In Constructing Desirable Bodies by Kimberly Huang, she discusses how sex workers in Vietnam alter their bodies in order to perform femininity to the standards of their male clients.  In doing this they are not only making themselves more desirable, but also symbolically representing the economic growth for their country (Huang 135).  Creating a desirable appearance often involves plastic surgery, and this is not only popular in Vietnam, but Korea as well, where there is an increasingly large consumer economy revolving around beauty enhancement procedures.  The article, “The K-Pop Plastic Surgery Obsession,” discusses the links between the phenomenon of hallyu and plastic surgery procedures that are done to make young women look like K-Pop stars.  The article points out that hallyu is not just limited to music, but it promotes beauty standards as well.  K-Pop stars are essentially equated with beauty.  Similarly to Huang, these young women getting these procedures highlight the fact that they are not modifying their bodies to fit Western ideals of beauty, but rather a uniquely Korean idea of beauty that is perpetuated in Korean culture and media: “Sex workers and their clients played a critical role in contesting hierarchies of race and nation by constructing new, distinctly non-Western ideals of beauty through the workers’ technologies of embodiment”(Huang 131).  This article, like Huang, also points out the link between beauty and economic success.  In a highly competitive market, women who are considered beautiful are more likely to get hired and paid more money, similarly to the Vietnamese sex workers who were rewarded for performing femininity with “high class” cosmetic procedures. “Beauty is prized almost everywhere in the world, but in South Korea its value is upfront and open. South Korean employers scrutinize the looks of the applicants — in search for physical attractiveness — in addition to their professional qualifications.” 

Despite the plastic industry not being fueled by entirely superficial reasons, young women still feel immense pressure to be beautiful and often the way to do this is by investing in expensive, painful procedures.  Some girls have accepted the fact that society will judge them regardless of if they get plastic surgery or not, so they feel they might as well look beautiful if they are going to be criticized.  One girl in the linked video below, expresses her sadness with the plastic surgery industry in Korea.  She said that growing up she would always compare herself to the people who had plastic surgery and feel inadequate.  She said that even people who have had plastic surgery procedures claim they are “natural beauties,” which reinforces the idea that women should be naturally beautiful, even when those hailed as the most beautiful are not natural themselves.  She points out that people around her began to lose their individuality because they were all getting the same procedures to look like the ideal form of beauty.

While plastic surgery in Korea and other Asian countries, including Vietnam can serve as a way to resist Western beauty ideals, a means for economic gain, and a way to establish geopolitical prominence, it can have negative effects on young women internalizing these ideas that a woman’s value is in her appearance.

Upon reading Olga Fedorenko’s “South Korean Advertising as Popular Culture,” it became clear that advertisements are much bigger than merely selling commodities — they create content that can be consumed arguably as much as the product.  Advertisements are a component of culture that converges with entertainment, but within that culture there is also room to explore the true lived experience of Korean people and the issues they face in their society.  She notes that advertisements featuring celebrities endorsing certain products became a mechanism to expand target markets once pop culture became an industry following the 1997 IMF Crisis.  These two main arguments — advertisement as a way to tackle social issues and the confluence of the entertainment industry and advertisement — immediately reminded me of BTS and how they confront gender stereotypes, even through the products they endorse.  

In the past, Korean male celebrities have been the face of products that are traditionally heavily marketed toward women, such as cosmetics.  For example, Ahn Jung-hwan, a famous soccer player, starred in an advertisement for Somang Cosmetics alongside another man.  In this ad they both look more feminine in their appearance, which contrasts Ahn Jung-hwan’s more masculine everyday appearance.  

• 

• 

Similarly, BTS also does advertisements for cosmetics brand, but their appearance is typically more feminine already on a day to day basis.  They wear androgynous clothing, which often includes skirts, and wear make up, something which falls outside of the gender stereotypes for men.  This gender fluidity carries over into the products they endorse as well. 

In their Commercial Film for VT Cosmetics, they don sparkly clothing, with bright colors and patterns, which are not traditionally popular styles for men’s clothing, and they are wearing jewelry and makeup which is also stereotypically atypical for men. 

In the print ad for the brand, their more feminine looking facial features are highlighted and they are all smiling, which contrasts the stony faced, “Blue Steel” poses which are common for male models to utilize.  Despite this, they still exhibit sex appeal, as evidenced by their large fanbase comprised of mostly young women.  As John Fiske stated in “The Popular Economy,” “This power to construct meanings, pleasures, and social identities that differ from those proposed by the structures of domination is crucial, and the area within which it is exercised is that of representation” (544).  BTS defies the norms in terms of gender presentation and their representation in ads gives them a broader audience to promote this gender breakdown. 

While advertisements that focus on social issues detract from the product itself to instead create a conversation about society, I do not think that advertisements such as the above are going to spark a comprehensive revamping of society that eradicates the gender binary in its entirety and any stereotypes that accompany it.  However, I do think that it provides representation, and promotes healthy conversation about certain social issues, and having Kpop stars such as BTS in ads that highlight social issues makes these issues more accessible to their younger fanbase: “…it is in the midst of popular culture where ‘moments of freedom’ germinate, critical openings well up, and alternative worldview emerge, from which something new might arise” (Fedorenko 359).  I think that through pop culture, BTS is demonstrating that it is okay to venture outside of rigid gender norms, and I believe it is having an impact, especially on their younger audience, as evidenced in this article written by a young fan that mentions their “fluid aesthetic”: https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/42565/1/bts-gender-fluidity-teen-angst-column

Works Cited:
Olga Fedorenko, 2014, “South Korean Advertising as Popular
Culture,” The Korean Pop Culture Reader, 341 – 62.
John Fiske, 2009, “The Popular Economy,” in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader, edited by John Storey, New York: Pearson Longman, 564 – 80.