines or can become bet ter look-

ing : they will, again, act the way they want (nae mamdaero). Sim:lar ly, "I Me My Mine," whose title could scarcely be more self-centered, also speaks of

acting nae namdaero. f ust as mo tifs recur :n the first set of videos exam ined above (shyness, thump ing heart, for example), so a stud ied formu la emerges

:n 4Minute's stance (acting to one's des ires, be ing in control, declaration

of hot ness, encourag ing followers ). But act:ng as one wishes for 4Minu te

means recogn izing the tene ts of consumer and celebr ity culture, and thus

the ir lyrical assertio ns of control sugges t a pseudo- individuaEzat:on that

Adorno would Ekely have pounced upo n.

4Minu te's recen t video "Heart to Heart" exemp lifies a final furt her cate-

gory of recurren t v:deos that deserve consid erat:on here. In th is song the

group gleefully engages in crue l p ranks on the boyfriend of a member who

has been caugh t chatt ing up girls at a club . In its use of a revenge motif, it resembles both the Wonde r Girls' "Irony," wh ich dep:cts how one mem ber,

egged on by the rest , uses a voodoo doll to torment an unfaithfu l boyfr iend ,

and "I Don't Care" by 2NE1, :n wh ich the group tr iumphan tly humiliate

cheating boyfr iends in fron t of other women thro ugh mag ical entry into a

time -stop ,vorld (fig. 14.3). In all three v:deos "g:rl power" solidar :ty draws on a wellspr :ng of wish fulfillme nt. "I Don' t Care" has been desc ribed by

2NE1's lead s:nger CL as prov:d ing a war ning message to men and advice

for women.24 The song thus exemp Efies a change that YG Enterta inment ex-

ecut ive Jinu Kim descr :bes in recen t years: "Lyrically, it used to be: 'Oh , you

hurt me so bad, I'm going to cur l up in a dark corner and cry my eyes out .' Now, :t's like: 'I don' t care anymore abou t you, don 't be mess ing with my

heart ."' 25 Nevertheless, :t rem ains worth not ing that selfhood :s still defined

:n relation to a validat:ng - albe:t rejected - ma le, that revenge is collect:vely

rather than ind ividually exerted, and that elemen ts of fant asy undercut the

poss ibility of revenge in reality.

Girls' Generation? 327

Figure 14.3. 2NE 1 humiliates cheating boyfriends in front of other women in "I Don't Care," using revenge as a mode of empowerment.

Among g:rl grou ps 2 N E1 in part icular has gained a repu tation for feisty

independe nce, and Kim estimates that as much as 70 percent of the ir fan base is female. Th is d:st inct iveness is evident :n "Can' t Nobody," an ode to

party ing in wh:ch, like Miss-A, they descr ibe themselves as "bad bu t good."

Declar ing themse lves equ ipped with an :mmature charm and fear less youth

(ch'oropso kuge maeryogin gol, kobopso nae ch'olmumin gol)' they are determ ined to raise the volume and wake up the world because right now the y "don't g:ve

a fuck ." However, among the roug hly 100 songs surveyed for th is chapter

one of only two songs about not recovering well from a break up comes in fact from 2N E1 . The :r 20 10 hit "Go Away" has a visual narrat ive of gr ief after

los ing a boyfriend, wh ich ends with the race car that CL is dr iving w:nd :ng up in a fiery crash . Nonetheless, our :nvocat :on of Adorno above does not me an

that consumers cannot apply res istant read ings to Korean mus ic videos in a

ma n ner more rem iniscen t of Stuart Hall's approach to aud:ence recept:on:

YouTube user commen ts show that a sign ificant number of fans choose to

:nterpre t the narrat ive :n such a way that the crash allows CL to gain revenge

upon the boyfr iend who has dese rte d her, because not to do so would conflict

w:th the ir own interna lizat ion of an empower ing mea n ing th at the group

holds out for them . As the top commen t on the English -subbed vers ion of the video read : "Broken heart with AT TCTUDE ! Like it!"26

As we move to the conclus ion, it is cruc ial to underl ine K-pop's rap :d evo-

lu tion: dur ing the per iod betwee n when th is chap ter was composed and :t

wen t to press, the restr ictive song categor ies we have sketched were be ing

:ncr eas ingly challenged and stretched . The group f(x) also deserves part:c u-

328 Stephen Epste in with James Turnbull

lar consideration :n th :s regard, for the :r lyr:cs and videos suggest that s M

Enterta inment, pe rhaps surpr:s:ng ly given the overpower ing hete ronor ma-

tivity of the ir p resentat:on of stable mates Girls' Generation, has left spaces

of :ndet erm:nac y that allow a queer read ing of the former group's mater ial.

Moreover, YouTube statis tics ind icate that f(x) finds reson ance above all

with young wome n, virtu ally without except :on, in contras t to other groups

discussed, :nclud ing 2NE1; each of their videos' largest aud ience has been

females in the 13-17, 18-24, and 25- 34 age range, respect ively.

Th:s ambigu:ty relies :n great part on group me mbe r Amber, who has

become a beloved figure amon g K-pop followers prec isely for her str ik:ngly

androgynous look . It :s su rely no accident that in a fan video of "Surp r:se

Par ty" at 1 :26-1 :36, where the lyrics state, "I want to congratu late you, boy," Ambe r and fellow band me mber Sul!: have the ir arms around each other ,27

with Ambe r look:ng so boyish as to prompt a double take. Unlike Girls'

Generation, who regular ly direct the ir songs to an oppa, f(x)'s h: t "Nu Abo" begins with an add ress to an onni (the term of address used by a female to an older sister) and has lyrics that may be read as express:ng unce rtain ado-

lesce nt sexual ity:

What should I do, onni,

Listen to me for a second

onni, I don' t know peop le I'm really eccentr ic

People tease me ... L:sten to me for a second, onni. I'm in the trance

What's th is feeling now?

Th is is the first time for me ...

It mus t be love.

Amber 's Michael Jacksonesque crotch grab at 2:40, dec idedly rare from

females in K-pop, as the group sings, "Th is is how we do it, our love f(x)." along with the video for "Chu," in wh ich the band membe rs give a commu-

nal thumbs-down to a male and female coup le k :ssing on telev:sion, other-

w:se unexpla ined, all reinforce potent ial for subvers ive read:ngs .

Th e unus ual terr:tory that f(x) has staked out for itself becomes espe- cially clear when one contrasts their v:deo for the song ''Choco late Love"

w:th the m irrored vers ion by Girls' Genera tion, as the two impe l compara-

tive viewing (each v:deo, itself an advert iseme nt for a Samsung phone, is

booken ded w:th excerp ts of its cou nterpa rt). Where as the Girls' Generat ion

Girls' Generation? 329

version variously has the membe rs solo, in trios, or as an ense mble, play:ng to the camera in lacy white garb that conveys the formulaic sexy innocence analyzed above, the f(x) video displays the ba nd me mbe rs in dark, tight - fitting leather. The choreography too is far edg ier, with the group frequen tly :ntertw:ned in pairs, the ir faces close enoug h to imply coupled intimacy. Adding to th is ho moerotic tens ion are more overtly sexual elements than in the Girls' Generat ion version, :nclud ing freque nt close-ups of the mem- bers' ero tically sway:ng h ips, the ra:s:ng and spread ing of the ir legs in quas i- bu rlesque fashion at 3 :15, and, not least, the shot of group member Sul!: reclin ing against Luna, hand d raped across Luna's thigh as Luna places her hand on Sull i's shou lder, from 3 :27-3 :31. The song 's lyrics that speak of a hidden , shock:ng love, in conjunc tion with the visuals, encourage a Sapphic :nterpre tat:on if one is prepa red to accept its poss ibility .

CONCLUSION

How ult:mately does one then assess the collective effect of a pop phenome- non ? In this chapter we have attemp ted to demo nstra te that, desp ite an offi- cial discourse p romoting the meteor ic rise of girl groups as emblema tic of an empower ing sh:ft toward an egalitarian society, an analys is of the lyrical and visual codes of girl groups suggests overall a mor e amb ivalent situa- tion . Further more , the sign ificantly increased dependence on the female form as a ma instay of popular culture demands a critical reading, even :f it alternate ly suggests such differing strateg ies as cater ing to m ale fantas ies of innocent yet willing throngs of young females, a consc ious ma nipulat ion of the male gaze , or narc iss:stic self-explo:tat:on directed at same-sex peers that dism isses patr:archy only to careen :nto the sim ilarly prob lema tic dic- tates of consumer ist late capitalism. Indeed, given the hegemon:c social struc tur es of today, it is difficult to see how cultural produc ts can truly em- power young women, although glimme rs of hope may lie on the hor izon.

While the conundrum has appe ared at times almos t :rresolvable, con- text does play an enormous role: it is importan t to acknowledge her e the, to ma ny, surpr ising recept ion of Girls' Genera tion in Japan, where fans have been overwhelm ingly young females. Although ,ve have argued, hope- fully cogen tly, for ways :n which G:rls' Gene ration videos treat them as fan- tasy figures for male consumpt:on with in Korea, young Japanese wome n, as widely reported, have found identification w:th Korean girl groups em- powering, as they see them as role models and evincing a more adult sexu- ality than homeg rown J-pop idols .

With :n Korea analys is of the overall effect of the rise of girl groups also requ ires cons ider :ng publ:c reaction to the phenome non as it emerged in

330 Ste phen Epstein with James Turnbull

2007, part icular ly the young age of some pe rformers. Wh ile Girls' Genera-

t ion and the Wonder G:rls were hardly the firs t groups to have me mbe rs in

the ir m id-teens, an inc reasingly sexuaE zed presen tat:o n, driven by indus try

pressu res , dist inguished them from coun terparts from a decade prev ious

such as FinKL, Baby vox, ands ES. Kim Soo-ah notes that desp:te initial fem i-

n:st objections, over time the new fou nd adult male fandom of th :s recen t

surge came to be framed popularly as an avu ncular concern for the welfare

of the girls , with sexual elemen ts ignored .28 Indeed, as Kim argues , desp ite

a heat ed online debate bet\veen noted cu ltur al cr:t:cs Kang Myeong-sok and

Yi Gyu-Hyeong, even tually Korean media and society generally found :t dif-

ficu lt to acknowledge the poss ib:l ity of more prur ient interests in the sexy

presen tation of girl groups as a factor in their pop ular ity.29

Arguably, th is d :scurs ive tr :um ph, foste red by the enormous success of

the Wonder Girls in 2007, opened a window for sexua Ezat:o n to increase,

and, given the log ic of the globali zed mar ket and con temporary Korean

me dia deter minat:on of appropr:at e roles for women, th is objectification

has enab led lyr :cal stances of either in nocen t pass iv:ty or mor e self-assured

decl arations of con tr ol, but each conjo ined with increas ingly provocative

v:sual display . Girl groups and the :r curr en t p rom inence in Korean popu lar

culture thus in tersec t here w:th real Efe :n more ser ious ways: a 20 10 Min-

:stry of Gender Equal ity and Fam ily invest igation fou nd that 60 percen t of g:rl group me mbers adm itt ed to pressure from ma nagers to wear reveal-

:ng cloth ing and/or pe rfor m dance moves w:th wh ich they were uncom fort- able.30 In cons ider:ng the larger effect of the ir videos w:th in the Korean con-

text, more over, one should recall the coun try's score on the Un ited Nat ions

Developmen t Program's 2008 calcu lat :on of the "Gender Empower me nt

Measure ," the lowest in the Organ: zation for Econom ic Cooperat ion and De-

velopment (oEcn) and well beh ind that of many developing na tions. 31 Not

on ly has the part icipation rate of women in the workforce , also cons istently

among the lowes t in the OECD, stagna ted at 50 pe rcent or below since the Inter nat iona l Mone tary Fun d (rMF) crisis and dec reased in the latest glob al down tur n32; Korea also stands out as be ing one of only two OECD coun tr:es where employers can legally deman d pho tographs on resumes. 33 In such cir-

cums tances, the message that concentra tion on sexua l attract:v eness allows

a me asu re of con trol with in a h ighly compe titive soc iety has the effect of

co-opt ing consumers into feeEng that they are exerc ising rat ional choice :n

accommodat ing, rather th an challeng ing , th is state of affairs.

Though prese nted in carefree fash ion, girl group videos then are far from

apoli tical cu ltura l products . The prom :ne nt placemen t in Girls' Generation's "Tell Me Your Wish" video of the dr:n k Me:ro Beauty N, which they were

Girls' Generat ion? 331

endo rs:n g at the tim e, undersco res the increas ing confluence of med ia and capitalism, with the potent ial for vested interests in encourag ing unheal thy body ideals. In th is Eght , a par ticularly distu rbing aspect of T-ara's video for "Like the Firs t Time" is the intens ive weight-losing regimen forced upo n the protagonist , Hyom in, in order to prepa re for her date. She is seen riding a stat:onary bicycle frantically, and then she and another of the member of the group chee r when a measur: ng tape confirms the reduc tion of her waist size. The video normalizes fem ale compl ic:ty in society's surve illance by p resen ting it as the respo nsibility of fr :ends to ensure that a peer adapts to the demands of the beauty indus try.

The med ia further exacerbate such effects: a March 20 11 episode of Rank- ing Show High 5 castigated var:ous girl group membe rs for having sturdy, mus cled legs that arose from danc:ng :nstead of the slim mer ideal.34 It the n becomes not a far step from the world of mu sic videos and celebr ity shows to real Efe, as performers focus on perce:ved imperfect ions with consequent loss of self-esteem and the poss ibility for ser ious physical healt h issues: not only was Hyomin already slim by any standards but also concerns have eme rged that she genu inely suffered from anorex ia nervosa.35 Her s:tuation :s not un:que : the wome n in Girls' Genera tion are said to be kept on a diet of 1,200 calories a day by the ir trainers, and membe r Seohyu n was report- edly 9kg (20 pounds) un derweight in February 20 11.36

The pervas ive med :a determ ination of ideal body image read:ly perco - lates down to the public, and statistics demons trate a sign:ficant accelera- tion in body dysphor ia in th is m :llennium,37 with increased pe rcentages of women (and, sign:ficantly, me n as well)38 seek ing plastic surgery as a tool for advancement in a compet itive job market; as early as 2002 a study foun d that fully half of h igh-schoo l girls in Korea were unable to donate blood because of anem ia and malnu tr it:on caused by diet:n g.39 Nor it is merely academ ics \vho take note; an offhand com ment from a YouTube user, on a

now-deleted cl:p of a Girls' Generat ion song promoti ng a product, test ifies to awareness and resentful acknowledgment of disempower :ng consump· tion messages propagated by Korean girl groups:

"So I just ate a bag of ch:ps. Like, those large bags. Then I came and watched this CF [ com merc ial film] ... I feel so fat. ;- ; excuse me while I go burn all the jun k food :n my hous e and go exercise for 10 hours . Sosh: [that is, Sonyo shidae), why mus t you have such an effect on me ? [ WANT T O EAT MY FOOD [N PEA CE ."

And finally, to retur n once more to the celebratory discourse from Korea magazine th at in:t:a lly p rompted our investigation of this topic, reason re-

332 Stephen Epstein with James Turnbull

ma :ns to ques tion p recisely what form of emp owermen t is offered by the rise of girl groups in contempo rary Korea:

"Some are so surpr ised by the elder generation's en thus :asm for girl groups that they cannot help but men t:on the Lolita comp lex. Never- theless , that would be an example of an exaggera ted principle that re - ma ins from the past author itar ian era . In the course of sh ift:ng from a mascu line-dom inated era to one of femin ine equal ity, the :mpos ing frame s of age and gender are being slowly torn down. The time has come :n pop culture where a man in h is 40s can cheer for teena ge g:rl groups withou t being looked at susp iciously."•0

A cynical conclus:on is difficult to avoid, as the logic here reaches almost comical p ropo rt ions: the empowermen t present in the rise of girl groups as a phenome non is not that it br ings young women to a he ightened sense of the ir own poss :b:Et:es in the world, which is mentio ned nowhere in the

chapter, but rather that Korea's pop culture commod :ficat:on of sexual ity has reached the point that for middle-aged men to focus the ir gaze on under- age per formers becomes cause for rejo:cing rather than embarrassment. One might reasonably wonder in whose interests a discourse of emp ower- ment is be:ng d:sse m inated.

NOTES

1. For an account of the struc tural factors that led to the explosion in idol groups in recent years, see K:m Soo-ah, "Sonyo imiji ui pulgorihwa wa sobi pangshik ui kusong: sonyo kurup ui samch'on p'aen tamnon kusong," Midio, j endo wa munhwa 15 (2010): 79 - 119; and Shin Hyun-joon, · K-pop ui munhwajongch'ihak," ollon kwa sahoe 13, no.

3 (2005): 7- 36. 2. The term yosong kurup (female group) has been in circular.on longer than kol kurup

but never achieved widespread currency . 3-Bomi Lim, "S. Korea Renews Propaganda with Pop Song, Eating Advice," Bloom-

berg News, May 24, 2010, accessed March 27, 2011, htt p:// ww\v.bloomberg.com / new s/ 2010 - 05- 24 / south -korean -song-b lasted -i n to-north -as-propaganda -war -revived-on -sinking .html.

4. "Girl Bands to Assist in 'Psychological Warfare,"' The Chosunilbo, June 11, 2010, accessed March 27, 2011, http:// engl:sh.chosun.co m/s ite/data/htm l_dir/2010/06 /11/20100611004 32.htm l.

5. Kang Kyong-nok, •Han aidol 'Ilyoldo chomryong,' ilbon chot'ohwashikida," Ashia Kyongje, August 26, 2010, accessed March 27, 2011, http ://"1ww.asiae.c0.kr/news /\~ew.htrn?idxno=201008260820525286o&sp =EC.

6. See, for example, Daum Yonye, "Kara sat'ae hallyu kwoench'anhna ajik chikchopclwgin t'agyok opta," February 22, 2011, accessed March 27, 2011, http://n 1edia.daum. net /en tertain/enews/v iew?newsid=20110222072404743.

Girls' Generation? 333

7. Jeong, "Swept Up," 48. 8. Nam Chi-iin, "Momrnaeman poinun kol kurup 'kwayol' shidae," The Hankyoreh, August

30, 2010, accessed March 27, 2011, htt p://w\V\v.han:.co.kr/ar ti/ culture/enterta inment

/4374 20.h tml : Kim Pong-hyon, '"Sekshihan' sonyo shidae choahanun ke choeingayo?" Pressian, February 4, 2010, accessed March 27, 2011, http:/ /w,vw. press:an.co m /article/art:cle.asp?art icle_n um =6010020316455o&section =o4.

9. See, for example, Lisa A. Lew:s, Gender Politics and MTV: Voicing the Difference, (Phi ladelph:a : Temple Un:versity Press, 1990 ); and Julie Andsager and Kimberly Roe, '"Wha t's Your Definition of Dirty, Baby?' Sex :n Music Video," Sexuality c{ Cul-

ture 7, no. 3 (2003): 79 - 97 . 10. For example, Kyung Hyun K:m, The Rem.asculinization of Korean Cinema (Durham ,

NC: Duke Un:vers ity Press, 200 4 ); and Soyoung Kim, "Do Not Include Me :n Your

'Us': Pepperm int Candy and the Pol:tics of D:fference. " Korea journal 46 , no. 1 (2006 ): 60 - 83.

11. English language exceptions include Hoon -Soon K:m, "Korean Mus:c Videos, Post- mo dern: sm, and Gend er Polit: cs," in Feminist Cultural Politics in Korea, ed. Jung-hwa

Oh (Seoul: Prunsasang Publishing , 200 5). 195- 227; Heather Willoughby, "Image

Is Everyth:ng: The Marketing of Femini nity :n Korean Pop Music ," in Korean Pop Music: Riding the Wave, ed. Ke:th Howard (Folkestone, U.K.: Global Orien tal, 2006),

99 - 108; and Eun-Young Jung. "Playing the Race and Sexuality Cards :n the Trans -

national Pop Game: Korean Mus:c Videos for the U.S. Marke t," journal of Popular Music Studies 22, no. 2 (2010): 219- 36. For Korean work spec:fically on g:rl groups in addit:on to Kim, "Sonyo imiji," see Ch'a U-j:n , "Kol kurup chonsonggi," Munhwa

pipyong 59 (2009): 270 - 83- Lee Dong-yeon's edited collect:on Aidol: H.O. T.eso son- yoshidaekkaji, aidol munhwa pogoso (Seoul : Imaej in, 2011) appeared too late for the aut hors to take into close cons:derat ion .

12. On the kkonminam, see espe cially Sun Jung, Korean Masculinities and Transcultural Consumption: Yonsama, Rain, Oldboy, K-pop Idols (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Univer- sity Press, 2011). On Har isu , see Gloria Dav:es, M. E. Davies, and Young-A Cho,

"Hallyu Ballyhoo and Har isu: Market:ng and Represent ing the Transge nd ered in South Korea," in Complicated Currents: Media Flows, Soft Power, and East Asia, ed .

D. Black, S. Epstein, and A. Tok:ta (Monash University ePress, 2010) , 09.1 - 09.12 .

13-On blurred gender roles, see Myoung Hye Kim, "Woman to Be Seen bu t Not to Be

Heard : Represent ation of Woman in the Contemporary Korean Movie My Wife Is a Gangster" (paper presen ted at the Twenty -Th:r d Confe rence of IAMCR, Gender and Comm unication Sect:on, Barcelona , Spa:n , July 21- 26 , 2002); and Stephen

Epste:n , 'Th e M asculinization of (Women in) Korean C:nema?" (paper presen ted at the annual meet:ng of the Association for Asian Stud:es , San Francisco, Cal:forn:a,

April 2006). For an accoun t of female sexual subjecti vity in 1990s film, see So-hee

Lee, "The Concep t of Female Sexuality in Korean Popu lar Culture ," in Under Con- struction: The Gendering of Modernity, Class, and Consumption in the Republic of Korea, ed. Laurel Kendall (Honolulu: Un:versity ofHawa i'i Press, 2002) , 141- 64.

14. Kim, "Korean Mus ic Videos," 195. 15. Evan Ramst ed, "YouTube Helps South Korean Band Branch Out, " The Wall Street

journal, January 14, 2011, accessed March 27, 20 11, http:/ /on Ene.ws j.com/art icle

334 Stephen Epstein with James Turnbull

/SB 10001424052748704 458204576073663148914264.h tm l; )a-young Yoon, "You- Tube Taking Hallyu on lnter na t:on al R:de," Korea Times, Febr uary 8, 2011, accessed

March 27, 2011, htt p://www.korea t:mes.co.kr/www/news/b iz/201 1/02/123_81039

.htm l.

16. Phillip Vannini and Scott M. Myers, "Crazy About You: Reflections on the Meanings

of Contemporary Teen Pop Mus:c," Electronic journal of Sociology (2002) , accessed March 27, 2011, http://\vww.s oc:ology.org/con tent/ vo1006.002/vann ini_myers

.htm l.

17. J. Brown and L. Schu ltz, "The Effect of Race, Gender , and Fandom on Audience Interpreta tions of Madonna's Music Videos ," journal of Communication 40 (1990): 88 - 102. An anecdote reveals a vai.ety of :nterpre tat:on in the Korean contex t: one

coauthor conducted a bl:nd survey of his cont empo rary Asian society class, asking \vhether studen ts foun d the Wonder Girls' "So Hot" v:deo pr imarily empo\vering,

degrading , funny , obnoxious, iron:c , or non e of the above. All six answers generated

mu lti pie respo nses.

18. Kim, "Korean Music Videos ," 195- 96.

19. Ch'a, Kol kurup chonsong shidae, 273- 20. For a YouTube playlist tha t incorporates the v:deos referred to in th is chapter in

order, see http:jj,vw\v.youtube.com/v ie,v_play_list ?p=B1C588AD8DCC85D6.

21. One m:ght also cons ider how the notion of "l:ving dolls" structures the depiction

of Girls' Genera tion; 2011 w:tnesse d the debu t of the unsubt ly name d girl group

5Dolls. Compa re Aljosa Puzar, "Asian Dolls and the Wester n Gaze: Notes on the

Female Doll:fication in South Korea," Asian Women 27, no. 2 (2011): 81- 111. 22. Kim, "Korean Music Videos ," 222.

23- For more on the rise of such a cultura l turn within Korean society, see Joanna

Elfving-Hwang, Representations of Femininity in Contemporary South Korean Litera- ture (Folkestone , U.K.: Global Or:ental , 2009), 140-4 1.

24. Yoon Hee -Seong and Wee Geun-woo, "[Interv iew] 2NE1," Ashia Kyongje, Septem - ber 9, 2009, accesse d March 27, 2011, http:jj,vw\v. as:ae.co.kr/news/vie'>''.htm?sec

=ent 9&idxno=2009090316583528776. 25. "Hip Korea," D:scovery Channe l, March 2010, accessed March 27, 2011, available at

http:// '>''W\v.youtube.com/wa tch?v=H r2sO'>'•BGwG8.

26. User Xiu91 on http://'>'•ww.youtube.com/wa tch?v=:ABwt-8111E. Accessed March

27, 2011.

27. http:// '>''W\v.youtube.com/wa tch?v=SG009PvWrM. Accessed March 27, 2011. 28. Kim, • Son yo imiji." 29. Kim, "'Sekshihan' sonyo shidae."

30. "Haksupkwon poho mihup tung ch'ongsonyon yonyein kibongwon ch'imhae shirngak," Minis try of Gender Equality and Family, accessed March 27, 2011, htt p://enews

.moge. go. kr /v ie'>'' /board/ bbs/v i e\v. jsp ?top M enul d=NEWS&topM enuN ame =%B4

%BA %BD%BA %88% 8 6%8 4 %E7&subM enu ld=1&subMenuName =%C1 %~ %

C3 %A5%a. c. %D3 %BA %8 8&boardMngN 0=1&boardN 0=154 5.

31. "S. Korea Drops to 68th in Women's Rights," The Hankyoreh, March 10, 2009 , ac- cessed March 27, 2011, http:// english.han: .co.kr/arti/english _edition/ e_in ternat:ona l

/343215.html.

Girls' Generation? 335

32. Yoo-Sun Kim, Working Korea 2007 (Seoul: Korea Labor and Society Inst'.tute , 2008) , 19; Hyo-sik Lee, "Downtur n Takes Toll on Women Workers," Korea Times,

July 6, 2009 , accessed March 27, 20 11, http ://w\vw.korea t:m es.co.krfw,vw/n ews

/b iz/2009 /07/123_48021.html. 33-Chong Chae-sok, "Iryokso e 'sajin' toech'ukd-Oelkka," Focus Busan, June 9 . 2010, 6 . 34. Available at http://ystar.cu-media.co.kr/news/n ews_view.php?no- 43773, accessed

March 27, 2011.

35. "T-ara's Hyomin Has a Terrible Body?" allkpop, May 26, 20 10, accessed March 27, 2011, http://\vww.allkpop.com/2 010/0 5/t -aras -hyomin-has-a-terr ible-body; "T-ara

Fans Worried about Hyom in's Weight Loss," hellokpop, January 6, 2011, accessed March 27, 20 11, http://ww\v.hellokpop.com/ 2011/01/06/t -ara-fans -worr ied-about

-hyom:ns -\veight -loss.

36. "sNso's Tra'.ners dear Up Their Diet ," allkpop. December 20 , 2009 , accessed March 27, 2011, http://W\vw.allkpop .com/2009/12/snsds _trainers_clear_up_their_diet;

"Seohyeon 's Health Report Reveals She Is 9kg Under,ve ight," koreaboo, February 6 , 2011, accessed March 27, 2011, http://w\vw .koreaboo.com/ index.h tml/ _/general

/seo hyuns-health-report-reveals-she-i s-9kg -r3 3 26.

37. Y. H. Khang and S. C. Yun , "Trends in General and Abdominal Obesity among

Korean Adults: F:ndings from 1998, 2001, 2005, and 2007 ," Journal of Korean Medi- cal Science 25, no. 11 (2010): 1587.

38. See http://\vww.youtu be.com/w atch?v=QovjzfdDX7c, accessed March 27, 2011.

39. Minjeong Kim and Sharron Lennon, "Conten t Analysis of Diet Advert:sements: A Cross-National Compar ison of Korean and U.S. Women 's Magaz:nes ," Clothing and

Textiles Research journal 24, no. 4 (2006 ): 357. 40. Jeong, "Swept Up," 4 8.

336 Stephe n Epst ein with James Turnbull

PART FI V£ Food and Travel

In his famous book, The Society of the Sp ectacle, Guy Debord describes the spec-

tacle in terms t hat resonate wit h many of t he chapters t hat appear in t his section.

"The spectacle is the existing order' s uninterrupt ed discourse about itself, its

laudato ry monologue. It is t he self-portrai t of power i n the epoch of its total it arian

management of the condit ions of existence." 1 In this account, t he modern state's

invest ment in the spectacular is fundamenta lly dr iven by a kind of narcissism, a

desire to represent in some kind of less abst ract, externa l form nothi ng less than

its own power. The essays gathered under the rubric of " Food and Travel" have this

concern at their heart , the extent to which the state is capable of projecting its fan-

tasies about itself into t he public sphere.

In relatio n to t he oppressive autho ritarian regimes of Park Chung-Hee to Chun

Doo-hwan, popular cultu re of the period could function as a potentia l platform for

resistance against the dominance of the postwar South Korean nati on state. Al-

t hough t he contemporary period 's relative artistic and ideo logical freedoms could

be said to be the legacy of the postwa r democratic movements character ized by

st ruggle against the status quo, it can also be argued that much of t hese hard-won

progressive and emancipato ry liberties are now being exercised within the parame-

ters of what might be termed "state-sanctioned arts." The clarity of di sti nction is

no longer as evident. Since the late 1990s, t he popular arts, both mainstream and

countercultural, have benefited tremendously from government-supported infra-

stru ctures specially designed to sustain and promote the appreciation of Korean

cultu re abroad by facilitating cult ural production.

Alt hough the role of the stat e is more muted t han in Debord's account, one won -

ders if the fantasies that underlie its efforts are t he same. Given this new com-

plicity between the state and the cult ural producers t hat might ot herwise serve as

its critics, new approac hes become necessary to interpret the vagaries of resistance

against power in Korean popular cultu re in the contem porary neoliberal context,

especially in a context in which the cult ural sphere replaced the socioeco nomic

sphere as the site of struggle and ideological fervor. Coincidi ng with the shift from

pre- to post-democratic governments, t his tran sformation was also accompanied by

a shift from class-based poli tics to one based in identi ty po liti cs as well as a radical

prolif eration of representational media.2

The material in Part 5 focuses exclusively on the contempo rary period and at -

tempts to conceptual ize approaches to state -sanctioned art in neoli beral South

Korea, such as advertising, national food campaigns, and North Korean tourism

photography. These categories certain ly overlap. Advertising, for example, has

played a crucial role in promoti ng Korean food as well as tou rism to Korea. The

int erest o f these chapters in t hese state- sanctioned arts is fundamentally in what

t hey can tell us about the socio logica l, economic, and histo rical forces t hat under-

lie t hem. Rising in terest in culinary cult ure and tourism indicates not only the pres-

ence of a strong, leisurely midd le class in South Korea but a lso the social produc-

tion of t he feeling of cult ural confidence th rough the marketization and promotion

of Korean food and t ravel to Korea. What is also interesti ng about t he pieces in this

section is that Japan continues to be a critica l factor: bot h the food and tou rism in-

dust ries remain shrouded in co Ionia I legacies, which they continue to combat while

proudly advancing in cultural developments dependent on these very fou ndations.

As Katarzyna J. Cwiertka's chapter suggests, the rise in standardized, commercial production and global export of food is a direc t result of changes in Japanese con-

sumption pattern s of Korean cuisine since the 1980s.

Olga Fedorenko proposes to see advertising not just as enter tai nment but also

as a subaltern culture. She ill ustrat es South Korean advertising's tendency to

"i nterpe llate consumers wit h senti mental, humanist campaigns" and the ways in

which t he advertising industry negotiates capitalism under neolibera lism to artic u-

late itself as a platform for popu lar sentiment s and critica l sites of contestati on, so-

cial values, and representati onal politi cs in publi c discourse while remaining wi thin

t he constrai nts of commercia l imperativ es. Rather than t he effi cacy of advertising,

Fedorenko argues for an awareness of advertising in Korean cult ure as an integ ral

part o f public life and as a "cross-media space of discourse." She argues for a treat-

338 Part 5

ment o f advertising as a social phenomenon t hat must be histo rically, socially, and

cultu rally context uali zed.

Cwier tka looks at t he "Global Promotion of Korean Cuisine" campaign, a

government- led initiative that aims to popularize Korean food globa lly. She looks

at th e com modifica tion and consumption of Korea's culina ry heritage, t he influence

of hal/yu marketi ng st rategies on its own, and the carefully manufactured natu re

of th e product geared toward distin ction rather t han proximi ty to the original. She

argues that in t he post - 1997 era, which is defi ned by a dramatic increase in t rans-

nationa l consumerism, consump tion and patriotism overlap and th e propagation

of Korean cuisine abroad becomes an assertio n of national heritage. Cwiert ka also

draws our attention to Japan and the specific politics of food in this specific post-

colonia l context, in which Japan's changi ng atti t udes toward Korean cuisi ne has

significant consequences.

Sohl Lee's chapter looks at the cultura l phenomenon of to uring North Korea in

t he late 1990s th rough t he photo graphy of Seung Woo Back, which necessarily oper-

ates within while subverti ng t he st rict guideli nes established by th e Nort h Korean

government. Lee argues for photograp hy as a privileged medium of representation

in facilitati ng "a new inter-Korean narrative forged from th e botto m by South Korean

masses." For Lee, Back's images, taken in th e to urist zones in North Korea, exem-

plify a new to uristi c fantasy of South Korean cit izens, which can now tran scend th e

North Korean border, and represents a new attemp t to re-examine the ideo logical

div ision of th e Korean peninsula, despite t he atte mpts of Nort h Korean auth oriti es

to contro l t he content of the photographs. She argues for a considerati on o f such

photo graphic representati ons o f Nort h Korea by South Koreans as democratic. YMC

NOTES

1. Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (Detroit: Black and Red, 1983), seer.on 24. 2. See Soyoung K:m, "'One -Mania' or C nephilia: Film Festivals and the !dent: ty

Qu estion," in New Korean Cinema, ed. Chi-Yun Shin and Julian Str:nger (Edinburgh : Edinburgh Univers: ty Press, 2005).

Food and Travel 339

NO SESSION ebrary