Reflection of Women Within A Kpop Music Video

In this essay, I will argue that AOA’s music video “Come See Me” conforms to the gender roles attached to women in South Korea while also breaking them. I will enforce my argument by utilizing Lin and Rudolf’s article titled “Does K-Pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set”. The points that I will be using to support my argument are the utilization of male gaze, the breaking of gender roles and ideals, and the costuming.

The music video of AOA’s “Come See Me” prominently features male gaze. It is most prominently used at the beginning of the music video. The video showcases the back silhouettes of multiple women and never showing their face. This is showcasing that the women are only there to be showing off their bodies and nothing more. It is considered a voyeuristic treatment of the women's bodies. It is objectifying the women by showing them in this way for the viewer’s pleasure. The camera mostly focuses on shots of the body parts of the women that are most often sexualized such as the butt or the legs. This is supported by the article called “Does K-Pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set” by Lin and Rudolf. Lin and Rudolf state this in their article by saying “A simple Google image search using the keywords ‘K-pop girl groups’ could provide explanations for why K-Pop often receives criticism from its own fans for sexually objectifying women. Revealing costumes, erotic choreographies, close-ups of female idols’ bare legs and waving crotches and hips as well as depictions of sexual suggestiveness have become props of music videos[…]”(30).

While this music video does conform to normal societal ideals of objectifying women, it also breaks stereotypical gender roles. The “Come See Me” music video breaks these gender roles by portraying the women as not weak and fragile. The video also shows them doing things that are stereotypically associated with men such as shooting a bow and arrow, riding a motorcycle, or shooting a gun. The video never showcases them doing things associated with women such as cooking or cleaning. It presents the women as being strong. Lin and Rudolf also discuss gender roles within their article by stating that “Sexist attitudes toward women, which largely stem from traditional stereotypes about gender roles[…]”(29) but the video doesn’t conform to these traditional stereotypes.

Finally, the group’s costuming during the choreographed dance numbers showcase both ideas that I have stated perviously. The music video is showcasing these women as being strong, independent, and not conforming to gender roles while also making these women sexualized through camera shots and angles. Their costuming is showcasing the women as individuals by making their costumes slightly different from each others while making the costumes collectively come together as a whole. This is showing a visible separation between the group members by showing them as their own person but making them invisible in a collective group. This is showing that as a society, we are currently fine with women having their own personality and seeing them as people. If we have a group of women come together, they are now here for the viewing pleasure of the men. This is related to how it is a current societal pressure for women to get plastic surgery in order to blend into the crowd instead of standing out (Elfving-Hwang).

In conclusion, I believe that AOA’s music video titled “Come See Me” conforms to gender roles within Korean society while also breaking them. It is essentially taking one step forward while also taking a step backward for progress for women and equality.

Bibliography:

Elfving-Hwang, Joanna. “Cosmetic Surgery and Embodying the Moral Self in South Korean Popular Makeover Culture.” The Asia-Pacific Journal, June 17, 2013, 1– 16.

Epstein, Stephen, and James Turnbull. “Girls’ Generation? Gender, (Dis)Empowerment, and K-Pop.” The Korean Popular Culture Reader, 2014, 314–36

Lin, Xi, and Robert Rudolf. “Does K-Pop Reinforce Gender Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from a New Data Set.” Asian Women 33, no. 4 (2017): 27–54.