“Girl Crush” K-pop Idols: A Conversation between Korean, Chinese, and US Aca-fans: Part I
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(G)I-DLE. “Nxde” Concept Photos (Source: Cube Entertainment)
Henry:
During my recent trip to Shanghai, I was introduced -- by Lenore -- to the music videos of [G]I-DLE and taken by the ways they seem to echo the themes and some of the style I associated with Madonna videos from the 1980s and 1990s and that some of my students here have compared to the Gwen Stefani videos of the early 2000s. I was struck by the quality of discussions they were generating among the young women of Lenore's generation in China and the ways they functioned as vehicles for popular feminist concepts from South Korea to enter into the conversations about gender in urban China. In my investigations since, I have learned that [G]I-DLE is technically considered part of the "Girl Crush" movement in K-Pop. So, I invited Lenore to join us for a conversation with Donna, who is one of my former students, who is Korean and does work on, among other things, Korean feminist and popular culture. These developments are not as well known in the west as they should be. I was hoping, Donna, you could give us a bit of a big picture of what this movement is about, how [G}I-DLE fits into it, and how these videos are being understood at the point of their production in Korea. Since many readers will not necessarily know these groups, this context may help everyone to better understand the discussions which follow.
Donna:
Let me zoom out from (G)I-DLE. Perhaps a bigger picture on the “Girl Crush” trend would help. This will inevitably be long. Many female K-pop idol groups have been successful in the 2020s, from newly debuted ones (aka “fourth generation” idols) to those who returned after a hiatus. Many of their lyrics focus on topics such as being a strong woman, self-confidence, and self-love rather than those that innocently seek love from (supposedly) male listeners. In other words, they are “me”-focused rather than “you (traditionally male listeners)”-focused. For instance, (G)I-DLE sings in TOMBOY (2022):
“Do you want a blond Barbie doll? / It's not here, I'm not a doll (like this if you can)….Your mom raised you as a prince / But this is queendom, right?”
IVE’s Love Dive (2022) parades great admiration for themselves, drawing on the Narcissus mythology. All translations are by me:
“Narcissistic, my god I love it / 서로를 비춘 밤 [the night that we shone on each other] / 아름다운 까만 눈빛더 빠져 깊이 [beautiful black eyes fall more deeper] / (넌 내게로 난 네게로) [(you into me I into you)] / 숨 참고love dive [hold breath love dive]”
LE SSERAFIM emphasizes their agency and passion for their career in ANTIFRAGILE (2022):
“무시 마 내가 걸어온 커리어 [don’t overlook my career path] / I go to ride till I die die .... 멋대로 정하네 나란 애에 대해 [decides however they want the person I am] / I don’t know what to say I can’t feel it / 뜨거운 관심은 환영 귀여운 질투는 go ahead [fervent attention welcome cute jealousy go ahead] / 줄 달린 인형은 no thanks 내 미랠 쓸 나의 노래 [string puppet no thanks my song that will write my future] / Yes gimme that”
LE SSERAFFIM - “Antifragile”. (Source: YouTube)
Beyond K-pop, female talents’ careers and “strong,” “independent” women personae are becoming more recognized and celebrated in the broader South Korean media industry. Kim Sook, has gained nicknames like “Sook-crush (drawing on “Girl Crush”),” “Furiosook (parody of Mad Max’s Furiosa)” and “Matriarch-sook” from her famous gender role-flipped humor and non-subservient image that she built over ~25 years of her career, became the second woman to ever win Korea’s national broadcasting station’s (KBS) Grand Prize in Entertainment in 2020 since Lee Young-ja’s first win in 2018. Female street dancer crew reality competition series Street Women Fighter (Mnet; 2021-2023) and many of the featured dancers have become sensational hits. As the series’ name suggests, the “Girl Crush” dancers boasted “strong” physiques, personalities, and styles but with comradery and professionalism that matched their (formerly underrecognized) diverse and impressive career backgrounds, rather than one-dimensional “catty” competitiveness.
Kim Sook’s “matriarch” comedy. Caption: “The best man is a man who carefully and gently does housework.” (Source: YouTube)
An example of a more explicit crossover with K-pop would be Refund Sisters, a temporary project group from TV variety show “Hangout with Yoo” (MBC) that consisted of four top female pop divas across generations of K-pop Uhm Jung-hwa (1993 debut), Lee Hyori (1998 debut; first generation idol group Fin.K.L member who became a national icon after solo debut in 2003), Jessi (2005 debut; amassed great popularity from Mnet’s 2015 female rapper competition show “Unpretty Rapstar”), and Hwasa (2014 debut; third generation idol group Mamamoo member). The group name originates from the joke that advocating for oneself (e.g., asking for tricky refunds) would be easy with the support of its fierce, confident members. Their single DON’T TOUCH ME (2020) celebrates their successful careers as “strong” women in K-pop:
“Trouble 이래 다 그래 [everyone says I’m trouble] / 세 보인대 어쩔래 [says I look strong so what] … 불편한말들이 또 선을 넘어 [uncomfortable words cross the line again] / 난 또 보란 듯 해내서 보여줘 버려 [as if to show off I accomplish again and show off] / 나도 사랑을 원해 [I want love too] / 나도 평화가 편해 [peace is easy for me too] / 하지만 모두가 you know [but everyone you know] / 자꾸 건드리네 don’t touch me [they bother me don’t touch me] … I don’t care yeah yeah / 내 맘대로 해 [I do as I please]”
Refund Sisters - Don’t Touch me. (Source: YouTube)
As the group composition of Refund Sister and their respective debut year suggests, the presence of “strong,” “Girl Crush” women figures in K-pop is not new (e.g., BoA - Girls on Top (2005); 90’s “strong unnies”). “Sexy female warrior” had been a historical trope that served as an alternative to the cute, innocent, and “girlish” presentation. The same goes for K-pop idols. A step more advanced from “sexy female warrior,” second-generation idol group 2NE1 (2009-2016) was considered groundbreaking during the era with their independent, less male gaze-centric self-presentation. With members at the time who were perceived as less conventionally beautiful (cf., their song Ugly (2011) captures internalized gendered lookism in Korea), 2NE1 confidently sang in studded outfits and experimental hairstyles.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha 다신 널 비웃지 못하도록 [Ha-ha-ha-ha so that they can’t laugh at you anymore] / Now let’s 춤을, 춤을, 춤을 춰요, want to get down [Now let’s dance, dance, dance, want to get down] / 보다 큰 꿈을, 꿈을, 꿈을 꿔 세상은 [dream bigger dream, dream, dream, the world] / 내 맘대로 다 할 수 있기에 큰 자유를 위해[I can do whatever I want for great freedom]” (debut single FIRE, 2010)
Arguably, their songs still tended to be thematically centered around heterosexual romantic love and pursuit. Their global hit I Am the Best (2011) is literally about how they are the best and they feel great being so with many repetitions of the song’s title. However, even this song includes a part where they claim that men take a second look at them and women try to imitate them, after which they mock (contextually presumably male) posers (“playa’”) whose pursuit they reject. Moreover, it should be noted that 2NE1 was considered unconventional. The following are some examples of lyrics from popular second-generation K-pop girl idol groups.
“Hey, 오빠 나 좀 봐 [Hey, oppa (term for older brother and older male acquaintance of similar age range) look at me / 나를 좀 바라봐 [please look at me] … Oh, oh, oh, oh, 빠를 사랑해 [Oh, oh, oh, oh-ppa I love you] / Ah, ah, ah, ah, 많이 많이 해 [Ah, ah, ah, ah, lots and lots] … 오빠 오빠, I’ll be, I’ll be down, down, down, down [oppa oppa, I’ll be, I’ll be down, down, down, down].” - Oh! (2010) by Girls’ Generation
“Tell me, tell me, tell, tell, tell, tell, tell, tell me / 나를 사랑한다고, 날 기다려 왔다고 [that you love me, that you’ve been waiting for me] / Tell me, tell me, tell, tell, tell, tell, tell, tell me / 내가 필요하다 말해, 말해줘요[say that you need me, tell me]” – Tell me (2007) by Wonder Girls
2NE1 - I am the Best (Source: YouTube)
Girls’ Generation - Don’t Touch me. (Source: YouTube)
So yes, I believe it would be appropriate to approach the current trend of idol K-pop as more in the direction of “Girl Crush.” Their overall presentations have been interpreted as targeting “auntie fans” over “uncle fans” (Korean article). Even New Jeans, a fourth-generation girl idol group that does not really have a “strong women” type of presentation, is being interpreted as a youthful group that reminds fans of their innocent teenage years. I think this trend both reflects the rise of feminism in S. Korea (and globally) and the industry’s recognition of these fans’ purchasing power. There is an ongoing social hostility towards feminism in Korea but the current trend in K-pop can be interpreted as the desires for gender equality and diverse role models being more recognized (e.g., Kim Sook’s winning of KBS’s 2020 Grand Prize in Entertainment), albeit possibly in the form of---and supported by the language of---(profitable) “demand.”
Perhaps another factor that allows the creative freedom for this direction would be the emphasis on worldbuilding in fourth-generation K-pop idols. This too isn’t “new” per se as many pre-fourth generation idol groups had historically crafted their own fantasy world to base their group production and storytelling. This also does not apply to all groups. In fact, New Jeans does not draw on fantasy, and (G)I-DLE does not have a set “concept” world as their background. However, many fourth-generation K-pop idols have been more explicitly invested in building a larger interconnected story world and creating songs in accordance with their group’s narrative, with each release being a part of the larger storyline that is to be unraveled, also open to fan participation. Most notably, with Aespa’s debut, SM Entertainment has been weaving together their previous idols’ narratives under their version of the Marvel multiverse, “SM Culture Universe.” If an idol group’s central narrative task revolves around navigating the vast, mysterious “Kwangya (translates to the wilderness)” and fighting “Black Mamba,” seeking oppa’s love is not so important. Similarly, declaring that they are “antifragile” in the fantasy world of Crimson Heart (webcomic version of the group LE SERRAFIM’s worldbuilding) as a character is more risk averse and ambiguous than declaring so against the Korean society’s structural gender inequality as a Korean woman.
Aespa - Black Mamba (Source: YouTube)
This is by no means a comprehensive history of “Girl Crush” movement in K-pop. But I hope this will be helpful for those who are not familiar with Korean entertainment media. A couple of things that may be specifically unique about (G)I-DLE could be that their leader Jeon So-yeon has been directing the course of the group’s activities including overall album production instead of simply performing the songs and that unlike many other fourth-generation idol groups they do not have a structured “concept” fantasy world that they are drawing their inspiration from. My knowledge about the group is not extensive; I would love to hear your thoughts on (G)I-DLE or any other groups that are relevant to this topic, perhaps regarding how global fans are interacting with their content.
Lenore:
Luckily, the K-pop group and TV shows you mentioned in the last letter are also well-known in China. In my following response, I will discuss what may be ‘Girl Crush’ from my own experience and fan practice about it. In my opinion. ‘Girl Crush’ may not just be about the image of a ‘strong female’, but also the spirit and power the idol brings to fans that make them want to follow and even fight against some inequality in society.
When I tried to recall the starting point of the K-pop ‘girl crush’ style that appeared in China, 2NE1 came to my mind too. It was in 2011, 2NE1’s ‘I AM THE BEST’ suddenly became the background music of most of the stores, almost everyone knew how to sing the song even if we didn’t know the meaning of the lyrics. Girl’s Generation’s ‘GEE’, at the same time, was well known for its catchy lyrics and was popular among the young generation. Though both of them were very popular, students took different attitudes to ‘GEE’ and ‘I AM THE BEST’: boys treat the former in a teased attitude, they perform the song to attract other’s attention and hope to see girls perform it in cute style and then mock at them, which leads to girl’s rejection and uncomfortable feeling. Though we didn’t know what ‘male gaze’ was at that time, we knew the meaning behind its popularity among boys and tried to avoid such a situation. The appearance of 2NE1’s ‘I AM THE BEST’ appropriately fits girl’s attitude and dream—we don’t want to be ‘cute’ as they think we should be, we want to be cool and have some ways to show we are. So, though we loved both of them, the latter were performed more frequently by girls. In this stage,’ wanna be cool’ was our core goal to follow the K-pop ‘girl crush’ group.
Chris Lee(Left), BiBi Zhou(Right). Source: Sina Weibo
At the same time in China, BiBi Zhou and Chris Lee are also two popular singers among teenagers (especially girls), both of them are girls but have a neutral appearance and singing style. They are ’Tomboy’ in our parent's mouths, and some parents don’t want their baby girls to pay too much attention to them because they look ’neither male nor female’. Their love songs break through the traditional framework, it did not depict a ‘poor girl who is waiting for her lover’s attention’ anymore, but a teenager who wants to cherish love and time, which definitely aroused many teenagers’ resonance.
HyunA - 'Lip & Hip' (Source: YouTube)
Then HyunA Kim came to the stage center of Chinese K-pop fandom, with her sexy appearance and confident attitude. (I have asked many people whether they think HyunA belongs to the ‘Girl Crush’ category, and most of them said ’no’ but were convinced by me then, so it’s just my stubborn try here. She may arouse some controversy and I would like to hear your views about her.) HyunA is worth discussing, she has more female fans than male fans in China, and there is a rumor that says ’HyunA is a woman who owns overly aggressive beauty, she won’t be welcomed by men here.’ But that is the reason why she was welcomed by female fans, the idea she conveyed to us was ‘Do not feel shy to show your sexyness and beauty.’ These ideas are very important in our society. For a long time, girls tried to hide themselves and look well-behaved, those who wore short jeans and shirts may be criticized by their parents or even be verbally abused as ’slut’ by strangers. Sexy appearance may be a curse at that time. In school, some girls bend their backs to try to make their bosoms not so evident, they lack confidence because of the strange eyes of the environment though it’s physically normal. So HyunA’s sexy confidence influences many of them and creates an image of what they want to be in the future. What is more, though HyunA sings love songs too, some of her songs build a ‘queen’ image. For example, in HyunA’s Lip & Hip (2017), the lyric says (I translated it from Chinese lyrics so it may have some mistakes)
‘ 오늘 내가 Queen queen queen / 내 옆에만 서면 너도 King king king / 날 원하는 남자는 많지만 너를Pick pi pi pi pi pick / 매일 난 솔직하게 표현해 주길 원해 / 마치 네가 네가 아닌 것 같아 / 가끔 난 섹시하게 워킹은 더 당당해 난‘
' Today I am the queen / If you stand by my side you are also the King / There are plenty of men who want me but I pick you / Every day I want it to be honest (to express myself) / Sometimes I need to show my sexy and should be more confident '
Compared with traditional songs, HyunA puts women’s positions higher than men, which reverses the power position in old love songs. So, her ‘sexy’ here may be ‘overly aggressive’ to men, but her uncovered ambition builds a model for girls and encourages them to present themselves. So, the definition of ‘Girl Crush’ here may not depend on whether it is desexualization or not, it depends on the idol's attitude and girls’ feedback about ‘If I should follow her or If she gives me some courage in some aspects’.
蔡依林 Jolin Tsai - PLAY我呸 (Source: YouTube)
Another thing worth mentioning here is that some fans in China remix HyunA's ‘How This ' and Jolin Tsai's ‘Play ’, the remix of them makes the songs more aggressive (to men) because the song conveys a thought like ‘I don’t care about who you are, you are just my prey and toy’. Jolin Tsai is also a ‘queen’ in China. Since the release of her album ‘Myself’ (2010), she highlights and conveys the spirit ‘you should be confident and independent, your yellow skin color is beautiful’. So, the remix of two queens' songs shows the attitude of the fans toward both of them.
Moonbyul - Love & Hate (Source: YouTube)
Moon Byul E (Moon) in Mamamoo is also a representative idol in ‘Girl Crush’ topic. She shows both confidence and a unique charm to the fandom. We call her ’live spanner’ because the spanner could turn the ‘straight' to other shapes, and Moon could let girls love her and imagine her as their girlfriend. In her solo song ‘Love & Hate’(2017), she wears black suit and does the same dance with male partners, which makes her look cool and somehow have a feeling of 'soft masculinity’. Fans also show their love for her voice and temperament in the comment section of the song, I took some sentences from Love & Hate’s Youtube comment section:
‘ Moonbyul is living proof that a woman doesn't need to show skin to be sexy and hot! Love you girl! ‘ (@louisacasella3059)
‘ Every single person in Mamamoo is so talented and have amazing vocals. But Moonbyul's low vocals is something I've never heard among female idol vocalists. It's so unique and I wish she'd get to sing more like in Paint Me. I absolutely adore her voice and Taehyung's voices cause they have alto and baritone vocal ranges respectively in an industry dominated by sopranos and tenors. ‘ (@anishasrikar4996)
So Moon’s ‘Girl Crush’ here is not only 2NE1 and HyunA’s ‘I wanna be like her’, but also a real attraction to girls. I may want to highlight her 'soft masculinity’ here because I was a fan of both Mamamoo and Arashi(Jpop group) at that time. As a Jpop male group, Arashi did not stress idol’s masculinity but wanted male idols to perform femininity to attract female fans, and it worked—the group became one of the most famous idol groups in Asia, and their album '5×20 All the BEST!! 1999-2019’ have won the 'Global Top Album’ award in 2019. (They even exceed Taylor’s ‘Lover’ and BTS’s ‘Map of the Soul’ in this list). Matsumoto Jun in Arashi was called ‘men like flower’ by fans to show his beauty. In Arashi’s success, I have found that women may be more willing to access performers who have femininity than those who have masculinity like Chris Hemsworth, but the paradox here is that though fans love femininity, they also need the reliability provided by masculinity. What may make them win in this step may be the balance of masculinity and femininity, not their physical gender. But when it comes to physical gender, it is obvious that a woman could arouse more empathy and provide more sense of safety than man to fans. So that may be one winning point of ‘Girl Crush’ when compared to those real men who also have 'soft masculinity’, female performers provide reliability and empathy that only belong to the same gender and situation.
(G)I-DLE - 'TOMBOY' (Source: YouTube)
Empathy and resonance are important to ‘Girl Crush’ since we have talked about the importance of ‘wanna be’ and ‘equality between male and female audiences’ relationship’ in it, but just having the same gender is not enough. As a way to rebel against the imbalance and strange eyes of society, girls need an obvious expression that fits their ideas, which is the best part of (G)-Idle. In (G)-Idle’s song, they talked about body anxiety (Allergy,2023), fighting back to the male gaze (Nxde,2022), and trying to break the stereotype of Tomboy and femininity (Tomboy,2022). In their song ‘I want that’, they discuss domestic violence through their performance in MV. We can see that they are not only cool and confident in their appearance but try to use such ways to discuss the inequality in reality, which draws fan’s attention and arouses their resonance. After the release of ’Nxde’, lots of girls (even not fans) use the lyric ‘I‘m born nude, you’ve got a dirty mind’ to fight back against the strange eyes and verbal bullying. So, the expression and the power they express in the song gives those girls the power to say something instead of feeling shy/pretending they are cool/hiding their interests like they used to do before.
(G)I-DLE) - 'Nxde' (LEFT), Madonna - Material Girl (RIGHT)
Another interesting thing about (G)-Idle is their performance in MV, they pay tribute to many famous antecedents and use some bold narrative means to express themselves and tell the stories. In ‘Nxde’,Jeon So-yeon, minnie and Shuhua dress the same clothes as Madonna in ‘Vogue’ and ‘Material Girl’. From Tomboy’s killing a Ken to I Want That’s killing a real men, their rebellions are increasingly obvert. So, I am wondering if K-pop had such direct rebellion before to any societal problem, whether such storytelling form is a traditional expression form or a new form starting from K-pop feminism.
NewJeans 'Ditto' (Source: YouTube )
New Jeans is also a special group in this topic, as you said, they have more ‘aunt fans’ than ‘uncle fans’. In the Chinese context, they may not only be a memory of youth, but also a dream and compensation of it. When they first entered our market, they were labeled as “American high school style," which indicates that the youth they represent is culturally different to us. Most of Chinese students are not allowed to touch cosmetics or fall in love with others before they enter the university. All we should do at that time is to chase a good school performance. Expressing your feelings or fantasies sometimes may bring shame, but the appearance of NewJeans tells us it is normal and your emotion should be well taken care of by your sisters: NewJeans.Even though fans have grown up, they still need such comfort and make up their youth through something that could be seen, imitated, or shown.So in ‘Ditto’, they set up a 'me', who is not anyone in the group, but a high school girl with real emotions, as if the fans were participating in the youth they created for us through the character (like the main female character in the otome game, or maybe we could call it a parasocial relationship). They could be ‘Girl Crush’ too because they create a youth image girls(women) want to be even if they cannot trace back to time and fulfill this dream. The group convey the spirit through their energetic expression and fill the holes in some women’s hearts.
So I have depicted a picture of ‘Girl Crush’ K-pop group in China and try to tell what girls learn from them: from silent avoidance to protesting loudly, from hiding themselves to showing confidently, from a poor girl waiting for love to a queen control the right to choose, it is not only the image transfer on the media, but also some attitudes change in women in the real world. ‘Girl Cursh’ here, is not only ‘ wanna be her ‘, but a channel to gain power and express your attitude. We may don’t need to be a strong woman or pretend to be cool, we could fall in love with others like New Jean’s interpretation of ‘Ditto’, we could show our sexy like HyunA, and we could be what we want to be through the channel.
References
Biographies
Do Own (Donna) Kim is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago's Department of Communication. She studies everyday, playful digital cultures and mediated social interactions. Her work examines boundary-crossing new media practices, such as around video games, virtual influencers, and Korean digital feminism. She focuses on hybrid contexts, norms and categories, and the notion of being human/artificial. Her work can be found in journals such as New Media & Society, International Journal of Communication, Mass Communication and Society, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, and Lateral: The Journal of Cultural Studies Association (forthcoming). Donna received her Ph.D. degree in Communication from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She is a Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies fellow alumna. Website: doowndonnakim.com | Twitter: @DoownDonnaKim
Ying Wang (Lenore) is a second-year master’s student in Journalism and Communication at Shanghai University. As a participant in various popular cultures, she explores cosplay, games and online fiction. Her research focuses on participatory culture, especially gender and sexuality in fandom in China.
Henry Jenkins is the Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education at the University of Southern California. He arrived at USC in Fall 2009 after spending more than a decade as the Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. He is the author and/or editor of twenty books on various aspects of media and popular culture, including Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture, From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Spreadable Media: Creating Meaning and Value in a Networked Culture, and By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism. His most recent books are Participatory Culture: Interviews (based on material originally published on this blog), Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Social Change, and Comics and Stuff. He is currently writing a book on changes in children’s culture and media during the post-World War II era. He has written for Technology Review, Computer Games, Salon, and The Huffington Post.
