coffeejusayo: partyintherok: eatyourkimchi: ...

15th December 2011

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partyintherok:

eatyourkimchi:

Hyuna, stop it already ok? Just stop.

Remember when this guy got kicked out of Big Bang (on their Making the Band-inspired documentary) because he was unable to change his facial expressions? He still cannot move his face! Hahaha. He would probably have this facial expression as he was falling off a mountain, or if a lot of people jumped out from behind a door for his surprise birthday party. Well, it worked out OK, because he is now in B2ST. B2ST is no Big Bang, but they’re really popular with my students and have a couple good songs. His name is Seung Hyun (which is easy to remember because he and TOP have the exact same name) and he is really, really good-looking.

As for Hyun-A, I don’t know… I really like 4Minute but her solo stuff isn’t as good. I agree with Simon and Martina that she’s just trying way too hard to be sexy. She looks kind of silly. She’s crossed the line from sexy to trashy in terms of her dancing and her outfits (why does she always wear such awful outfits in her solo videos? I know it’s not her fault because Kpop stars are like slaves to their companies, but seriously, Hyun-A’s stylist, come on. Just for once give her something without visible undergarments and leopard print to wear.) The song is good, though. I like the furniture.

I’m going to have to agree with eatyourkimchi too. To me, this is at the opposite side of the spectrum of SNSD’s Oh! because in both, the sexiness doesn’t come from their own feminine power and confidence, but is only trying to desperately appeal to men, which makes their sexiness really subservient. SNSD were super-cutesy but in skimpy cheerleader/fetish-like outfits and Hyuna is now literally doing stripper moves in skimpy outfits (does anyone honestly think that strippers, whose job it is to please men, are owning their sexuality?). Just look at the power-dynamic here and you’ll see that Hyuna is being placed in a subservient position just like SNSD.

She’s all alone in her chair, the guy has girls fawning over him. When they’re together she’s mostly dancing on and around him, while he just stands there passively until he decides to grab a part of her body (the move at 1:00 is really the only one between the two I would argue that Hyuna is in control). She makes sex faces at the camera (like at 2:00,2:08, 2:11, 3:00), while his expressions are always confident. And just compare the feel of their solo dances. During Hyuna’s solo it cuts to the guy flirting with other women while SITTING in his chair and in the shots where they’re together, he’s not really paying any attention to her.During his solo, Hyuna is alone looking right at the camera making sex faces (implying that her focus is just on him), and then Hyuna actually has to come to HIM at the end of his solo. The choreography is also very different between the solos. Do you see him doing body rolls and rubbing himself? No. And it’s not like this would have been out of place in a Kpop video. Other men/groups in Kpop have done some very sexual moves for their female fans (ahem I’m looking at you MBLAQ), so why don’t they BOTH do them?

Just compare this with Change and her interactions with Jun Hyung. I think that in this mv she was sexy and more independent. Her sexiness was for herself, it wasn’t exclusively for the male gaze. When dancing with Jun Hyung, she’s not completely passive. She even pushes his face away. They also face each other a lot more as if sizing each other up. And just look at her facial expressions in the closeups, they’re completely different, but still sexy, because this time she is in charge of her sexual power.

Instead of being able to own her sexuality and being confident, she’s being forced to do the easiest kind of “sexy” possible, crawling on the floor, rubbing up on someone, and practically getting groped from behind. Her sexuality is made completely subservient, which is why I think people are upset. If you look at this, it’s easy to get a first impression that Hyuna is empowered in this, but she really isn’t. I honestly feel bad for Hyuna because I’ve seen some of her other videos where she was sexy AND was more independent. She was being sexy not exclusively for men, but for herself. Female sexuality isn’t bad, but it shouldn’t be reduced to a caricature, and I think that other korean stars do a better job of being truly sexy WHILE MAINTAINING their feminine power.