Bands like BTS and BlackPink heralding the Korean wave of pop music on the international stage, and an ever-increasing number of scholars pointing their scopes on the ‘Hallyu’ phenomenon, it is an exciting time to research the complicated makeup of gender politics within and around the industry.

The essay seeks to trace the lineage of modern K-Pop to an ancient Korean ritual performance art, different expectations of eastern and western audiences when it comes to the masculinity of their entertainers. Further, the essay takes a brief look into the digital tools at the arsenal of fans and fandoms - particularly fan-cams and fan-edits; and how it contributes to the ‘flower boy’ image of male K-Pop idols in the eyes of their western audience.

Talnori and the Influence of Traditional Performance Arts on K-Pop

The on-stage appearances and performances of modern male K-Pop idols cannot be discussed without taking a brief look into the traditional Korean performance art called Talnori - as it can be argued that its influence on the present Korean music industry and the broader mainstream society is as deep as it is profound. With tal meaning mask and nori meaning play or game, the artform can be traced back up to two millennia ago during the Silla Dynasty (57 BC - 935 AD).

Entirely composed of male performers from the lower class of the social hierarchy, they donned on masks portraying various characters of the play, with usually the youngest members playing the female characters on-stage, while at the same time performing the gendered tasks traditionally assigned to women off-stage. In their paper Unmasking Queerness: Blurring and Solidifying Queer Lines Through K-Pop Cross-dressing (2017), Chuyun Oh and David Oh theorise that the roles the performers play on-stage and off-stage influence each other and creates a complex gendered dynamic within their respective troupes. Such homoeroticism and non-normative gender roles were common among talnori performers, and the wider society accepted it as a part of their characteristic, “[G]iven the long legacy of talnori embedded in Korean culture, the play has naturalised cross-dressing for (cis-heteronormative) mainstream Korean audiences” (Oh & Oh, 2017).

Although at a quick glance, the above-mentioned homoeroticism and subverted gender roles could be viewed as a progressive stance from an otherwise conservative state, the interplay of class, inherent performativity of the artform, deeply rooted heteronormativity, and other factors held homoeroticism, homosexuality, and the previously mentioned non-normative gender roles, a taboo in the larger collective consciousness. The same has remained more or less the status quo for the modern Korean states. Thereby creating a space for the male K-Pop idols to cross-dress, appropriate androgynous and even feminine appearances without attracting the label of homosexual or queer within their geopolitical location (Oh & Oh, 2017).

Such the influence of talnori on the Korean entertainment industry is one fraught with performative social progressiveness, homophobia, and in the modern context queerbaiting to a certain extent - last of which, this essay will discuss in later sections.

Increasing Popularity of 'Flower Boys'

There are several factors that set K-Pop apart from their counterparts from other parts of the globe. Meticulously choreographed dance numbers, androgynous appearances, public and unapologetic use of make-up, bright pop-y coloured sets, highly produced music videos, and a few other aspects which can only be collectively called as their distinctive ‘aesthetics’. 

The above mentioned ‘aesthetics’ is part of a Korean concept called aegyo - which itself is a related counterpart of the more documented Japanese concept of kawaii and kawaii culture. In the context of modern K-Pop, Urban Dictionary refers to aegyo as “(The idols) acting cutesy... (To) make you (the K-Pop fans) say “AWwwww”” (Urban Dictionary: Aegyo). Making tiny heart shapes with two fingers, cheery persona, conjuring child-like innocence using a combination of gestures, facial expressions and voices, to appease their respective fanbase is part of aegyo. Although aegyo is used almost unanimously by all K-Pop idols regardless of their gender, to the western audience aegyo feminises the appearance of male idols. Thus aegyo infused masculinity comes under the broader category of ‘soft masculinity’, or in the context of K-Pop, the idols are referred to as ‘flower boys’ in certain corners of the internet subcultures. Soft masculinity represents a different version of what men and masculinity could be in a culture, which for the most part, leans into the idea of the “macho” - a more aggressive and antiquated version of masculinity.

For the large majority of the female consumers or fans of K-Pop in the west*, the soft masculinity of their idols is not a hindrance, but a significant feature that appeals to them even more. Discussing the performance of the K-Pop band VIXX, the Ohs write, “Male cross-dressing can provide potentially liberating images for women, whose bodies have been demeaned and objectified in comparison with the heterosexual male body… (T)he female audience appears to be liberated and emancipated from the power dynamics of the gaze in mainstream culture - women as displayed objects versus men as spectator - by reversing the gaze and denaturalising femininity” (Oh & Oh, 2017).

The Fan's Gaze

Fans interact with their idols on a constant basis in the world of K-Pop. Aside from the usual sites of meeting points such as concert venues, -cons, galas, etc, the idols are expected and obligated to participate in dedicated fan meetings, fan events organised by their respective labels. Further, the idols maintain a constant online presence and appear on various reality shows to further boost their reach to the audience. A large part of their life as an idol is documented and broadcasted either live or as dedicated shows. Due to this constant and easy access to their inner lives, the fans, in turn, develop a strong parasocial relationship with their favourite idols. In her paper on corroborated authenticity among the K-Pop fans, Rebecca Chiyoko King-O’Riain writes, “They (fans) feel the everyday contact makes it more difficult for the idols to ‘fake it’ and the live presentation allows for lapses in the professionalism, which fans interpreted as glimpses into the ‘real’ selves of the idols. Building up these runs of experiences viewed on digital media is how fans explained that they ‘know’ the personalities of the idols and often discuss their ‘biases’ (which band member they like the most) and how that choice was often based on the personality type of the idols themselves” (King-O’Riain, 2020). These constant interactions with the idols enable the fans to equip two major tools in the digital space to further show their ‘love’: fan-cams and fan-edits.

Eagle-eyed Fan-cams

Fan-cams are video footage that fans capture of their idols or biases during a concert, fan-meets, or during a public sighting. Often blurry, shaky, accompanied with terrible audio quality are some of the common signifiers of fan-cams. Fan-cams, in part due to them being primarily captured by women, have a gaze that is noticeably different from the promotional materials labels publish.

Due to ‘biases’ being a central concept in K-Pop fandom, most fan-cams follow and focus their screen-time on one particular idol. The captured footage is then shared online, and are redistributed either without any alteration, but in most cases due to the involvement of fan-edits, they are transformative in nature.

Fan-subs Leading to Fan-edits

During the early 2000s, Japanese anime was far from accessible for the western audience mostly due to the stark language barrier. To compensate for it, passionate fans who were well versed in the Japanese language began producing bootleg versions and personally translating the dialogues to English subtitles. These fan-made bootleg copies are called ‘fansubs’. 

Due to the significant demand, soon fan-subs became a popular way for the western audience to experience lesser-known anime from overseas, and they formed a dedicated fan base. But translation is an extremely complex process, and there are significant amounts of times when it is difficult to explain certain words and phrases in another language using only a few words. Thus arose a trend in fan-subs where they keep difficult to explain original Japanese words in the English subtitles and provide a lengthy explanation of it in another corner of the frame. This extra layer of text became a signifier of fan-subs, and soon different mismatched use of typefaces, superimposed words and action phrases on top became common.

Overlap of consumers of anime with certain other internet subcultures enjoying the likes of Korean Drama, K-Pop, Chinese Drama, etc, lead to the fan-sub subculture to bleed to the other parts as well. Accessibility to editing softwares led to an uptick in the number of people contributing to and consuming content from these subcultures. Fan-subs, along with fan-edits from various corners of the entertainment hemisphere led the K-Pop fans to adopt the techniques from subcultures elsewhere to their own turf.

The influence of anime fan-subs and other transformative fan-edits on K-Pop fan-edits are significant. For example, clips from dramas originating from conservative and generally homophobic countries like China, are re-edited with superimposed typography and carefully extended pauses and music cues to introduce homoeroticism between the male leads and co-leads. The same treatment is applied by the K-Pop fans to their biases using the plethora of visual content floating around the internet whether they are fan-cams or materials broadcasted by their respective labels.

It is interesting to note that, this third-party insertion of homoeroticism** is mostly observed between male idols of the same band; and are mostly authored by their female-fanbase. Such fan-edits have a distinct gaze different from the proverbial male-gaze. While there does exist male-gaze within the fan-culture where the typical subject of the male gaze swapped for another, most fan-edits focus on the more softer side of idols. This gaze locates homoeroticism among the idols without hypersexualising them.

While not entirely composed of the male gaze, calling them either female or feminist gaze is still an ongoing debate within the fandom and among the researchers, and warrants further research in the field.

Intentional and Unintentional Queerbaiting

Queerbaiting is the process of adding a layer of queer subtext intentionally, but ultimately is textually/canonically rejected or unfulfilled. Since there is a large majority of queer fans rooting for K-Pop bands due to them subverting the hegemonic ideals of masculinity at least on-persona, the marketing minds behind the curtains have used queerbaiting as a, tool to appeal to the large queer audience, but at the same time absolving them of any real accountability in countries where same-sexual attraction is criminal.

The labels turn a blind eye to homoerotic fan-edits as they boost the popularity among queer circles, and there are reported instances of encouraging ‘skinship’ between the members (Jones, 2020). The combined effect of intentional (unofficial corporate mandate) and unintentional (fan inserted) types of queerbaiting adds to the ‘flower boy’ image which appeals to their core audience composed mostly of young women and queer people.

The case for labels queerbaiting and not supporting queerness within their artist is best represented by the only openly gay K-Pop artist who goes by the stage name Holland. He shared his struggle of labels rejecting him after learning about his sexual orientation. Such his career was forced to rely mostly on public support and by launching an independent label under his own name.

Performative Masculinity

Although K-Pop boybands are primarily known for their ‘flower boy’ image, that is not always the case. Even within the history of certain groups, it can be noticed that they alter their personas from song-to-song or from album-to-album. The desire to fit with the hegemonic ideals of masculinity as seen in the west are not completely absent. While appearing slender, they are also expected to have toned bodies and work-out regularly to keep in shape. 

There are artists like Wonho, who partially reject the ‘flower boy’ persona for the more hegemonic ideals seen particularly among the new Hollywood actors. Here comes the question as to how much of the soft masculinity of the majority of the K-Pop idols are manufactured by the labels and their respective fanbase, and how much of it comes from the idols themselves? How much of it is performative, and how much is not? It is a particularly difficult question to answer, as almost all idols are trained to be idols from a very young age, which arguably affect how they view and sculpt their own masculinity; among other usual factors of construction.

Contradictions of the Fandom Gaze

One of the major factors that stands out the most is the fact that prevalent ‘male gaze’ as it exists in other media is notably absent in the fan edits/cams. A primary factor attributed for this reason is the large majority of the content creators and consumers who generally tend to be young women. But at the same time there is ongoing discourse on whether the gaze emanated from the ‘camera’ and the gaze elicited from the viewer through fan cams/edits as ‘female gaze’.

The gaze constructing various aspects of the idols both by the creator and the viewer does fetishize their personas for their own pleasure – be it through written fan fiction on websites such as Archive of Our Own, or through fan movies making a new fictional narrative using the existing videographic and photographic materials available on the internet, which could be argued as a primary signifier of the male gaze. But on the other hand, unlike male gaze which sexualises the subject for the pleasure of cis-het men, is different from the pleasure elicited by the fan cams/edits. They fantasize a fictional narrative of the idols where they are idols engage in homoerotic/sexual relationships with one another, while not sexualising the idols for themselves. Thus, could fan cams/edits be considered as a part of the female gaze spectrum, since it fulfills the desires of women?***