Problematic Korean Video Friday over at Poptimists: Orange Caramel A~ING♡

[koganbot]

Orange Caramel's "A~ing♡" is our problematic video of the week, which I posted over at poptimists, but since almost no one there writes comments anymore, I'm putting it up here as well. As Mat says, "It's odd, because they almost have a supermodel look to them with their long legs, and it just seems grotesque to put them in cheap girly Halloween costumes." I wouldn't say I know what's going on with Orange Caramel. The videos don't seem like camp or parody, but do seem deliberately "off." Or maybe we're just the ones who think it's off, and for the core audience stuff like this is bacon and eggs, seven days a week. Anyhow, you can see what I said; you also might want to check out the convo that petronia, Mat, and anhh had here a month ago on related subjects.

"[MV] Orange Caramel - 아잉♡ Full Ver." (Watch on YouTube)

EDIT: Of course, just because something might strike us (in our ignorance) as grotesque doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with it, or anything problematic. Or the problem might only be ours, that we don't understand what's going on. But women acting girlie can raise a red flag. That is, do women in that world generally have a choice not to act girlie? What are the consequences for those who don't act girlie?

Comments

[descriptivist.livejournal.com]

hahahahaha that Sooyoung video

Slightly off-topic since we're talking about girl groups and fan gender, but do you know if there are any boy groups for whom the chanting is more audibly male than female? From what I've seen the answer is no, and I assume that's because for boy groups the fan chanting is based less on "I really love your music/when you sing this part!" and more on "You are the most attractive boy and I'm happy to see you! Take off your shirt!" (Thus vocal male support for a male performer is "gay", which I assume to be as much of a cultural no-no there as here.) I guess I just find it interesting that for girl groups the fan chanting is fairly unisex but for boy groups it is (almost?) always female.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but I guess the boy band fan chants are seen more as a lustful thing than mere support. I've seen plenty of male fans voice their admiration for male idols in other settings, like the 'guerilla date' things where they go out in public for an interview with crowds around them, and other public appearances.

[koganbot]

Assuming that Korea is like here (which of course I don't automatically assume), most fanboys are probably going to play it safe by visibly loving only hip-hop or metal or some such. But a lot of the girl groups and boybands in Korea have such a strong hip-hop element that maybe boys will allow themselves to be enthralled. (Not to say that - for example - *NSync and the Backstreet Boys didn't have strong hip-hop/new jack swing elements back in the day, but since these guys didn't play it tough, these elements probably didn't register if you were a boy. That's a guess, though; the only fans of *NSync and the Backstreet Boys I knew at the time who weren't girls were adult music critics.)