Journal of International Women's Studies Volume 22 Issue 7 Gendering the Labor Market: Women’s Article 2 Struggles in the Global Labor Force July 2021 Crafted for the Male Gaze: Gender Discrimination in the K-Pop Industry Liz Jonas Follow this and additional works at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws Part of the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Jonas, Liz (2021). Crafted for the Male Gaze: Gender Discrimination in the K-Pop Industry. Journal of International Women's Studies, 22(7), 3-18. Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol22/iss7/2 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. ©2021 Journal of International Women’s Studies. Crafted for the Male Gaze: Gender Discrimination in the K-Pop Industry By Liz Jonas1 Abstract This paper explores the ways in which the idol industry portrays male and female bodies through the comparison of idol groups and the dominant ways in which they are marketed to the public. A key difference is the absence or presence of agency. Whereas boy group content may market towards the female gaze, their content is crafted by a largely male creative staff or the idols themselves, affording the idols agency over their choices or placing them in power holding positions. Contrasted, girl groups are marketed towards the male gaze, by a largely male creative staff and with less idols participating. The most dominant feature of their content is the women’s lack of agency, be it in lyrics, body movements or public interaction. Thus, it is important to highlight the need for women to gain agency over their occupation as many of their male counterparts are afforded. There are positive examples of women with agency in their creative processes, but girl group idols typically do not have the chance to portray lived female experiences or stories. This discrimination happens when the market is feminized, and employers feel they can justify their actions with incorrect arguments such as that women’s labor is casual and thus not as serious as man’s. This labor market is divided based on the gender roles Korean society assigns to either sex, giving men more freedom to operate in society whereas women are restricted to systemic patriarchal standards. In the idol industry, this appears through the infantilization of women in order to appeal to the male gaze. To de-age them to an age when they are sexually available and attractive makes them a desirable commodity to consumers. This is evident when girl group idols age or experience other life events as they exit the workforce. Contrasted, male idols are expected to continue their career, even as they age. This paper seeks to shed light on the discrimination that exists in a market currently emerging in the world outside Korea and the Korean diaspora, highlighting the need for a conversation in feminist academia. Key Words: K-pop, gender discrimination, gender roles, Korean culture, infantilization, hypersexualization, agency Introduction Following World War two and the 1970’s, the world has seen what American economist Karl Polanyi (1944) coined a Great Transformation in economic ideology, mainly to that of a free market economy. This has brought with it key changes such as globalization and financialization, but it is important to note that because the shift has mainly been sourced in ideology, several consequences have fallen to members of the labor market. In particular this shift has enhanced gender gaps and reinforced faulty reasoning behind this discrimination. The Korean popular music 1 Graduate students of Miami University of Ohio. Her work focuses on intersectional feminism and more specifically the Korean Pop music industry. She is now working towards a PhD in Health Psychology at the University of Stirling, UK. Email: [email protected] ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3218-6597 3 Journal of International Women’s Studies Vol. 22, No. 7 July 2021 (K-pop) industry is a workplace influenced by this ideological shift and the gendered consequences culminate from both ideological assumptions and traditional South Korean (hereafter referred to as Korean) gender roles. As pointed out by economist Seeraj Mohammed in his 2008 paper, women’s labor is seen as less valuable than men’s and where a workplace becomes feminized- either through a higher percentage of women employed or a general association of the labor with femininity- the value of the labor decreases (p. 29). In the K-pop industry, members of girl groups experience this through a triple shift, a valuation fluctuation from their voices to their bodies, expectation to cater to the male gaze, decreased agency in their profession on top of facing a shortened career timeline due to social pressure to exit the workforce. As a result, girl group idols are exploited more, as companies swap priority to nurture young artists for profit maximization. While K-pop represents a possible pathway for many young Asian women to successfully pursue a dream of success and sharing their artistry with others, they can become trapped in a difficult to break cycle of discrimination due to a rigid set of gender mores- hyper valued for their bodies without the agency to dictate what is done with them (Hong, 2014b, 120). Traditional Gender Roles Historical interpretation of Korean gender roles is androcentric and traditionally place women outside the locus of public culture (Ruhlen, 1998, p. 40). For Korean women, these gender roles are rooted in the creation of the country itself, in both the country’s origin myth of Tan’Gun, and the widespread adoption of Confucianism as a national philosophy in the 2nd century (Ruhlen, 1998, p.41). The core of these ideologies place women in inferior positions to men in culture. In Confucianism, the concept of the five central relationships relocates women to one relationship, man and wife. Additionally, codified norms such as the pressure to be married at a young age, to a spouse approved or chosen by your family, and to enter motherhood early are also tenants of this philosophy (Lee, 2012).2 The Confucian expectations for women are best expressed by the title of Helen Lee’s (2012) article, “I’m my mother’s daughter, I’m my husband’s wife, I’m my child’s mother, I’m nothing else”. This statement can be interpreted to mean that these women find it difficult to establish a personal identity within Korean society and that the identity they have is directly dependent on the relationship of the males around them. To briefly contrast with Korean male’s gender roles, according to the country’s Origin Myth of Tan’Gun, men are descended from heavenly beings, making them not only above the human race, but dominant over women, who are descended from animals (Ruhlen, 1998 p. 41). Additionally, men are further afforded flexibility through the philosophy of the hwarang, or flower boy (Rhulen, 1998, p. 42). This philosophy, which was adopted during the 10th century in the Kingdom of Silla, urges young men to combine traditional masculine and feminine concepts, to be both a lover of poetry but a skilled martial artist (Ruhlen, 1998, p. 42). This flexibility has evolved with Korean society, reinforced today in part thanks to the adoption and implementation of neoliberal ideology. Korean society is starkly a man’s world, as we will see through several examples later in this paper. 2 Traditionally, women were also subjected to normalized domestic violence and other forms of violence against women that was brushed aside as another aspect of ideology and gender roles. 4 Journal of International Women’s Studies Vol. 22, No. 7 July 2021 Contemporary Gender Roles and Neoliberalism As neoliberal ideology was adopted worldwide “gender discrimination in labor markets,” sourced “especially [from] the division of labor in the household” saw the systematic justification to uphold women’s primary role in the domestic sphere (Mohammed, 2008, p. 30). Therefore, because the role of provider is expected to fall on the male figure, the money earned by “women who enter the labor market [is] treated as [supplemental for the family]” (Mohammed, 2008, p. 30). To manifest this, companies shift priority away from skill training or long-term career considerations to deeming the female labor force as temporary or casual. This dismissive mindset is supplemented by a devaluation of the work women perform, leading to sexist policies. In Korea, workplace discrimination can first take shape during the hiring process through microaggressions and aesthetics requirements (Holiday & Elfving-Hwang, 2012). While aesthetics is an important aspect of Korean culture, for women, the pressure to appear as what is deemed acceptable is greater due to discriminatory institutions. Some companies "enforce specific height and weight restrictions for women graduates" and being overweight or ‘not pretty enough’ can result in a resume being passed over (Holiday & Elfving-Hwang 2012; Lee, 2012). In an interview for sociologist Dr. Helen Lee’s (2012) article, a woman revealed that her male coworkers admitted that they “definitely ask for pictures” on resumes so they could only hire “hot girls” at companies such as Samsung. This reinforces a toxic mindset that women are not equated to the level of education they have worked for, rather they are reduced to objects for the selection of the male gaze.3 Under fierce competition among several well and overqualified applicants, applicants can turn to plastic surgery to alter their features in the hopes to increase their competitiveness.