Cute ≠ Disempowering

Quote from Tic_tac_toe

What real life are you even talking about eye- I’m also talking about real life.

the way cute works in kpop is not same at whats cute in real life whatsoever

a real life cute personality is like robert pattinson

anything idols do in mvs, if done in real life would be considered cringe, not cute

Quote from Sweet-Spice

But I feel it's kinda redundant to narrow the topic of cute or infantilization strictly to the gg empowerment topic here when most if not all kpop GGs and BGs have been forced or submitted or resorted to some sort of aegyo. Does that nullify all these groups and whatever messages they've spread?

we'd have to look at the industry and korean culture as a whole. As you mentioned Asia.

I think it’s more prevalent in GGs than BGs.

It’s also performance by performance basis why will it nullify all messages they’ve spread.

Quote from dong-thefirst

the way cute works in kpop is not same at whats cute in real life whatsoever

a real life cute personality is like robert pattinson

anything idols do in mvs, if done in real life would be considered cringe, not cute

Um okay?

Quote from Sweet-Spice

I agree to disagree there.. I've seen a lot. Straight up crib stuff.

and I'm refraining from posting receipts because some include my faves also other fandoms are gonna get cranky.


and the performances you speak of are directly tied to promo and whatever recorded activities the groups do though. A lot of the aegyo done is during promo time on other shows lol. Even if it's variety or shenanigans off stage, if we use your argument about how these GG's are catering to whatever the hell gaze- so are these groups at the end of the day.

Tbh I’m not really talking about ageyo I don’t really watch much off screen videos and exo barely have any offline content.

I was talking about loli type visuals in videos and performances it’s more so in GGs than BGs.

How ppl treat aegyo from GGs and BGs maybe different but I haven’t really looked deeply into it. I avoid it like the plague eye-

Quote from Sweet-Spice

imo some aegyo is just as bad, but of course case by case, and context matters ofc.

and generally some bgs and their attire, antics, and gesture get a pass because well- with their audience, and as women, we're perceived as less perverted. Like a visual I can only vaguely mention is elementary school boy attire with sexual body rolling on stage.

wouldn't that be on par with the loli imagery you're implying?

No it would not for me. Mildly cringe and will make me mehh

Again context I feel the purpose for women is to look like children while BGs use it for aesthetics. I don’t know if we agree on this.

Some one will say it’s hypocritical but my concern for men as a woman is different from my concern for a girl. Yes I’m more concerned for women to project loli imagery than men. For me the power difference is more significant. You brushed it off as “we are perceived as less perverted”. But it’s not as simple as that. Men and women can be perverted. But that doesn’t mean you can ignore then fact that it’s a man’s world and it’s far more dominant there and the crime rates are not even comparable.

Women are perceived less perverted because they are. I know sasaengs can be women etc etc. but that does not erase historically existing statistics on crime and esp sexual crime and ergo how ppl perceive threat of women Vs men.

I feel this discussion digressed too much lol.

Bottom line for me personally to answer OP’s original question :

women who act cute are perceived as infantile. This is subject to your own assessment. Acting sexy and acting infantile have different reactions from people.

Quote from Daileemidzy

Winks, pouts, and smiles are not "loli" like visuals. And also, stop acting like most of the people who do this concept arent children themselves. As someone who is the age of most of the idols doing these concepts, when I dance or lipsync to these songs by myself. I try to incorporate these expressions because I have fun. Because they make me feel happy and comfortable.

Also, do you even watch any cute content. It seems like you don't. If you did you would know that adults "acting like children" is dead in a ditch and the over-sexualization of minors in kpop is more prevalent with the rise of girl crush. So stop speaking about something you clearly don't know anything about. But agree to disagree I guess.

Um already said over sexualizing minors is the same for me if you bothered to read my response.

To some its, the honesty factor.

Lets be real, No matter what the song is about , girl groups choreography always revolve around swinging their hips, wearing dresses shorter than my belt and singing lyrics that you know was meant for the male fantasy.

But it ain't like girl crush is honest either. No matter how much they talk about "not needing no man" that same man probably chose the song, your outfit, paying for all of it, setting up your schedule and could replace you in a month.

So we should just agree that concepts don't really mean anything and judge by music.

Quote from Daileemidzy

Number 1, I did read your post, all of them actually. Number 2, in all your posts, from what I've gathered, you're implying that, because of the history of the cute concept, idols should stop doing them. Regardless of the fact that they might be uncomfortable doing anything else. Then by your logic, because the idea and stereotype of the "angry black women" has a dark history and has been and is still used to oppress black women. I, as a black girl, shouldn't express that emotion too much or write a character that expresses that emotion too much because I'm perpetuating a stereotype with a dark history.

Also, this is my last response. I'm not going to continue arguing with someone who I clearly disagree with.

I never said anything about who should do what lol.

Your post asked why cute and girl crush are treated differently and I provided an explanation lol. They are treated different because of history.

You talking about yourself Vs media representation. If a lot of women characters in media are caricatured as angry black woman THAT would be a problem indeed. We seem to not even talking about the same thing lol.

Quote from Sweet-Spice

Regarding looking like children and aesthetics, I think many people, not just you, draw a strong line between so and so because of the deep seated history as you brought up ( crucial and good point to the topic ). But, I disagree because we're in the present and as it stands simply because it's lesser in volume, statistically, doesn't mean it gets looked past for something less as just a " aesthetic "

Point blank, I think people are just still desensitized toward the notion of the male version of a loli in media.
Not too long ago-- hell still even now, it's the butt of many jokes. In media, shows, films.. very young boys + grown women wasn't bad. It was praised. Isn't that wild. And only these days are people looking back and saying " Y'know... that was fucked "

Now we can get into the argument on who's to blame for that, men or women- me and you both knowing the answer. Something we can agree on there. But my point in all this is-

it needs to stop being overlooked and trivialized in comparison to the latter. Thus is why I'll agree to disagree. It's there for BGs, just people have been conditioned to view it as less severe.

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Underage boys and girls acting sexy is totally a issue on that I’ll definitely agree.

Strongly agree