Cute ≠ Disempowering

    It's always felt wrong to me when people praise girl crush concepts for being "empowering" but then put down cute concepts for being "disempowering" or "infantilizing." I'm not saying that girl crush isn't empowering. As long as there are people who are more comfortable being mature, girl crush will be empowering. What I'm saying is that girl crush is associated with being "empowering" while cute concepts aren't. That shouldn't be the case.


    As long as someone enjoys a concept, it's empowering. There are people out there who don't feel comfortable being a "bad bitch" and are more confident being cute. Yet when groups do cute concepts, they're accused of "anti-feminism" or "appealing to creepy men." Even if the group had minors in it. It boggles my mind how some kpop fans will praise a group for doing girl crush then turn around and put down a group for being cute.


    There is almost this embarrassment around cute concepts in kpop right now, specifically with I-fans. If someone praises a group for having a cute concept, there will be like 200 people in the replies saying that "noooo the concept isn't cute, its "fresh" or "bright" but not cute." And point to the one speck of black in the fountains of cute and bubblegum as their evidence. Like, let groups be cute without treating it like they're doing something embarrassing.


    TLDR: Let groups do what makes them comfortable. Don't praise them for being "empowering" or shame them for being "disempowering" based on the concept.

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  • AllKill VIP
    Quote from Daileemidzy

    As long as someone enjoys a concept, it's empowering. There are people out there who don't feel comfortable being a "bad bitch" and are more confident being cute. Yet when groups do cute concepts, they're accused of "anti-feminism" or "appealing to creepy men." Even if the group had minors in it. It boggles my mind how some kpop fans will praise a group for doing girl crush then turn around and put down a group for being cute.

    Agreed, the only time I dislike cute concepts is when they are forced upon idols who have outgrown them, case and point Twice or certain units of AKB48. Where the artists have to fight to do some grown concepts as well

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    Quote from crystalblues

    Agreed, the only time I dislike cute concepts is when they are forced upon idols who have outgrown them, case and point Twice or certain units of AKB48. Where the artists have to fight to do some grown concepts as well

    That's true, but thing is girl crush concepts are forced most of the time too but no one treats them as an offence to feminism like they do with cute concepts.

    Having a concept in itself can't be empowering unless the women themselves are in charge of the concept but we all know that 99% of the time that's not the case.

    Quote from crystalblues

    Agreed, the only time I dislike cute concepts is when they are forced upon idols who have outgrown them, case and point Twice or certain units of AKB48. Where the artists have to fight to do some grown concepts as well

    I agree. I never really got the concept of trying to force cute concepts back on groups who have already grown out of them. It was Twice's choice to change, for example. They said that they were worried that fans might be getting tired of the cute concept and that is one reason why they changed. Turns out at the beginning, there were some people who absolutely hated their cute concept and wanted a more mature concept and now people want the cute concept back for a long period of time and hate the mature concept.

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  • AllKill VIP
    Quote from chounim

    That's true, but thing is girl crush concepts are forced most of the time too but no one treats them as an offence to feminism like they do with cute concepts.

    Having a concept in itself can't be empowering unless the women themselves are in charge of the concept but we all know that 99% of the time that's not the case.

    Oh I agree groups like Dalshabet being shoved into Girl Crush concepts when they wanted to elegant mature concepts and cute ones still is very very concerning.

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    Hmmmm acting like a child feels more queasy for some reason.


    I mean yeah both sexy and cute can be concepts for the male gaze or whatever that people take so much offense too. Entertainment will always be for the male/female gaze depending on the audience.


    But I suppose emulating a child for the male gaze just feels... worse? Than emulating sexy?


    I have the same level of disgust for being forced to act like children and underage girls being forced to act sexy. Both are a Nope from me.

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    Signal deserved better :cryingr:


    One of my fave K-pop songs of all time!

    Quote from Tic_tac_toe

    Hmmmm acting like a child feels more queasy for some reason.


    I mean yeah both sexy and cute can be concepts for the male gaze or whatever that people take so much offense too. Entertainment will always be for the male/female gaze depending on the audience.


    But I suppose emulating a child for the male gaze just feels... worse? Than emulating sexy?

    yeah if you're insecure af and care about how everyone perceives you


    for OP :

    some of the cutest people I know irl are some of the most confident idgaf people. If anything, most of the people who spend a lot of time trying to look cool or sexy happen to be somewhat super conscious of others' views

    so yeah, if anything I respect people who dont let forced ideals of what's mature and what's not get in the way of their self-expression

    Cute ≠ acting like a child. Like...

    :pepewhat:

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    Quote from dong-thefirst

    yeah if you're insecure af and care about how everyone perceives you


    for OP :

    some of the cutest people I know irl are some of the most confident idgaf people. If anything, most of the people who spend a lot of time trying to look cool or sexy happen to be somewhat super conscious of others' views

    so yeah, if anything I respect people who dont let forced ideals of what's mature and what's not get in the way of their self-expression

    What does acting underage to appeal to the male gaze have anything to do with my insecurity.

    Quote from Tic_tac_toe

    What does acting underage to appeal to the male gaze have anything to do with my insecurity.

    what gives the skewed idea that a cute personality is similar to acting underage for the male gaze lul


    movies and dramas are not real life


    very few people have enough of a positive mindset to life as it is


    cute personalities irl dont work the same way as they do on screen at all


    the word you are looking for is "immature" maybe but not cute

    I somewhat agree. There are some aspects that are pure infantilization. Just like in the sexy concept there are some aspects that are just exploitative. Those are the dark sides of both of those concepts that, exist yes, and deserve to be talked about, but are both rare. You shouldn't stereotype the rest of the concept by those rare parts and accuse someone of perpetuating them every time someone decides to do the concept. Which happens quite often with cute. Which you did in your original post.

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    “Cute” concept as in many GG concepts. Not all of them but a significant amount of them.


    You’re allowed to think the cute concept doesn’t exist because of the historical patriarchy of preferring underage girls in Asia.


    Like I said underage girls who act sexy and older girls who are forced to act like children have the same energy and is different from adult women acting sexy or “girl crush”.


    There’s nothing more I can say if you don’t see that they even act like children nor that that can be problematic. What’s there to discuss we already disagree on the premise.

    i mean, i was speaking of real life from the beginning so....

    real life doesnt work like kpop videos for sure


    thanks for the historical patriarch classification though

    i should add it to my resume

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