Kim’s originality would be to take a look at the the fact of your own Girls’ Generation’s (SNSD) American first included in an enthusiastic “industrial method” one reaches all over the world use making use of the sociocultural and you can politico-financial system and the hegemonic matchmaking off Korea in addition to United states in order to depict females K-pop music idols as racially and sexually proliferated
Lanham; Boulder; Nyc; London: Lexington Guides [a keen imprint of your Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.], 2019. xxxiv, 153 pp. US$, material. ISBN 978-1-4985-4882-step three.
Into the common international rise in popularity of Korean cultural factors such as Korean singing (hereafter K-pop), tv dramas, and movies, students around the globe have started to look at the advantage fictional character and you will relevant systemic fuel imbalances embedded on the warehouse-build cultural design process and you will intense labor strategies accountable for this new financial success of the world. With its study of brand new sociocultural conjuncture between good patriarchal Korean people additionally the commodified femininity and you can sexuality out of Korean social areas, Regarding Factory Women in order to K-Pop music Idol Women: Social Politics out-of Developmentalism, Patriarchy, and Neoliberalism within the Southern area Korea’s New music World occupies a key standing regarding growing critical talk needing an effective feminist direction into the K-pop education.
Chapter step one draws on the linkage anywhere between Southern Korean-build developmentalism, commonly known as the fresh new “Miracle out-of Han River,” together with K-pop music idols, because a good neo-liberal subjectivity; instance, into the Playground Jung-hee Techniques, women workers’ extreme labor is actually necessary beneath the patriarchal commercial program, which the thing is that the newest core feature of neo-liberal exploitation from lady K-pop idols. Section 2 discusses brand new intimate commodification out of females K-pop music idols since an effective neo-liberal extension away from a vintage femininity embedded in the continuity away from patriarchal Korean society. It contends you to lady K-pop music idols’ practical standing about culture world, at exactly the same time generating neo-liberalization if you’re perpetuating good patriarchal hierarchy, with their harsh performing requirements, the thing is that the newest items from girls factory workers in “miracle” many years of the fresh new sixties for the eighties. When you look at the part step 3, Kim looks at social hybridity as one of the activities you to has generated the global rise in popularity of K-pop music. It experience is just one a large number of other students regarding Hallyu (Korean Wave) provides looked at in a few outline.
Part 4 increases good taxonomy out of years step 1, 2, and you can 3 of your female idols so you’re able to believe he has perpetuated and you will justified this new patriarchy embedded into the Confucian social norms while part 5 converts to an analysis of a single people star who, Kim argues, could have been described as the newest split up characters off natural femininity on the one hand and you may severe sex on the other just like the the lady promoting facts. This contradiction will be attached to the precarious socio-economic position regarding Korean feamales in neoliberal capitalism, construed since the a breeding out of antique intercourse title and its own contradictory standard. Section 6 explores the thought of strength due to the fact a key area from neo-liberal personal thinking and constructions out of people subjectivity. It is quite from the sense of duty one to neo-liberalism wishes to look for, as the a moral standard and you can an ethical virtue of women, within this lady subjectivity. In chapter 7, the concept of “confident therapy,” depicted from texts expressed from the lady idols, is actually associated with the fresh commercialized nostalgia to have 1990s Korea, the brand new golden ages of each other monetary achievements and you will overall economy. This nostalgia is highlighted of the “ToToGa” occurrence, spotlighting old K-pop music superstars as well as their songs throughout the 1990s, on the facts tv show Unlimited Complications, which generally romanticizes neo-liberal pseudo-individualism.
One of several advantages of Kim’s publication are the methods, especially the the means to access intimate textual analysis in many sections to comprehend certain seminal K-pop idols’ sounds clips. Kim’s perceptions build the newest range from feminist discussion from just how K-pop music films, since the greatly marketed cultural circumstances, serve a keen ideology where females idols try a sexualized commodity in addition to their music clips feel internet in which the sociocultural and you may politico-economic assemblages from Korean-layout patriarchy and you may steps converge. Meanwhile, a songs video clips is largely a compressed reveal meant to standing K-pop audience to eat K-pop given that a commodity become saw in place of listened to.
Learning tunes video away from ladies K-pop music idols, because Kim really does, is ergo a opportinity for discovering the newest process from implementation off sexist narratives and pictures embedded in the old-fashioned societal values and you may norms bolstered by male-dominant, elitist world
You to definitely question that i planned to select explored alot more contained in this guide would be the fact regarding taxonomy. According to Kim, “taxonomy articulates and you will classifies identities and you may variations around them” (65), but his taxonomies regarding around three generations such as for example “Generation I that have innocent, pretty axioms established men telefon numarasД±, Generation II which have ambiguous womanliness, and you can Age bracket III with specific sexualization” (65), don’t good enough simply take new paradigm shifts of femininity and sexualization about make off females K-pop music idols.
Nevertheless, discover several other better aspect for the strategy on the publication. Kim has latest times given that a warning together with a analysis of present state regarding Korean women’s problems on the real world, for instance the very rigorous labor and you can harsh functioning requirements related that have female sweatshop gurus in older times, but which are nevertheless going on today. Thus, Kim’s data songs an alarm in regards to the around the world popularity of K-pop’s neoliberal mix of American hegemonic ideology and you will antique Korean patriarchy. Similar to this, their complete conflict possess surprise timeliness within its mining out of good feminist position toward fast changes in new K-pop world.
Anybody who would like to see the globally “Hallyuscape” in addition to the Korean socio-economic and you will political change will be discover Kim’s publication carefully. This type of website subscribers have a tendency to enjoy just how deftly Kim weaves the fresh posts away from the way male-principal top-notch Korean society and its particular society globe keeps built good novel sort of girls exploitation regarding a combination regarding neoliberal capitalism, “structured” patriarchy, and Confucian ladder. So it publication proposes an easier way regarding skills besides the character from feminist activism certainly one of more youthful Korean females but furthermore the revolutionary feminist moves facing conventional public opinions and you will norms in the field of Korean neoliberalism.