Автор: Kim’s originality would be to take a look at the truth of the Girls’ Generation’s (SNSD) Western first within a keen “industrial strategy” one to reaches internationally use with the sociocultural and you can politico-financial system and the hegemonic relationships regarding Korea while the Us in order to portray women K-pop music idols once the racially and you will sexually proliferated
Lanham; Boulder; New york; London: Lexington Courses [an imprint of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.], 2019. xxxiv, 153 pp. US$, material. ISBN 978-1-4985-4882-step three.
Towards the widespread around the globe rise in popularity of Korean cultural activities for example Korean new music (hereafter K-pop), television dramas, and you may movies, scholars worldwide have started to look at the power dynamics and you will related systemic energy imbalances inserted regarding the factory-layout cultural development processes and you may rigorous labor strategies accountable for the economic popularity of the world. In its examination of the new sociocultural conjuncture between a patriarchal Korean people as well as the commodified womanliness and you can sex from Korean cultural industries, Off Factory Female to K-Pop Idol Girls: Social Politics away from Developmentalism, Patriarchy, and you can Neoliberalism inside the Southern Korea’s Singing Business takes up a key condition regarding emerging crucial conversation calling for a good feminist direction for the K-pop music education.
Chapter step 1 draws into the linkage between Southern Korean-build developmentalism, commonly known as the “Secret off Han Lake,” in addition to K-pop idols, since a beneficial neo-liberal subjectivity; for example, from inside the Park Jung-hee Routine, females workers’ intense work are required in patriarchal commercial program, and therefore the thing is the key trait of the neo-liberal exploitation of ladies K-pop music idols. Part 2 investigates the newest intimate commodification from ladies K-pop music idols once the good neo-liberal expansion off a traditional womanliness embedded regarding continuity out of patriarchal Korean neighborhood. It argues one ladies K-pop music idols’ practical updates regarding the society industry, at exactly the same time creating neo-liberalization while you are perpetuating an effective patriarchal steps, together with their harsh doing work criteria, the thing is this new circumstances regarding women factory workers when you look at the “miracle” numerous years of the newest sixties into mid-eighties. In the section 3, Kim discusses cultural hybridity among the facts one has produced the global popularity of K-pop. It event is the one that lots of almost every other scholars out of Hallyu (Korean Revolution) keeps examined in certain detail.
Chapter cuatro increases a good taxonomy out-of years step one, 2, and you may 3 of lady idols in order to argue that he’s perpetuated and you may rationalized the latest patriarchy stuck in the Confucian societal norms whenever you are section 5 transforms to an analysis of a single women celebrity whom, Kim contends, has been described as this new broke up characters regarding absolute womanliness to the one give and you may severe sex on the other as the woman attempting to sell factors. So it paradox will be linked to the precarious socio-monetary condition regarding Korean women in neoliberal capitalism, construed due to the fact a breeding off antique gender term and its particular conflicting expectations. Part 6 examines the thought of resilience given that a vital region of neo-liberal societal beliefs and you may constructions out-of females subjectivity. It’s very of feeling of obligation you to neo-liberalism wishes to select, given that an ethical standard and an ethical virtue of women, in this females subjectivity. Inside chapter 7, the idea of “self-confident psychology,” portrayed through the texts conveyed of the girls idols, is tied to the commercialized nostalgia to own 1990’s Korea, the newest fantastic chronilogical age of each other economic victory and you can overall economy. That it nostalgia try emphasized by the “ToToGa” occurrence, spotlighting dated K-pop famous people in addition to their musical on 90s, toward truth tv show Infinite Difficulties, which will romanticizes neo-liberal pseudo-individualism.
One of the benefits of Kim’s guide are its methodology, especially the use of romantic textual research a number of sections so you’re able to comprehend specific seminal K-pop music idols’ audio clips. Kim’s interpretations expand the newest range regarding feminist dialogue from how K-pop music films, as the extremely offered cultural affairs, suffice an ideology where females idols was an excellent sexualized commodity and their music video clips getting web sites where the sociocultural and you may politico-economic assemblages from Korean-layout patriarchy and you will ladder converge. Meanwhile, a musical video is essentially a compressed reveal supposed to reputation K-pop music audience to consume K-pop music since a commodity is spotted as opposed to paid attention to.
Training tunes video clips away from ladies K-pop idols, as the Kim does, is thus a great opportinity for uncovering brand new procedure out of implementation of sexist narratives and you can images embedded regarding the antique public philosophy and norms bolstered of the male-dominant, elitist world
One to matter which i planned to pick browsed alot more inside publication would be the fact out-of taxonomy. Considering Kim, “taxonomy articulates and you may classifies identities and you can distinctions amongst her or him” (65), however, his taxonomies from around three generations such as “Age bracket I having simple, pretty principles, Age bracket II that have unknown femininity, and you may Age group III which have specific sexualization” (65), do not well enough just take the paradigm changes out-of femininity and you can sexualization throughout the make off people K-pop idols 
.
However, there can be various other remarkable factor with the methodology associated with the publication. Kim comes with recent instances because an alert and additionally a diagnosis of your own present state of Korean women’s battles in the real life, like the most intensive labor and you can harsh operating criteria associated having female sweatshop experts back in the day, but which can be nevertheless going on today. Thus, Kim’s research audio a security concerning the globally interest in K-pop’s neoliberal combination of American hegemonic ideology and you may old-fashioned Korean patriarchy. Similar to this, his complete argument provides surprise timeliness in its mining of a great feminist angle towards rapid alterations in this new K-pop music world.
Whoever desires to understand the all over the world “Hallyuscape” and the Korean socio-financial and you can political transform should see Kim’s book very carefully. These types of clients tend to enjoy how deftly Kim weaves this new posts regarding ways male-dominating professional Korean neighborhood and its own culture industry has actually built a unique type of ladies exploitation out of a combination of neoliberal capitalism, “structured” patriarchy, and you can Confucian hierarchy. Which publication implies an easier way away from knowledge not merely the fresh new character of feminist activism certainly young Korean women but in addition the major feminist movements facing traditional personal philosophy and you will norms throughout the realm of Korean neoliberalism.
