The girl crush concept in k pop a narrative inquiry into the lived experiences o

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Faculty of Linguistics and Culture of English-speaking countries *** GRADUATION PAPER THE GIRL CRUSH CONCEPT IN K-POP: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY INTO THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF 2NE1 FANS Supervisor: Nguyen Hai Ha, MA Student: Pham Linh Anh Course: QH2018.E18 HANOI, 2022 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ Khoa Ngôn ngữ và Văn hóa các nước nói tiếng Anh *** KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP HÌNH TƯỢNG GIRL CRUSH TRONG K-POP: NGHIÊN CỨU TỰ SỰ VỀ TRẢI NGHIỆM CỦA NGƯỜI HÂM MỘ NHÓM NHẠC 2NE1 Giảng viên hướng dẫn: Th.S Nguyễn Hải Hà Sinh viên: Phạm Linh Anh Khóa: QH2018.E18 HÀ NỘI, 2022 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Phạm Linh Anh, QH 2018.E18, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (programme) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan, or reduction of the paper. Signature Date Acknowledgements The completion of this paper would have been impossible without the invaluable support of these individuals and I would like to express my appreciation to all of them. First of all, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms.

Nguyen Hai Ha for providing me with detailed guidance, insightful sharings and words of encouragement throughout the research. During the work on my thesis, I lost courage and motivation several times, yet she somehow managed to instruct me until the end with her infinite patience and understanding. Furthermore, I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to my parents, my grandmother, and my brother for all their love and support, especially within this semester. I am extremely fortunate to have them provided me with every condition to finish the study.

Their belief in me has kept me motivated during this process. I would be remiss in not mentioning all of my beloved friends. To Lâm Quỳnh, for being an extremely compassionate and helpful study-mate. To My, Bình, Phương, Trà, Quỳnh Anh, Ngọc Anh, and Vân Anh, for giving me mental assistance whenever I needed.

To Bảo Hà, Hà Tú, Phương Anh, and Đức, for keeping me inspired. And to Tuấn Hiệp, for being the most caring companion. Last but not least, I would like to thank all of the informants who agreed to help me by participating in this study and sharing their fascinating stories. 1 Abstract With the rising popularity of K-pop in the global pop music industry, the construction of K-pop idols and their fans’ experience remain notable areas of study.

During the beginning stage, K-pop idols are portrayed according to the gendered aesthetics to serve the sexual appeals of fans of the opposite sex. Accordingly, traditional female idols were imposed to perform the cute-sexy dichotomy to serve the male gaze, which reinforces the inferiority of women in a parchiachial society. During recent years, however, a new Girl Crush concept emerged and gained explosive success with a number of representatives, which challenges to alternate the conventional portrayal of female Kpop idols. This study inquires into the forming of the Girl Crush concept and the allure of it through the analysis of its fans’ experience.

The analysis indicates particularity as the element attributed to the success of Girl Crush. An accumulation of 2NE1 fans’ experience in their formation of identity is also displayed in the narratives, which suggests the two-sided relationships of mutual impact between fans’ identity and idols’ identity. Keywords: Girl Crush, K-pop, fans’ experience, fans identity 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 1 Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 CHAPTER 1. Background of the study 4 The making of K-pop and Kpop idols 4 Being female K-pop idols in the industry 5 Feminism 8 1.

Statement of research problem 10 1. Theoretical perspectives and modes of inquiry 11 CHAPTER 2. The “Girl Crush” concept 14 2. 2NE1 as a Girl Crush representatives 16 CHAPTER 3.

NARRATIVES ON THE FANS’ EXPERIENCE 18 3. KH’s story: The magnetism of uniqueness 18 3. SM’s story: The call of resemblance 19 3. LD’s story: An unexpected big shot 21 3.

CM’s story: Compromising the ideals of masculinity 23 CHAPTER 4. Particularity in the construction of Girl Crush concept 25 4. Identity through the Girl Crush experience 27 CHAPTER 6. Summary of the key insights 31 6.

Implication of the study 31 6. Limitations and suggestions for further studies 32 Appendix 33 References 57 3 CHAPTER 1. Background of the study The making of K-pop and Kpop idols From Kiss and Make Up by Dua Lipa and Blackpink, Written in the Stars by John Legend and Wendy of Red Velvet, Waste It On Me by BTS and Steve Aoki, Boy With Luv by BTS and Halsey, Sour Candy by Lady Gaga and Blackpink to the latest Ice Cream by Blackpink and Selena Gomez, the recent years have experienced an increasing number of collaborations between K-pop idols and the globally famous US-UK artists. Besides, in 2017 and 2018 respectively, BTS and Blackpink blessed fans with their first appearance on the most followed national talk shows of the US, namely TheEllenShow and The Late Late Show with James Corden.

While the influence of US-UK music is still considered dominant, it seems affirmable that South Korean pop (or commonly known as K-pop) and their idols have secured an important position in the global pop music industry. The phenomenon of K-pop catapulted into global consciousness was not a twist of fate; in fact, it can be traced back nearly three decades to the formation of ‘hallyu’ - literally translated into ‘Korean wave’ - a coherent set of strategies by South Korean authorities (Laurie, 2016). To deconstruct hallyu, three factors were commonly stated. First, it is attributed to the state’s attempt to reconstruct the Korea-ness via branding cultural products (Cho, 1999, as cited in Huang, 2011).

In the late 1980s, South Korea experienced unprecedented industrialization with a massive landing of American products, to the point where their cultural values were under threat of being dissolved. In that situation, nationalism was stimulated, and selling cultural products was of priority to promote national identity. Accordingly, Korean authorities require the ‘chaebols’ - the family-run conglomerates - to invest in the TV industry and seek potential talents for professional training in universities (Jin, 2006; Onishi, 2004). In other words, K-pop was meant to serve as soft power for Korea’s preservation of national identity from Americanization.

Secondly, globalization and media liberation had allowed Korea to mold a new hybrid cultural industry using “Learning from the 4 Hollywood” as the slogan, thus augmenting their own culture appeals (Shim, 2006). The last contributor, knowingly the inevitable component in the making of K-pop success, is the fans who are responsible for the consumption of commodities. Although building a fanbase is a vital part of every music industry, K-pop agencies have taken on intensive approaches to them. In fact, “no other genre in popular music has ever shown as solid a connection with cultural commodities as K-pop has” (Choi & Maliangkay, 2015, p.

Many of the fans are willing to spend on cosmetic, fashion, gastronomic and digital products endorsed by their idols and associated with K-pop images and songs (Choi & Maliangkay, 2015). To create such a loyal fan culture, management companies make conscious attempts to involve fans in the process of production. From trying to maintain a good relationship with the fandom to fulfill fans’ expectations, the K-pop industry has gradually become a fan-driven participatory culture (Choi & Maliangkay, 2015; Laurie, 2016). For marketing purposes, the central pattern in the K-pop idol community is homosocial, which is exemplified by the fundamental division between boy groups and girl groups (Laurie, 2016).

Jonas (2021) also adds to this argument by illustrating that boy groups’ content is often marketed to serve the female gaze, and girl groups content is often created conforming to the male gaze. In other words, the gendering of K-pop idols has been used to intrigue fans by catering to their sexual desire through a rigid set of gendered aesthetics. This scheme is applied to both male and female idols; however, as the creative agencies in K-pop industry are mostly male staff and with few idols involved in the production, female idols are at disadvantage when it comes to breaking from gender formalities without the authority in their job (Jonas, 2021). Being female K-pop idols in the industry According to Ruhlen (1988), the historical interpretation of Korean gender roles is traditionally androcentric, which are rooted in both the country’s origin myth of Tan Gun and the adoption of Confucianism as a national philosophy in the second century.

The myth of Tan Gun establishes that men are descendants of heavenly beings, making them superior to women who are descended from animals. Additionally, Confucianism 5 expects women to be directly dependent on the relationship with the males around them, being her mother’s daughter, her husband’s wife, her son’s mother and nothing else (Lee, 2012). Accordingly, women are assigned to handle the domestic affairs such as nurturing the children, cooking, weaving and other household tasks. Men, on the other hand, handle public and social affairs such as farming, commerce and, for some men, holding government office.

Nowadays, as neoliberalism is adopted on a global scale, the gendered domestic division has contributed to the discrimination in labour market; in particular, whereas men’s earnings are considered the main source of income for the family, the money earned by women is regarded as merely supplemental. This mindset resulted in a devaluation of women's work performance and sexist policies (Jonas, 2021). In Korea, workplace discrimination emerges during the hiring process through microaggressions and aesthetics requirements (Holiday & Elfving-Hwang, 2012, as cited in Jonas, 2021). Thus, gender in the context of Korea has a tendency to be portrayed in ways that promote traditional gender roles: men as powerful, dominant, aggressive, violent and women as weak, dependent and submissive (Lin & Rudoff, 2017).

The K-pop music industry also reinforces the ideologies through the making of K-pop idols, in which both male and female idols are influenced entities. However, in this study I would focus mainly on the portrayal of idols in girl groups or solo female idols, whose personas are commonly portrayed as innocent, cute, and submissive young women. For example, in their famous MV Gee, SNSD - the ‘national’ girl group - were portrayed as young girls who continuously act embarrassed and childlike over the man they have a crush on. Over the last few years, however, aligned with the happening of cultural hybridity and neoliberal cultural commodities, the industry has rendered various feminine images “from a traditionally submissive, demure lady to hyper-sexualized female provocateur” (Kim, 2019, p.

As a result, female K-pop idols have been put under the dilemma of performing two distinctive personalities, innocence and sexiness, inventing a new ideal of femininity that is propelled to satisfy the expectation of a male-dominant society. 6 Apart from being subjected to the sexy and cute dichotomy, female K-pop idols also face the problem of lookism, which refers to the “prejudice or discrimination based on physical appearance” (Park et al. In particular, in Korea, physical attractiveness was associated with positive traits and popularity, ugliness was linked to negative stereotypes that hindered work productivity such as “lazy, antisocial, and incompetent” (Park et al. Gelezeau (2015) reinforces the statement by stating that in Korea, if a person does not follow the standard of beauty, they would be classified as “miyŏng hawui kyegŭp”, which means “cosmetic underprivileged” or “underclass”, and their social status is also threatened (p.

With ‘pretty privilege’ being commonly practiced in social life, women of Korea, including those in the entertainment industry, find meeting certain physical appearance criteria a crucial part of their job.