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

Research Article
Open access

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

Yuxuan Shen 1
  • 1 Sendelta Academy, Shenzhen, China, 51800    
  • *corresponding author
CHR Vol.4
ISSN (Print): 2753-7072
ISSN (Online): 2753-7064
ISBN (Print): 978-1-915371-31-7
ISBN (Online): 978-1-915371-32-4

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

K-pop, sexism, Korean culture, music

Shen,Y. (2023). The Influence of the Development of the Global Feminist Movement in the 21st Century on the Image Transformation of K-pop Female Idols. Communications in Humanities Research,4,191-197.
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References

[1]. KOFICE. (2018). K-Pop into a wider world. In [KOFICE] 2017_Korean Wave White Paper (pp. 48–48). essay, KOFICE. Retrieved from http://www.kofice.or.kr/b20industry/b20_industry_01_view.asp?seq=981&page=1&find=&search=.

[2]. Jonas, Liz (2022). Crafted for the Male Gaze: Gender Discrimination in the K-Pop Industry. Journal of International Women's Studies, 23(1), 231-247.

[3]. SMTOWN. (2002). No.1. SMTOWN. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.smentertainment.com/Entertainment/Albums/9?page=85

[4]. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. (2002). Mama. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.mwave.me/cn/mama/history/2002/winner/129

[5]. Infinity13 (Trans.). (2014). Boa - No.1 Lyrics + english translation. BoA - No.1 lyrics + English translation. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://lyricstranslate.com/en/no1-no1.html

[6]. Kim, S. (2013). Female empowerment or exploitation?: Arts: The Harvard Crimson. Arts | The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.thecrimson.com/column/k-pop-generation/article/2013/10/8/Female_Empowerment_Exploitation_Kpop/

[7]. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. (2009). Mama. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.mwave.me/cn/mama/history/2009/winner/122

[8]. 2NE1. (2012, March 28). Fire. Spotify. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/track/4q2HU9Ijpk4zJ24x7oMdXb

[9]. 2NE1. (2014, February 27). Come back home. Spotify. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/track/34Ga20vIH4vN9neqWG8Tok

[10]. SBSMusic1. (2014). Aoa, first place after debut @ popular song Inkigayo 140209. YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt_95GhRF2s.

[11]. Pop!gasa (Trans.). (2014, February 8). Aoa - mini skirt (short skirt) lyrics " color coded lyrics: Lyrics at CCL. Color Coded Lyrics. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://colorcodedlyrics.com/2014/01/15/aoa-mini-skirt-jjalbeun-chima/

[12]. Zellner, X. (2018, June 26). Blackpink makes K-pop history on hot 100, billboard 200 & more with 'ddu-du ddu-du'. Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.billboard.com/pro/blackpink-k-pop-history-hot-100-billboard-200/

[13]. Touring Data. (2019, December 31). In 2019, Blackpink's "In your area tour" became the most successful concert tour by a Korean Female Group in history (@ygofficialblink). Twitter. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://twitter.com/touringdata/status/1212147818745516033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1212147818745516033%7Ctwgr%5E3a0507a23f2c5492502253c36a2cb0050cb70e5d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmalaysia.news.yahoo.com%2Fblackpink-rakes-rm156m-most-successful-042202023.html

[14]. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. (2020). Mama. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.mwave.me/cn/mama/history/2020/winner/92

[15]. BLACKPINK. (2020, October 2). How you like that. Spotify. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/track/4SFknyjLcyTLJFPKD2m96o

[16]. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. (2018). Mama. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.mwave.me/cn/mama/history/2018/winner/111

[17]. TWICE. (2018, July 9). What is Love. Spotify. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/track/1IX47gefluXmKX4PrTBCRM

[18]. YouTube. (2020). Miss Back (Miss Bag) E2 [Eng Sub]. YouTube. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9PtozMvfjA&list=PLtvc0pldBZfA9mkSyHOssVa5My1DrdbMa&index=2.

[19]. YouTube. (2014). Stella_Marionette(Marionet by Stellar of Mcountdown 2014.02.20). YouTube. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN_CVuScSL0.

[20]. (G)I-DLE. (2022, March 14). Tomboy. Spotify. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/track/0IGUXY4JbK18bu9oD4mPIm

[21]. World Economic Forum. (2022). Global Gender Gap Report 2022. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2022.pdf

[22]. Jeong, E., & Lee, J. (2018). We take the red pill, we confront the DickTrix: Online feminist activism and the augmentation of gendered realities in South Korea. Feminist Media Studies, 18(4), 705-717.

[23]. World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. (2018, August 15). A Conversation with Tarana Burke, Founder of the “me too.” Movement [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR3sC9miSPk

[24]. Jung, H. (2018, March 23). And finally the grand finale! A total of 193 people came forward to share their stories during this marathon speaking [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/allyjung/status/977134330404257797

[25]. Jeong, M. (2019). [2019 International Women’s Day in South Korea] #MeToo_ We_change_the_world. Korean Women’s Associations United. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from http://women21.or.kr/index.php?mid=policy&document_srl=13467&listStyle=viewer&ckattempt=1

[26]. Quittkat, H. L., Hartmann, A. S., Düsing, R., Buhlmann, U., & Vocks, S. (2019). Body Dissatisfaction, Importance of Appearance, and Body Appreciation in Men and Women Over the Lifespan. Frontiers. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00864

[27]. Loegel, A., Courrèges, S., Morizot, F., & Fontayne, P. (2017). Makeup, an essential tool to manage social expectations surrounding femininity? Movement & Sport Sciences - Science & Motricité, (96), 19–25. https://doi.org/10.1051/sm/2017007

[28]. Lina bae. (2018, October 19). It's okay if you're not pretty [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzrRPEBmPBk

[29]. MAMAMOO. (2019, November 14). HIP. Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/track/24nK8tW7Pt3Inh2utttuoG

[30]. Ahn, H.-. (2019, April 21). [4K] 190419 Mamamoo concert 4season f/w “화사쇼” Hwasa Show 화사 직캠 (Mamamoo Hwasa Fancam) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jht76A_xNW4

[31]. Red Velvet. (2021, October 26). Red Velvet level up project fan meeting pt 2 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTqrIYlsgmI

[32]. Statista. (2022, June 14). Share of Twitter users South Korea 2021, by age. https://www.statista.com/statistics/984734/south-korea-twitter-usage-by-age/#:%7E:text=As%20of%20December%202021%2C%20around,respondents%20answering%20to%20use%20Twitter.

[33]. Anderson, M., & Toor, S. (2020, August 25). How social media users have discussed sexual harassment since #MeToo went viral. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/11/how-social-media-users-have-discussed-sexual-harassment-since-metoo-went-viral/


Cite this article

Shen,Y. (2023). The Influence of the Development of the Global Feminist Movement in the 21st Century on the Image Transformation of K-pop Female Idols. Communications in Humanities Research,4,191-197.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies (ICIHCS 2022), Part 2

ISBN:978-1-915371-31-7(Print) / 978-1-915371-32-4(Online)
Editor:Faraz Ali Bughio, David T. Mitchell
Conference website: https://www.icihcs.org/
Conference date: 18 December 2022
Series: Communications in Humanities Research
Volume number: Vol.4
ISSN:2753-7064(Print) / 2753-7072(Online)

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References

[1]. KOFICE. (2018). K-Pop into a wider world. In [KOFICE] 2017_Korean Wave White Paper (pp. 48–48). essay, KOFICE. Retrieved from http://www.kofice.or.kr/b20industry/b20_industry_01_view.asp?seq=981&page=1&find=&search=.

[2]. Jonas, Liz (2022). Crafted for the Male Gaze: Gender Discrimination in the K-Pop Industry. Journal of International Women's Studies, 23(1), 231-247.

[3]. SMTOWN. (2002). No.1. SMTOWN. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.smentertainment.com/Entertainment/Albums/9?page=85

[4]. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. (2002). Mama. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.mwave.me/cn/mama/history/2002/winner/129

[5]. Infinity13 (Trans.). (2014). Boa - No.1 Lyrics + english translation. BoA - No.1 lyrics + English translation. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://lyricstranslate.com/en/no1-no1.html

[6]. Kim, S. (2013). Female empowerment or exploitation?: Arts: The Harvard Crimson. Arts | The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.thecrimson.com/column/k-pop-generation/article/2013/10/8/Female_Empowerment_Exploitation_Kpop/

[7]. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. (2009). Mama. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.mwave.me/cn/mama/history/2009/winner/122

[8]. 2NE1. (2012, March 28). Fire. Spotify. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/track/4q2HU9Ijpk4zJ24x7oMdXb

[9]. 2NE1. (2014, February 27). Come back home. Spotify. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/track/34Ga20vIH4vN9neqWG8Tok

[10]. SBSMusic1. (2014). Aoa, first place after debut @ popular song Inkigayo 140209. YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt_95GhRF2s.

[11]. Pop!gasa (Trans.). (2014, February 8). Aoa - mini skirt (short skirt) lyrics " color coded lyrics: Lyrics at CCL. Color Coded Lyrics. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://colorcodedlyrics.com/2014/01/15/aoa-mini-skirt-jjalbeun-chima/

[12]. Zellner, X. (2018, June 26). Blackpink makes K-pop history on hot 100, billboard 200 & more with 'ddu-du ddu-du'. Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.billboard.com/pro/blackpink-k-pop-history-hot-100-billboard-200/

[13]. Touring Data. (2019, December 31). In 2019, Blackpink's "In your area tour" became the most successful concert tour by a Korean Female Group in history (@ygofficialblink). Twitter. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://twitter.com/touringdata/status/1212147818745516033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1212147818745516033%7Ctwgr%5E3a0507a23f2c5492502253c36a2cb0050cb70e5d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmalaysia.news.yahoo.com%2Fblackpink-rakes-rm156m-most-successful-042202023.html

[14]. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. (2020). Mama. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.mwave.me/cn/mama/history/2020/winner/92

[15]. BLACKPINK. (2020, October 2). How you like that. Spotify. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/track/4SFknyjLcyTLJFPKD2m96o

[16]. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. (2018). Mama. Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.mwave.me/cn/mama/history/2018/winner/111

[17]. TWICE. (2018, July 9). What is Love. Spotify. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/track/1IX47gefluXmKX4PrTBCRM

[18]. YouTube. (2020). Miss Back (Miss Bag) E2 [Eng Sub]. YouTube. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9PtozMvfjA&list=PLtvc0pldBZfA9mkSyHOssVa5My1DrdbMa&index=2.

[19]. YouTube. (2014). Stella_Marionette(Marionet by Stellar of Mcountdown 2014.02.20). YouTube. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN_CVuScSL0.

[20]. (G)I-DLE. (2022, March 14). Tomboy. Spotify. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/track/0IGUXY4JbK18bu9oD4mPIm

[21]. World Economic Forum. (2022). Global Gender Gap Report 2022. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2022.pdf

[22]. Jeong, E., & Lee, J. (2018). We take the red pill, we confront the DickTrix: Online feminist activism and the augmentation of gendered realities in South Korea. Feminist Media Studies, 18(4), 705-717.

[23]. World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. (2018, August 15). A Conversation with Tarana Burke, Founder of the “me too.” Movement [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR3sC9miSPk

[24]. Jung, H. (2018, March 23). And finally the grand finale! A total of 193 people came forward to share their stories during this marathon speaking [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/allyjung/status/977134330404257797

[25]. Jeong, M. (2019). [2019 International Women’s Day in South Korea] #MeToo_ We_change_the_world. Korean Women’s Associations United. Retrieved August 23, 2022, from http://women21.or.kr/index.php?mid=policy&document_srl=13467&listStyle=viewer&ckattempt=1

[26]. Quittkat, H. L., Hartmann, A. S., Düsing, R., Buhlmann, U., & Vocks, S. (2019). Body Dissatisfaction, Importance of Appearance, and Body Appreciation in Men and Women Over the Lifespan. Frontiers. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00864

[27]. Loegel, A., Courrèges, S., Morizot, F., & Fontayne, P. (2017). Makeup, an essential tool to manage social expectations surrounding femininity? Movement & Sport Sciences - Science & Motricité, (96), 19–25. https://doi.org/10.1051/sm/2017007

[28]. Lina bae. (2018, October 19). It's okay if you're not pretty [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzrRPEBmPBk

[29]. MAMAMOO. (2019, November 14). HIP. Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/track/24nK8tW7Pt3Inh2utttuoG

[30]. Ahn, H.-. (2019, April 21). [4K] 190419 Mamamoo concert 4season f/w “화사쇼” Hwasa Show 화사 직캠 (Mamamoo Hwasa Fancam) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jht76A_xNW4

[31]. Red Velvet. (2021, October 26). Red Velvet level up project fan meeting pt 2 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTqrIYlsgmI

[32]. Statista. (2022, June 14). Share of Twitter users South Korea 2021, by age. https://www.statista.com/statistics/984734/south-korea-twitter-usage-by-age/#:%7E:text=As%20of%20December%202021%2C%20around,respondents%20answering%20to%20use%20Twitter.

[33]. Anderson, M., & Toor, S. (2020, August 25). How social media users have discussed sexual harassment since #MeToo went viral. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/11/how-social-media-users-have-discussed-sexual-harassment-since-metoo-went-viral/