K-pop has made its way into the global market and its popularity is continuously increasing both domestically and internationally. Since then, the number of music videos, promoting sexual objectification, especially of female idols, has been growing nonstop. Social media, such as YouTube and Facebook, plays pivotal roles in allowing audiences, including teenagers, to gain easy access to K-pop and influencing the their views on sexual objectification and male gaze. Michelle E, Kistler and Moon J. Lee conducted an experiment, observing changes in the sexual attitudes of both males and females after watching sexually objectified music videos and they concluded that “male participants who were exposed to music videos of highly sexual content expressed greater objectification of women, sexual permissiveness, stereotypical gender attitudes, and acceptance of rape at posttest than male participants in the low sex condition.” (2009: 67) I believe that the K-pop industries have contributed in the rise of rape and sexual abuse in Korea and created a society where sexual objectification is socially acceptable and justified.
Whether female idols like it or not, they are portrayed as sexual objects in music videos, performances, and photos. Coincidentally with the increase in sexual objectification of women, the number of sexual violence reports has increased significantly. There are secret cameras hidden everywhere like in public washrooms and people illegally share those pictures and videos online but the arrest rate is surprising low due to the lack of interest and effort by the Korean government. To make matter worse, the government is promoting “elements that might reinforce a sexist culture an traditional gender roles, further obstructing women’s pursuit of equal opportunities.” (Lin and Rudolf 2017: 27) After the Gangnam station washroom murder case in 2006, there have been more protests and campaigns for women’s rights and gender equality. However, women are criticized for threatening and stealing men’s power.
Living in Korea as a woman is extremely challenging. With the government and industries constantly advocating sexual objectification through K-pop and social media, women are treated unfairly; they are given fewer work opportunities and get paid less than men for equal work. Ironically, some female idols are sexually harassed by men for sponsors to be 
sexually objectified on media, which I think that is tragic and disturbing. Korea is considered the world capital of plastic surgery and Korean women are ridiculed for getting plastic surgeries but we must understand the Korean society and the disadvantages that Korean women are currently facing. Plastic surgery is one of the ways that women can become successful and be less sexually objectified.
The K-pop industries and Korean government should definitely be mindful of their audience and possible consequences of promoting sexual objectification of women rather than solely focusing on making profits.
Kistler, Michelle E. and Moon J. Lee. “Does Exposure to Sexual Hip Pop Music Videos Influence the Sexual Attitudes of College Student?” Journal of Mass Communication and Society 13, no. 1 (2009): 67-86
Lin, Xi and Robert, Rudolf. “K-pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities” Asian Women 33, no. 4 (2017): 27-54
Sexual objectification is a big issue in media, and K-pop definitely plays a fair role in perpetuating it in Korea. As you’ve mentioned, women in Korea feel the negative impact of sexual objectification directly in their lives. They face misogyny, unfair treatment at work, and sexual harassment. From the study you linked by Kistler and Lee, it can be seen that sexual objectification in media exacerbates the existing gender roles, stereotypes, and negative gender attitude towards women. In a society that should be striving for equality and better opportunities for disadvantaged groups, sexual objectification is promoting the opposite.
Widespread and regular plastic surgery is another issue you mentioned which I agree is one of the results of sexual objectification. When men start seeing women more as objects than as their peers, appearance becomes a much bigger factor of how they judge women. Again from Kistler and Lee’s study, since men who are exposed to highly sexual content tend to express higher levels of objectification of women, they will judge women based on their appearance more than those who are not exposed to sexual content. Since many women get plastic surgery to avoid being judged, hypersexualization in media is in some ways contributing to the common plastic surgery.
The Korean government’s inaction on the sexual violence against women is highly concerning. Women should not feel threatened and unsafe in public. The ineffective response and low arrest numbers mean that the government is either incompetent or indifferent towards women’s safety, or maybe both. It is up to the Korean public to realize that this is a serious issue, and to elect leaders who will take real action. The rampant objectification of women hurts this movement however, since it objectifies women instead of humanizing them, making the public less sympathetic to the violence.
Perhaps even more disturbing than the government’s lack of real response is the “men’s rights” groups who publicly oppose feminism in Korea. Their claim that men are threatened by the recent rise in feminist movement is toxic and does not help move Korea forward towards becoming an equal, safe society.
Nice job 현아.
I definitely agree with your statement that K-pop stars are sexually objectified (especially for females) in their music videos to gain more views by providing a male gaze for their audiences. For example, last Tuesday (November 13th, 2018) we watched three music videos in class where we had to count how many times the female group or solo artist showed their ass, tongue, made sexual gestures, or touched themselves. The whole point of this activity was to show that female K-pop groups and solo artists are sexually objectified in their music video to provide a male gaze for their audiences, which leads to more views. However, this has also put a lot of women in Korea at risk for rape and sexual harassment because the media has portrayed them as sexual objects for men. In addition, Korea has disabled the option for silent shutter sounds for their phone cameras because of the rise of up skirt pictures by men.
Moving on to your statement about plastic surgery, I agree that women are basically forced to undergo surgery in order for them to become successful because it’s the standard beauty in Korea. In addition, I also believe that men face a similar issue with getting plastic surgery to become successful Korea because some companies make it a requirement to under go surgery since it makes them look young, respectable and classy. However, women have it much worse because they have to deal with sexual harassment, unequal pay (double standard), and few working opportunities (house wife) in comparison to men.
Overall, it’s disturbing to know that the Korean government isn’t treating gender inequality as a major issue in Korea because it’s a problem that has been going on for many years. The media has also played a major role for women being mistreated in Korea because of female K-pop groups and solo artist being portrayed as sexual objects rather than respectful human beings in their music video. Therefore, women are perceived as less respectable in Korea, which has led to many rape cases and sexual harassment caused by men. Lastly, it also affects the amount of opportunity women have in the working industry.
While K-pop is raising its worldwide popularity, the sexual objections and gender stereotypes for female idols are increasing in both lyrics and music videos. Under these influences, women are treated and judged unfairly in South Korea.
I strongly agree with your saying that female are always portrayed as sexual objects in music videos. This reminds me of the music video of Darling by Eddy Kim. In the music video, the female character was shown only by using body parts of a person. The audience can see the body parts as a female figure taking care of the singer. The singer even uses a remote control to control the action of the female figure. This video sends the message to the audience that female are just as objects for people to control and for entertaining the male. Female’s utility value is only about their body.
In K-pop music videos, gender stereotypes are also visible to see via female idols’ actions. Female is always portrayed as a week and feminine figures with idealized body shape and with tight and exposed clothes. In Hyuna’s video Lip & Hip, Hyuna wears in some exposed clothes, keeps showing parts of her body and sings out the lyrics which are full of sexual innuendos. This video is indirectly telling people that women should all have an idealized body shape. The increasing click rate represents that more people are effecting by the gender stereotypes in the video. In the video of Girl’s Generation’s Lion Heart, one of member’s car is broken, but she is not able to fix it. After a man with lion mask fixed the car for that member, that member shows her appreciation with shyness and smile. This video shows the audience the inability and weakness of the women and alludes that women cannot live without men’s help.
All these sexual objections and gender stereotypes give a transforming influence on people’s view to female. Under this effect, female become objects which can be judge and control by others. A lot of women are mistreated in various fields in South Korea. Due to these negative influences, the K-pop industry should consider carefully about the sexual objections and stereotypes in music and videos.
I completely agree with everyone’s opinions here that sexual objectification of idols in most K-pop music videos, especially of female idols, contribute to the normalization of gender discrimination towards women to a certain extent. It is very alarming to learn that the male participants who were exposed to higher sexual content in Kistler and Lee’s experiment “expressed greater objectification of women, sexual permissiveness, stereotypical gender attitudes, and acceptance rape at posttest.” (2009:67) It is also ironic that these kind of men treat women as sex objects in one moment, and insult the same women once they break their fantasies the next moment. This scenario usually occurs when a female idol is caught dating by the paparazzi, or reading a feminist novel.
I agree with you, Hanna, that Korean women, in particular, are ridiculed for getting cosmetic surgeries, and people who are not familiar with how things work in the Korean society should educate themselves before throwing insults. If they are not considered as “conventionally attractive”, then they are treated badly. If these “unconventional attractive” women decided to get plastic surgeries, then there would still receive criticisms from the society.
Feminism in South Korea is said to be leaning towards the radical side. Personally, rather than radical feminism, it falls more under the category of misandry. Early this month, there were two women who claimed that they were attacked by a group of men for having short hair, which was later proven false. Due to this case, also known as the Leesoo Station assault case, this has sparked another debate on Feminism in South Korea. San-E wrote a song in response to this incident called “Feminism” that contains misogynistic lyrics. As a result, he received backlash from netizens from rappers as well and got one of his events cancelled. Korean Twitter users has been sharing clips of male idols or entertainers being misogynistic.
The Korean government’s lack of action and interest in punishing sex offenders harshly unfortunately do little or even nothing for women living in South Korea. Hopefully, one day women would live in a world where they feel safe.
I absolutely agree with the comments made by everyone. Sexual objectification in Korean society of course did not originate with K-pop, but it undeniably has been reinforced by Korean popular culture. In the article by Epstein and Joo (2012), they discussed how Hallyu has branded the nation’s celebrities as models of physical attractiveness, using their image as a marketing tool for consumerism. They argued that changing ideals of the body under the influence of capitalist consumerism places pressure on women to “manufacture themselves into objects of desirability” (Epstein and Joo 2012: 14).
So, in a way, sexual objectification is an ongoing cycle between stars and their fans (consumers) to keep up with the competitive market. As companies employ marketing strategies that promote sexual objectification and an unattainable body image through their stars, the audience who admire these celebs in turn adopt the marketed image as the “goal”. Their interpretation of these often-unhealthy images as the ideal look lead to body shaming of each other, as well as projecting these standards back toward idols, pressuring them to maintain their “perfect” image.
In my opinion its fine if a woman wants to get plastic surgery done to enhance her appearance. However, what is concerning is that some women go through these procedures because they are forced to do it so they can fit the beauty standard of Korean society to get by life. Its disheartening that increasing pressure to conform to beauty standards of Korean society has caused women to go to great lengths to alter their face and body to fit society idealistic image.
Also, as we discussed in class, by using a sexy image as a marketing strategy, female artists are convinced that sexual objectification is the only way they can sell themselves as artists. So, they continue to build on the image, believing their sexiness is giving them power, causing the rest of society to believe that sexual objectification is empowering and aspirational. That thought is quite perplexing.
The results of Kistler and Lee study (2009) as you all have mentioned earlier, just goes to show how extreme the issue of sexual objectification is in Korea, and it’s affects on both men and women. Although there have been small steps to combat the rise of rape culture, what’s truly concerning is that we don’t see a push toward eradicating the increase promotion of rape culture through sexual objectification placed by the media.
Epstein, Stephen J., and Rachael M. Joo, “Multiple Exposures: Korean Bodies and the Transnational Imagination,” The Asia-Pacific Journal 10, no. 1 (2012): 1-24.
Kistler, Michelle E. and Moon J. Lee. “Does Exposure to Sexual Hip Pop Music Videos Influence the Sexual Attitudes of College Student?” Journal of Mass Communication and Society 13, no.1 (2009): 67-86