Abstract
Focusing on K-pop male singers’ dance practice videos on YouTube and fans’ comments, Oh provides a lively and insightful analysis on the intersection of female spectatorship and male sexuality. Examining the bodily labor of the male dancers and their harsh working conditions displayed in the videos, Oh explores why female viewers are drawn to these low-budget dance practice videos. Oh highlights the female desire that eroticizes sympathetically the physical and economic circumstances of the male dancers, which the author calls the Cinderella complex in reverse. The chapter guides readers on alternative ways of reading Asian masculinity and demystifying male sexuality in relation to issues of the body, class, and female spectatorship.
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- 1.
Inspirit is the official fan club of Infinite.
- 2.
For example, SNSD, arguably one of the most popular girl groups in K-pop and East Asia broadly, has almost 19 million views for their dance practice video of “Mr. Mr.” (2014). Dance practice videos provide viewers with full choreographies of K-pop songs, which are useful for participants of K-pop flashmobs and cover dances. Yet, such practical reasons are not enough to explain K-pop fans’ avid consumptions of dance practice videos.
- 3.
Infinite started their career under the support of Woollim Entertainment, founded in 2003. The agent was not considered as a major record label until it merged with SM Entertainment in 2013, one of the biggest record labels in K-pop. Nevertheless, Infinite has gained relatively huge attention from K-pop fans around the world.
- 4.
The number of the comments is 5,220 in total (accessed by 21 July 2015). Viewers’ comments are written in various languages, but this article analyzes comments written in English, due to the author’s limited linguistic ability other than English. The categories organized by comment themes are: supportive comments, singers’ virtuosity and bodily practice, agent, and erotic experiences of the viewers. Among these, I did not analyze the first one, as most of them consisted of simple acclamations.
- 5.
As K-pop appeals to global youth, K-pop agents often seek to create a “multicultural” group, consisting of members with diverse cultural backgrounds and who are fluent in speaking languages in addition to Korean. An increasing number of K-pop groups include members who were born outside of Korea, and some of them are Asian-Americans.
- 6.
She uses the term to specifically refer to African-American women’s resistive gaze.
- 7.
The original lyrics are Korean. The English translation is available at: https://kpopquote.wordpress.com
- 8.
Mnet is one of the largest music television and entertainment channels in South Korea.
- 9.
“That part” refers to the chorus section in which the dancers bounce their hips.
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Oh, C. (2017). “Cinderella” in Reverse: Eroticizing Bodily Labor of Sympathetic Men in K-Pop Dance Practice Video. In: Lin, X., Haywood, C., Mac an Ghaill, M. (eds) East Asian Men. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55634-9_8
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